Tuesday, 5 March 2024
Bills
Constitution Amendment (SEC) Bill 2023
Bills
Constitution Amendment (SEC) Bill 2023
State Electricity Commission Amendment Bill 2023
Second reading
Debate resumed on motions of Lily D’Ambrosio:
That this bill be now read a second time.
Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Health Infrastructure, Minister for Ambulance Services) (13:29): Under standing orders I wish to advise the house of amendments to the Constitution Amendment (SEC) Bill 2023 and request that they be circulated.
Amendments circulated under standing orders.
James NEWBURY (Brighton) (13:30): I rise to speak on the Constitution Amendment (SEC) Bill 2023 and State Electricity Commission Amendment Bill 2023 as a cognate debate. Before speaking about the matters of the bills it is important to talk about how we got here and the background to that matter. This afternoon this Parliament will be dealing with these bills in a cognate fashion, which means that the government moved a motion which requires that the bills be debated together – the bills have to be debated at the same time. When they moved that motion, what the government said was that we must debate those bills together because there is no other way. There is no other way than they be debated together. The government advised me that at 5 o’clock we will divide on one of those bills and then we will debate one of them separately. Let me say that again so the chamber understands: ‘These bills must be debated together,’ the government said. I have not gone back to get the Leader of the House’s contribution on this debate. I have not gone back to read those comments back into Hansard, the need that these bills could not be debated separately, but after 5 o’clock they will. So they will be – they must be – debated cognately.
James NEWBURY: They have to be; there is no other way – except after 5 o’clock today. That is what political expediency is about. We know because the Greens belled the cat during their debate on the government business program just earlier today when they said that the vote on the bill this afternoon is happening because it is happening at the right time to ensure, in my view, that the members are here to reach their required 53 votes on the bill. This is outrageous. It is outrageous that the government has played such pathetic games with this bill. Only last year the government said the bills had to be dealt with last year. They put it on the government business program. They sent the government business program to the world at large and then pulled the bills. They did not want to debate the bills they said must be debated – how embarrassing for the minister. And why didn’t the government want to deal with it? Because they could not get their members into this place for a vote. How extraordinary! How extraordinary it is that the government could not manage its own numbers to get its own members here for a vote, so they pulled the bills. How embarrassing.
After 100 days – it has been almost 110 days since the government introduced the bill – we have had a third issue, and that is that the minister has refused to provide a briefing on those bills for over 100 days. To give the government some credit –
James NEWBURY: I will; I will give the government some credit – most ministers, in fact I would go so far as to say almost all ministers, accept that it is only reasonable for an opposition and Victorians more broadly to be provided with an opportunity for a briefing on a bill. It is not unreasonable; in fact it is a healthy part of democracy because it is not just the opposition who is briefed, it is industry, it is key stakeholders and it is the community that have raised concerns through the opposition. That briefing provides an opportunity to deal with those matters raised. But, sadly, this minister does not. This minister refused to allow the opposition to have a briefing. In fact she refused when her own department came to the opposition and said they wanted to hold one. Can you believe it?
The department said to the opposition they stood ready to do it – direct quote – but the minister said no. After pushing with the Premier directly and after pushing with the Leader of the House, the government provided a bill briefing yesterday afternoon. Guess how many department officials were there to assist with that bill briefing? To answer important questions, how many do you think were there?
James NEWBURY: There was less than one – zero. The government – well, the minister – would not allow the department to show up. I have never seen that before. I have never seen a circumstance where the department was gagged from attending a bill briefing. I mean, does it surprise any of us to see that there are no department officers here today. For most bills you will have a department officer here. In fact I think that that is also a precedent. If I can say to the readers of Hansard, there are currently no department officers sitting in the Parliament, just like there were no department officers at the bill briefing yesterday. It is an outrageous bungling of this bill, and that the government said that we must debate this bill cognately and now we will split the bills after debating half of them, leaving the other bill to be debated separately, just shows the absolute sham that it is.
What the coalition is for is reliable, secure energy, affordable energy and adequate baseload power. That is what this side of the house is for. What these bills do is none of those things, and we know it. The only thing the minister has managed to do with the SEC is buy a lot of jelly beans. It is not producing a single ounce of energy. It is not reducing a single cost to the consumer; in fact it is going up at a rapid rate of knots. But the minister has bought a lot of jelly beans –
James NEWBURY: and yo-yos. I forgot the yo-yos, member for Caulfield, that is right. I personally have never been given one of the minister’s yo-yos, and I am sure the minister spends quite some time in the afternoon playing with yo-yos in her office.
