Tuesday, 15 October 2024

 Lily D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park – Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Energy and Resources, Minister for the State Electricity Commission) (14:34): I am absolutely delighted to update the house on how the Allan Labor government is delivering cheap renewable energy for Victorians. Last Friday I had the absolute pleasure of standing with farmer Kevin Blake as we switched on the Golden Plains wind farm – 1.3 gigawatts of capacity, soon to be the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. It will generate enough electricity to power 760,000 homes. That is equal to every home right across regional Victoria, 9 per cent of Victoria’s energy needs. With a $4 billion investment and 700 jobs, on an annual basis $215,000 is going to go into a community benefits fund. It will droughtproof the farms of 37 host landholders. Our renewable energy target is 95 per cent by 2035, and may I say the fast-track approvals for critical renewable projects, thanks to our terrific planning minister, will make sure that we create an environment that attracts investment into this state, creating those jobs and keeping the lights on as our ageing coal-fired generators reach their end of life. It is all part of a plan to keep the lights on, lower our energy bills, create 59,000 jobs and reduce emissions.

There are alternatives of course to this. Last week the opposition slipped through their recycled anti-renewables policy, which will take us back to the dark ages when no wind farms were actually able to get off the ground in this state. Fourteen wind farm projects were abandoned in Victoria between 2010 and 2014. Within a year of the announcement of that recycled policy, 14 wind farms went out the door. (Time expired)