Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Electricity prices

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:24): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Resources. Modelling attached to Infrastructure Victoria’s report released yesterday reveals Victorian wholesale power prices are forecast to increase by around 140 per cent by 2030. Why does the minister keep saying electricity prices are going down, down, down when her government’s own report shows they will keep going up, up, up?

Lily D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park – Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Energy and Resources, Minister for the State Electricity Commission) (14:25): I thank the member for the question. Victoria has the lowest wholesale electricity prices in the country – that is absolutely fact – and Infrastructure Victoria’s report shows that, if we continue to pursue the bold and ambitious and doable reforms that we have in place, power prices will be lower still over the coming years. That is the reality of it. What is clear is that the report has made six recommendations in relation to energy, and we are progressing every single one of those. We know that with the transition that is underway, replacing ageing infrastructure that has an end of life in an engineering sense – things close down; they do not last forever – the plan is that we have sufficient electricity supply coming into our system to mitigate that and also ensure that we keep the lights on and power bills as low as we can have them. The alternative scenario –

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, on the question of relevance, I do not believe the minister has actually even read her own report, which shows that prices will go up.

The SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Leader of the Nationals, if you wish to ask your supplementary question, you will come to order.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: I also add that with projects or power plants that reach their end of life there are choices to be made. The scenarios that have been canvassed by Infrastructure Victoria are that you can do nothing, in which case the lights go out, and we know what happens when there is not enough electricity: prices go through the roof. If you sit around waiting for Peter Dutton to give you an answer, you can take the long road, the slow road, and absolutely ensure that people’s electricity prices go through the roof at astronomical levels, or you can take the road of a steady increase in replacement electricity – the cheapest electricity that you can build, which is renewables – and continue to have the lowest wholesale electricity prices in the country for years to come. I point to the Australian Energy –

Danny O’Brien interjected.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: He is not interested in the answer, I think, because they never are. What they are interested in is Peter Dutton coming along, promising nuclear, doing nothing –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Members will be removed without warning.

Nick Staikos interjected.

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Consumer Affairs can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Minister for Consumer Affairs withdrew from chamber.

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Speaker, Speaker Maddigan ruled in Rulings from the Chair, page 156, that you cannot discuss possible future federal governments, because it is hypothetical.

Mary-Anne Thomas: Speaker, there is no point of order. The fact that the member jumped up the minute the minister on her feet mentioned the word ‘nuclear’ is only exposing how touchy those on the other side are in relation to this topic.

The SPEAKER: The minister to come back to the question.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: Can I just say, when you do have the lowest wholesale electricity prices in the country and you have a modest fluctuation in spot prices, they represent a significant increase percentage-wise. You only have to look at the fact that you have gone from one opposition leader this year to a second one – bang! – a 100 per cent increase. Wow, that is a big number. We are investing in replacement electricity. The cheapest is renewables, and that is what will keep Victorians better off whether in the household or in a business.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:29): In a cost-of-living crisis, how will Victorians who are already struggling to pay their power bills cope with a 140 per cent increase created by Victorian Labor Party policy?

The SPEAKER: Would the Leader of the Nationals like to rephrase his question so it is in line with government administration?

Danny O’BRIEN: In a cost-of-living crisis, how will Victorians who are already struggling to pay their power bills cope with a 140 per cent increase created by Victorian Labor government policy?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Leader of the Nationals, it is unacceptable for you to interject over the table after you have asked your question or while the minister is on her feet answering your question. You will be removed from this chamber.

Lily D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park – Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Energy and Resources, Minister for the State Electricity Commission) (14:30): Victorians will know that it is always this side of the house, Labor in government, that will deliver cost-of-living relief each and every day – and the lowest wholesale electricity prices. The Australian Energy Market Commission in their independent report late last year revealed that over the next 10 years Victoria’s retail prices – that is, the bills that people get in their mailbox or in their email – will be 9 per cent lower over the next 10 years, lower than any other state. It is about understanding, mapping it out, doing the work to ensure that we have got sufficient electricity supply, doing that as quickly as you can and keeping those prices down.

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Speaker, it was a very narrow question about how people will afford a 140 per cent increase in their energy bills. On relevance, I would ask you to ask the minister to come back to the question.

The SPEAKER: The minister was being relevant to the question. As the Manager of Opposition Business knows, a point of order is not an opportunity to repeat the question and I cannot direct the minister how to answer a question.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: The choices are very stark. You can listen to the opposition, who are keeping the door open on nuclear energy, which will send people’s bills skyrocketing for decades to come and keep the lights off. That is what their program is.

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Speaker, the minister is debating the question.

The SPEAKER: Minister.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: Labor is keeping power prices as low as possible, lower than every other state, and only a Labor government will deliver.