What this bill does is none of those things. It does not provide secure, reliable energy. It does not supply affordable energy. It does not supply baseload power. So what the coalition will be doing is moving an amendment, which I ask to be circulated in my name.
Amendment circulated under standing orders.
James NEWBURY: Part of that amendment is to ensure that we have transparency around what this government is doing, because at this stage all we have seen is a whole heap of yo-yos and jelly beans being bought. In fact the government did not even manage to provide an annual report on the SEC this year. It did not provide an annual report on time, and we know it was caught out for doing that. So what the opposition will be doing is moving an amendment on annual reporting – it is not unreasonable, like when we were talking about energy targets last sitting week and moving amendments in that same vein – ensuring there is transparency on what the SEC is doing. What we know, because it has been publicly stated, is that the government will be on an even playing field when it comes to the SEC’s activity in the market – competitive neutrality. And what does that mean in terms of ensuring that we have those things that the coalition stands strongly for – well, if you go to the Grattan Institute, the model doesn’t stack up logically, said Tony Wood:
It’s supposed to be there to be doing something that the private sector isn’t doing. But if they’re going to operate on a competitively neutral basis, I don’t see how it can compete in what’s probably the most cutthroat part of the industry.
RMIT professor David Hayward said that the state:
… was going to wean itself off the privatised and marketised national energy market …
It has ended up as something far more modest that will support the badly flawed existing system and not replace it …
The new SECV will do nothing to fix this mess, and, sadly, it is now clear it is not intended to do so.
An Australian Industry Group director said that:
Versus what people imagine a government-owned corporation could do, this thing is going to be much greyer and more sober. This is not the second coming of the 1918 SEC, and it’s not even a restoration of the 1992 SEC.
These words are damning. They expose why the government is ramming the bill through this place. They expose why. The government does not want to be exposed for going to an election with a pledge to get the SEC through last year and not doing it. The government do not want to be exposed for committing to majority stakes in renewable energy projects, which we know they have not done. They have invested in a project that was going to be built anyway. Talk about breaching promises one after another. But what is one of the most dangerous parts of the government’s energy plan? It is not just the way the SEC will operate and not deliver those things that we require and call for. It is the impact of their dangerous gas ban, and that is being exposed for what it is. If we turn to the president of the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association of Australia, Ross Jamieson, we know that the government’s ban will result in a loss of more than 1300 jobs – 1300 jobs lost, which should concern all of us – within six to 12 months in an industry that supports 4000 direct jobs. As Ross Jamieson said:
The Victorian government is chasing an ideological outcome to achieve the electrification agenda at all costs. It removes the rights of Victorian families to choose the appliance that provides the required heat for their needs in their situation …
Hear, hear. As we know, 60 per cent of gas appliances sold in Australia are made in Australia, and 95 per cent of electric appliances are imported. So much for a Labor government supporting manufacturing.
I turn to the chief executive of the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group, Craig de Laine, and his comments following the recent largest blackout in Victorian history, where 530,000 people were left without power, which just goes to show the government has no idea how to provide secure energy. He said that at that time:
… fewer than five of our 1.5 million gas customers were without supply during the … storms.
So as 530,000 homes were without power, there were fewer than five without gas during the storms. Further:
It makes the case for both gas and electricity networks to operate in Victoria into the future …
And doesn’t it just. What is this policy approach doing to consumers and businesses? We know there has been a 25 per cent increase in unaffordability – a 25 per cent increase in costs to consumers. We know that – 25 per cent in the last year. No-one can afford these increases. In fact anybody in this place would only need to talk to one constituent to have the fact of these increases raised. But also I should get on the record the increases in costs for businesses. In terms of gas bills, recent analysis showed a 12 per cent national increase average and 31 per cent in Victoria – again, 12 per cent nationally and 31 per cent in Victoria. On electricity – this is for businesses – it was 8 per cent nationally but 17 per cent in Victoria. Is there any wonder the recent ABS stats showed a net decrease of 7606 businesses in Victoria? This is not the state to do business, with this Labor government attacking you on every front. When it comes to your input costs, when it comes to taxes, we know that is the case.
