Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Production of documents

Port of Hastings

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (10:12): I am pleased to rise and move notice of motion 288. I move:

That this house:

(1) notes the Victorian government’s announcements concerning offshore wind energy and, in particular, its announced targets for offshore wind energy generation;

(2) notes the 18 December 2023 decision of the Honourable Tanya Plibersek MP, the federal Minister for the Environment and Water, to reject the Port of Hastings Corporation submission, on behalf of the Victorian government, applying for approval for a construction and assembly facility for offshore wind turbines at Hastings;

(3) requires the Leader of the Government, in accordance with standing order 10.01, to table in the Council, within three weeks of the house agreeing to this resolution, copies of:

(a) all materials submitted to the federal government as part of the Port of Hastings’ application;

(b) all materials relied upon by the Port of Hastings and the Victorian government in preparing its submission to the federal minister;

(c) details of consultation/s undertaken by the Port of Hastings and the Victorian government with stakeholders in relation to the proposed construction and assembly facility;

(d) any consultancy report/s relating to offshore wind energy generation or the Hastings proposal;

(e) any environmental impact assessments of the Port of Hastings proposal or alternate proposals undertaken or relied upon by the Victorian government, including assessments relating to the internationally recognised RAMSAR wetlands adjacent to the Port of Hastings site and assessments in relation to the internationally recognised and declared Western Port Biosphere; and

(f) briefings provided to the Victorian Minister for Environment, Minister for Energy and Resources and/or Minister for Climate Action on the Port of Hastings proposal, alternative proposals or offshore wind energy.

This is a very straightforward motion. It is now well understood that the state government’s offshore wind energy approach and proposals are in tatters. The government has staked a lot on offshore wind. We have no in-principle objection to offshore wind – we think it has a significant role as part of the mix – but what is important here is that the work is done to make sure that the ducks line up, as it were, and that the proposals are actually progressed in a sensible and practical way. This is a case study of a government that appears to have botched its applications to the federal government. In my humble view it would be in the public interest for these documents to be in the public domain. We do need to see how the government arrived at these decisions and what alternative proposals are available. I mean, people have mentioned a number of alternative locations down in the west of the state or Barry Beach and other locations in the east of the state. All of these proposals, you would imagine, are now on the table and being considered.

Equally, is the government intending to proceed with the Port of Hastings proposal in some deeply modified form? It would seem to me it will need to be deeply modified, given the comprehensive approach that the federal minister Tanya Plibersek took. I have certainly read the details of her decision there, and it is hard not to conclude that there was a proper process, that she did make a proper decision and that there was significant grounding to the decision she made.

All of this was potentially foreseeable. Obviously, the Port of Hastings is a significant port already, but there was obviously new land that was to be used for this proposal – a proposal that would have encroached directly on the Ramsar wetlands and a proposal that would have impacted directly on the biosphere. It is just very hard to understand how the minister blithely proceeded, and the presence of these documents in the public domain will inform the community and give those who are advocates for greater renewable energy the ability to advocate more strongly for those positions from a base of knowledge, knowing what work the government has done. It will also I think potentially expose the work that the government has not done and issues that are there in terms of deficiencies in the government’s preparation for these offshore wind proposals.

There are obviously a raft of different issues to be dealt with here, but the simple, straightforward fact of this documents motion is that we are using the ancient and undoubted powers of the chamber to demand these documents and the government ought to provide those documents. If it wants to seek broad support for its renewable proposals, well, it needs to be direct and bring the chamber, the Parliament and actually the broader community into its confidence on a number of these matters. You cannot expect to see this kind of major change without this sort of information being in the public domain, enabling people to make informed decisions and those who are casting and developing policy to do that from an informed background as well. We think it is a very clear and reasonable motion, given the gravity of what has occurred and given the significance of the fact that Victoria’s energy mix is under some threat. We have been lucky this summer to date, but there is clearly a significant risk to our energy supplies, and offshore wind has a role to play in plugging that.

