Wednesday, 16 October 2024

Energy policy

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (16:46): I grieve for the fact that the opposition are a vision-free zone when it comes to energy policy – absolutely zero. They have absolutely zero to offer the Victorian community. It is extremely disappointing that in this day and age they have not taken heed of where the market itself is going locally, nationally or internationally. They have not learned from the inertia of the former federal Morrison government either. That is a great pity. Let me zone in on that and validate the assertion and what is behind my grievance.

Last week the coalition quietly released a new renewable energy policy. Let us be really frank about this: it is an anti-renewables and anti-investment plan from the Liberals and Nationals, which is absolutely galling but nevertheless – what did I say from the outset – vision-free. The consequences will be – get this – blackouts, higher power prices and lost jobs and investment in Victoria, which actually flies in the face of the rhetoric that we hear from those opposite. One would actually think, according to what they have said in the chamber, that they might actually look forward, but in fact that is not the case. This is a plan to prolong unreliable coal and open the door to Peter Dutton’s nuclear reactors. We know Victorians do not want this. There is no social licence, let alone any kind of data, that would substantiate this, and it is exorbitantly expensive to invest in. We have seen with the Hinkley power plant in the UK – and those costs are blowing out like there is no tomorrow – that that really is not a reasonable trajectory for Victoria.

What would this do, if we were to follow the vision-free plan of the Liberal and Nationals opposition? This would take us back to the dark old days of the previous coalition government, when wind farms were effectively banned, investment was smashed and over a quarter of all jobs in the sector were lost. Zoning in on that, looking at some of the elements of their new renewable energy policy – I am not sure what is renewable about it, because it is all about, as I was saying at the outset, prolonging fossil fuel reliance in this state – they would institute a 2-kilometre buffer zone around proposed wind towers to minimise the impact on residential properties and local communities. What does that translate to? I remember this vividly. I remember it being excruciating at the time and thinking, ‘Come on, get Labor back in!’ And thank goodness, we did. When they were last in government the 2-kilometre buffer devastated the wind industry. Victoria’s strict noise regulations already protect neighbouring properties, yet members opposite have learned absolutely nothing from the Baillieu era. Here they are wanting to reinstitute such outdated policies that are simply not in line with where the world is headed when it comes to energy efficiency and when it comes to reducing emissions and the cheapest form of electricity to invest in.

There are also a whole array of matters that in their minds will assist communities when it comes to transmission lines but that really do not translate to what they suggest they will. We know that if you are going to get energy to where it needs to go more efficiently, you need transmission lines to do that. That is just a fact of life. With some of these things it does not look like they have examined what is in place at this point in time. For instance, it says:

Advocate to the Commonwealth that any compensation received by landowners for hosting major transmission lines, or for impacts caused by such projects, is exempt from taxation.

What is the actual fact on that? The Victorian government is already doing this. Taxation is ultimately a decision for the Commonwealth. You can see they have not really taken this issue very seriously, because if they had, they would already be abreast of those aspects. They also say:

Ensure lower emission generators, high voltage transmission lines and large scale battery owners are required to comply with all relevant bushfire overlays.

Guess what, the CFA already provides guidance to renewable energy developers and transmission companies in relation to bushfire overlays. We often hear the opposition talk about the CFA, and I have no issue with that. They do an amazing job and we are very grateful for their contributions to the Victorian community, but you would think the opposition might have checked in with the CFA to see what they actually do, but they did not and they have put together policy elements which simply do not make sense or are superfluous at best.

The wind element I find galling, and I cannot believe it. I cannot grasp with all we know in this day and age that they would still be resting on that piece of archaic policy that will do nothing to serve the community. I want to validate further the point I am making here, because you might ask what it means. What would it do to our community? Let us look at what it did when they implemented such policies way back when. Following the implementation of the coalition’s planning restrictions in 2011, 14 wind farm projects were abandoned in 2012. I cannot see how that was a benefit to the Victorian community. Renewable energy jobs were slashed by, get this, 25 per cent. Retail power prices increased by, get this, 34.1 per cent. We have proven already that privatisation does not work, which is why we are bringing back the SEC and why we have embedded and enshrined it in the constitution so those opposite cannot dismantle it, or we have made it extremely difficult for them to do so.

A $4 billion investment was lost – $4 billion, not even ‘million’. Four billion dollars in investment was lost for our state. Now, that does not seem to be very visionary, does it? It really is mystifying that they would be continuing to peddle out the same tired old tropes about when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine, but, guess what, the world is heading in that direction, so they must give credence to this. We know it is a fact. I should say they might try to colour this policy in a way that makes it seem a little more attractive. The opposition say that this is all about balance and that they support the transition away from coal, but that is exactly the sort of language they used before the 2010 election. Once elected, guess what, they decimated the renewables sector. I have already spoken to the tragedy in terms of the billions of dollars of investment that were lost, the large number of renewable energy jobs that were simply slashed and the rapid escalation in power prices, which does not seem to make a lot of sense for the Victorian community – not one little bit. So why would we want to go back there? Who knows – it is mystifying.