I have spoken previously about the government’s lack of capacity when it comes to transmission and ensuring security through a network, and I note the government has introduced a bill today which we have not had an opportunity to see. I am sure that that is an attempted political fix to try and take away from the fact that the community is concerned about the government not providing that security to people’s homes as they should do, as they are required to do and as every Victorian would expect them to do.
I will not go for my full allotted time, because unfortunately the government is ramming one of the bills through within 2 hours and the second bill within 4 hours, and most of the members on this side of the place would like an opportunity to speak on them. That should not take anything away from my passion on Labor’s mismanagement of energy supply. The coalition does not support the government. We do not support the government because we are for secure, reliable energy. That is what we are for. We are for secure, reliable energy, we are for affordable energy and we are for adequate baseload power. This government is for stunts, this government is for jelly beans and this government is for yo-yos, and it has done nothing meaningful, as every single measure shows: security is down – 530,000 people without power – and affordability is 25 per cent up, and we know there are very, very serious concerns about baseload power into the future. The coalition does not support the government, and I know that the members on my side of the place look forward to debating this bill and this sham that the government has brought to this chamber.
Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Health Infrastructure, Minister for Ambulance Services) (13:47): The Allan Labor government supports secure, reliable and affordable energy, and that is why we are bringing back the SEC. As I said earlier in this house, every person in this chamber will have an SEC story. In my family my brother started his distribution officer traineeship with the SEC before it was sold off and privatised by the Kennett government. One of the great joys of working during the campaign of 2022 was being approached by one of my constituents, who gave me some of his own original SEC merch. He was a proud worker under the SEC, and he was so pleased with our government’s commitment. Our government supports strong public institutions, and we understand exactly how much things like the State Electricity Commission have meant to the people of Victoria for so many generations. That is why I am very proud to be able to rise to speak on both of these bills today and specifically to speak to the amendments that have been circulated. There is no doubt about it: every member on this side will attest that when we had the opportunity to speak one on one with all the voters right across Victoria, they told us that this is what they wanted us to do – bring back the SEC and put power back in the hands of the people. And that is what this bill does.
If I talk to the four house amendments we are proposing to the Constitution Amendment (SEC) Bill 2023, I can outline to you that these are very straightforward amendments that are aimed at simply making more explicit original elements of the bill. All of these amendments are consistent with the intention of both the original bill and what the government has said publicly about the SEC since we announced the commitment to bringing it back in late 2022. The first amendment provides some additional clarity to a general prohibition on the SEC investing in fossil fuel based projects. We have said since day one that the SEC will only invest in renewable energy sources and zero-emission forms of energy storage such as battery storage.
That is what the original bill says, but some stakeholders have asked that the bill also be explicit that the limits on fossil fuel investment also include energy projects other than electricity generation – and of course it always has – so we are happy to make that crystal clear via the amendment.
The remaining amendments are all designed to give additional clarity to the government’s total ownership and control of the SEC as an entity, regardless of what corporate form the SEC entity might take in the future. In other words, whether the SEC is an entity that can issue shares or one that cannot will make no difference. The Victorian government will hold any and all shares and will control appointments of directors. Again, this is exactly what we have always said. It is what the original bill reflected, but some stakeholders have told us that they want to see this expressed unambiguously, and we are happy to oblige.
Let us never forget who sold off and privatised energy in this state.
Pauline Richards: Who?
Mary-Anne THOMAS: Thank you, member for Cranbourne. That would be the Liberal Party of Victoria. We know that their interests rest with the private sector.
Wayne Farnham: On a point of order, Speaker, it is not an opportunity for the government to mislead Victorians. It was always Joan Kirner who started the privatisation of the SEC –
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Narracan knows that is not a point of order.
Mary-Anne THOMAS: What we know is that those private multinationals, backed in by the Liberal coalition government, increased prices and sacked workers, and now it is Victorian families who are paying the price: $23 billion in profits going overseas and counting. It is shameful, and it should never have happened. But the SEC is back, and this bill delivers on our election commitment to protecting it. We are enshrining the SEC in the constitution because we want to do everything in our power to protect it from the Liberals. That is exactly what we are doing, making sure that Victorians can rely on publicly owned energy, jobs and emissions reduction for decades to come, because this government understands that the future is electric and that we need to invest in renewables and we need to grow that market. That is exactly what we are doing.
