Thursday, 16 November 2023

Energy policy

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) incorporated the following (613):

My matter for the adjournment for Wednesday night 15 November 2023 is for the Minister for Energy and it concerns her announcement that she will ban, through executive fiat, rebates on gas appliances from 30 November.

This action is misplaced and will lead to perverse outcomes. I am concerned that the Minister has not consulted widely enough and does not understand the implications. The clear implication of the decision to ban rebates on gas appliances, cookers, water heaters, house heaters, by 30 November with just one month’s consultation period will be the loss of hundreds of Victorian manufacturing jobs, noting that around fifty percent of gas appliances sold in Australia are made in Australia, while the equivalent figure for electric appliances is just four per cent. The first of these jobs will go before Christmas in Melbourne’s southeast.

Another unfortunate impact will be moving some people from relatively low emission gas appliances to high emission electric appliances powered by brown coal produced electricity. This, in the immediate term and for the foreseeable future, will see higher greenhouse emission rather than lower greenhouse emissions whilst destroying Victorian manufacturing jobs. This is truly cooking with coal, not cooking with gas.

The Minister has also not understood that this is a matter of choice that is being denied under her proposal to ban rebates on gas appliances.

The Minister appears to have done this in haste and without broad and proper consultation. In this circumstance, I am asking the Minister to pause and delay any steps in this draconian ban on appliance rebates for at least twelve months. I am also calling on her to release any modelling or assessments she has on the impact of this decision on Victorian households and small businesses forthwith. She must not act precipitously on 30 November, banning rebates on domestic gas appliances. It would be draconian, denying choice to Victorians.

I would also welcome if the Minister would join me at a Victorian manufacturing plant for gas appliances in the next two weeks to fully understand the impact her plan will have on the manufacturing workers and businesses. I will separately contact her office on this matter.