If we flip this around, why on the other hand do we need new generation, storage and transmission? Victoria’s ageing coal-fired generators are becoming increasingly unreliable and are retiring – that is it. Our ageing coal-fired generators – I am repeating this, because we often hear the opposite to be true. We often hear from the opposition, ‘Oh, well, we’ve just got to keep on doing what we have always done with coal et cetera or we won’t have energy security.’ Well, this actually attests to the opposite of that, because the ageing coal-fired generators are becoming increasingly unreliable and retiring. By 2035 the remaining 4.8 gigawatts of coal-fired generation will be gone. We cannot just keep going with the same old, same old, or we will be in a terribly difficult spot, to say the least. At the same time ‍– this has actually been well transacted today through the bill that we have had in the house with regard to offshore gas storage – our domestic gas supplies are rapidly depleting and global fossil fuel prices are increasing. That is why we have to build more renewable energy and transmission to keep the lights on and the bills down. We can see there is a real imperative to have a clean energy future and to do what we are doing, what we have been actively doing for a number of years, to transition our state to a cleaner energy future.

I am just going to touch on the renewable energy zones. This is really about completely changing the way that transmission is planned and developed in Victoria, for good reason. I mean, we need transition lines because that is how energy runs. I am sorry to be spelling that out, so to speak; it might seem an obvious issue, but sometimes I get that for some communities there are sensitivities about this, and they may not always see the value in that. But of course it is fundamental in order to get energy where it needs to go. The current process is actually completely backwards and creates great angst in communities that host new energy infrastructure. It also creates uncertainty for investors because, under the existing arrangements, AEMO plan any expansion of Victoria’s transmission network and, once they identify the need for a new line, they conduct an economic test to assess whether the project stacks up financially. They then initiate a procurement process – I am sorry this is a little bit laborious, but I am getting to a point – to find a private company to build and operate the line. Only then do the full environmental assessments begin, and the community is fully engaged in the process. You can see that that is around the wrong way, because getting the community and key stakeholders in from the outset would seem to be a far more pragmatic but also a far more considered process when you are dealing with something as serious as this kind of major infrastructure investment.

To address this we have set up an entirely new government body, VicGrid, and have developed what is known as the Victorian transmission and investment framework. I should say that it is a complex process. I am not going to go into all the details associated with that, save for the fact that legislation passed by this Parliament earlier this year has enabled VicGrid to plan the development of our renewable energy zones. This is really important because it says that we are making a proper commitment that is transacted before the Australian people and that has passed through the Parliament of Victoria, meaning that – and this is what is important; this is the critical nexus – a body directly accountable to the Victorian government will be in charge of this critical function. Instead of being at odds or at arm’s length, it will actually have a really critical and accountable nexus, which means community and their needs are being considered from the outset. They are responsible for administering the $480 million Renewable Energy Zone Fund, which has supported 12 projects that will strengthen and modernise the state’s grid. I do want to emphasise, because often we hear this line of ideology, that we have factually recorded, visible investments that are really driving our state forward – action.

I know that VicGrid is working with energy market bodies in other jurisdictions to implement three major transmission projects: Western Renewables Link, the Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector West project and Marinus Link. Where possible the principles of the Victorian transmission investment framework, particularly the landowner payments legislated in the act in the proposed community benefits and traditional owner funds, will apply to these projects, and quite rightly too. VicGrid has also been planning the transmission required to connect offshore wind to the grid, working with stakeholders and communities over the past 12 months to find the most appropriate corridor. You can see that when you are looking at energy policy it is obviously an extremely complex space to operate in and not simply a matter of saying we will make the distance between wind farms bigger and we will just sort of batch up a few points about tax and other things without actually having checked the policy that is already in place because we are just trying to make this new renewable energy policy seem something other than what it actually is. What I am really proud of with our state, apart from the fact that we really are delivering, including the biggest battery – that is something to be really, really proud of as well –

A member interjected.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes, exactly right, and it is happening in Victoria. I am really proud of that. But we also have really tough and aggressive renewable energy targets, which means we will actually get to where we need to go. We are not resiling from the commitment, we are actually hurtling towards it and taking the community with us because we know this is what Victorians want. They voted for the SEC, did they not? They voted for the cleaner energy transition, and that is exactly what we are delivering for them.