Under this bill the government will hold a controlling interest in its portfolio. Renewables will replace coal, and new projects will be owned by every Victorian to benefit every Victorian. We committed to bringing back the SEC as a publicly owned 100 per cent renewable energy market participant, and we have delivered. This is a very proud moment for the Allan Labor government. On 25 October 2023 the SEC Victoria Pty Ltd was registered with ASIC as a proprietary limited company under the Corporations Act. On 14 November 2023 the SEC was declared as a state-owned company under the State Owned Enterprises Act 1992. The Premier and the Treasurer each hold one share in the SEC. It will always be a government owned and controlled entity, and this is reflected in the bill’s requirement for the state to always fully own and control the SEC.
Its first project is already under construction, which is good news for bills and good news for power prices. Our government understands that we must deliver affordable energy for all Victorians. That is why the Minister for Energy and Resources, who is in the house, for the past 10 years has pursued the most comprehensive change in our energy markets ever seen anywhere in the nation. She is leading the nation when it comes to implementing a plan that recognises, as I said, that the future is electric. The private sector is divesting itself of interest in old coal because the private sector knows that it is finished. We need to embrace renewable technologies, we need to increase renewable output and we need to ensure that energy prices are driven down by increasing supply, ensuring that Victorians have a vested interest in the delivery of this essential service, and that is exactly what the SEC does.
The objectives of the SEC are to support Victoria’s transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions; to generate, purchase and sell electricity in Victoria; to own or operate or participate in the operation of renewable energy generation and storage systems and facilities; to develop or support or participate in the development of or invest in renewable energy generation and storage systems and facilities; and to supply energy-related products or services to energy consumers in Victoria. These objectives of course will contribute to the state government’s legislated long-term target of net zero by 2045 as well as our nation-leading renewable energy target of 95 per cent by 2035.
We are entrenching this law, and we are doing that through the constitution, which means that we require a special majority of the Parliament to approve this law or to support it later on today. As I said earlier, we are doing this, we are taking this step, because we need to protect affordable energy from the Liberals. Make no mistake, a Liberal government will privatise government assets whenever and wherever they can to do deals with their private sector mates. As health minister I know this all too well – Mildura hospital privatised, Latrobe hospital set up for privatisation. They cut, they close public institutions. So we are ensuring that the SEC stays where it belongs: in the Victorian constitution.
I know that my constituents across Macedon are really going to welcome today’s bill debate. They will be listening to both sides to see who has got a stake in the future of Victoria and who wants to take the state backwards. That is what the Liberal and National parties do – anytime they get an opportunity, they will take us backwards, because they are not interested in the benefits for Victorians. They are only interested in their private sector mates. Only our government has a plan for the transition of the energy sector to electric through renewables – (Time expired)
Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (13:57): Well, well, well, how things have changed. At the election in 2022 and for much of last year the SEC was the be-all and end-all. It was the saviour of the state of Victoria. It was going to deliver everything that all Victorians want, and now we are so proud of it on that side that we are going to debate it in 2 hours and knock it off by 5 o’clock today. I mean, what has this government come to? They are not even prepared to stand up and actually debate their own policy that they thought was so good in 2022. They are hiding this policy. It is absolutely extraordinary. This policy is being revealed now – by the fact that the government is trying to hide debate on this and shut it down by 5 o’clock this afternoon – as the biggest con job in politics since Daniel Andrews said that the east–west link contract was not worth the paper it was written on. What an absolute disgrace this government are that they are not even prepared to stand up in this place and let us debate this legislation in full. This is just a con job, and the Minister for Health at the table has the gall to say that this is about protecting Victorians from the Liberals when we all know – who was it that began the privatisation of the SEC?
Members interjecting.
Danny O’BRIEN: Everyone on this side seems to know! Can I hear it from the other side: who began the privatisation of the SEC?
Members interjecting.
Danny O’BRIEN: They have forgotten Joan already! Loy Yang B and Edison Mission and David White. I just cannot believe –
Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the member for Gippsland South knows that this is not an opportunity to attack members on this side nor to besmirch the reputation –
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Leader of the House will resume her seat. There is no point of order. It is, however, time for us to break for question time. The member will have the call when we resume.
Business interrupted under sessional orders.