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (10:19): I rise today to speak on Mr Davis’s motion and to reaffirm this government’s commitment to cheap renewable energy for all Victorians through offshore wind. The Allan Labor government is working diligently on the way forward with the Port of Hastings and Victoria’s renewable energy terminal, and these documents requested will affirm that this is the same diligence we have taken at every step of our offshore wind strategy, including the Victorian renewable energy terminal. On the decision, both the Minister for Energy and Resources and the Minister for Ports and Freight have been working closely with the Commonwealth on the next stages of their Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 determination and will continue to work closely with the Commonwealth on each step required by this government’s major projects.

Those opposite are requesting a range of documents, some already public. Like an expedition to find Big Foot, they are trying to find something big and scary which does not exist and trying haplessly to finally find something that will make us pull the brakes on the nation’s leading renewables agenda, which is not going to happen. These documents will outline that the Port of Hastings was selected to be the preferred offshore wind construction port following an extensive multicriteria selection assessment. Through consultation with industries, developers and through international best practice, it was chosen as our preferred construction port. The Port of Hastings assembled an experienced team to prepare both the state and Commonwealth referrals. As for the documents requested around the Port of Hastings Commonwealth referral, I would direct you to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) referral site, which includes all documents submitted to the Commonwealth as per their reporting obligations.

On environmental assessments, the Western Port Ramsar wetlands form an important part of Victoria’s ecology, and we are not dismissing this. We do not have to pick between offshore wind and the environment; the two can coexist through proper mitigation strategies and alignment between state and federal approvals and planning. The Allan Labor government has always found innovative solutions to problems, and we are once again getting on with a Victorian renewable energy terminal that balances the need to deliver offshore wind while making sure we address environmental concerns. Offshore wind is critical to rapid decarbonisation and fighting the effects of climate change. Through appropriate mitigation measures and offsets we can benefit from offshore wind generation, helping to free Victorians from coal and protect our climate without significantly impacting the local environment.

Under similar EPBC applications, the usual process includes a stage in which the state works through the Commonwealth’s concerns, arriving at a solution that addresses ecological concerns while maintaining our ambitious goals for net zero emissions by 2045. Without this stage occurring, the EPBC decision was reached, and this is one of the key issues here. I know the opposition have thrown every review or report on this area at us and asked how we did not know. These were different projects with different purposes at a different scale. The Victorian renewable energy terminal is the first time that infrastructure like this is being built in Australia. It has specific requirements and impacts. No previous report or different project accurately addresses these. It is due diligence that we are given the opportunity to work through offsets and mitigations.

Victoria is Australia’s offshore wind leader. We have worked to build strong investment interest, and we will have a successful multicompetitive auction for the nation’s first offshore wind project. Victoria is absolutely doing the heavy lifting nationally, and because of it, developers are ready to invest in our country and in our state. Offshore wind is not just a nice-to-have, it forms a critical part of our energy reliability. It is also creating up to 4000 jobs annually during construction and 750 jobs during the ongoing operations. That is why we need the Commonwealth to step up in offshore wind delivery. A national approach is needed for offshore wind that aligns environmental approvals and regulation. Offshore wind is a part of our nation-leading renewables generation agenda, and it is not just aspiration – we are delivering. In 2023 over 38 per cent of the electricity generated in Victoria came from renewables, more than three times the 10 per cent that we inherited in 2014. Can I just say, since 2014, 59 projects providing 4000 – (Time expired)

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (10:24): We have a proud history in Victoria of energy. Workers across Victoria, predominantly in eastern Victoria in the Latrobe Valley, for a century have built the generation capacity and have built the transmission lines that have powered this state, and they did so without fuss. They were well paid. They were able to support their families, that in turn supported communities, and that power drove our economy. It enabled us to power our homes, our businesses and massive manufacturing industries, like the automotive industry, and enabled us to export our products to the world. But in the last 50 years scientists have been warning us about the problem with this process. When we release emissions into the atmosphere, it warms the planet up. As that warmth is trapped in, it plays havoc with our weather systems and reduces our quality of life.

So decarbonising a carbon-intensive economy is a massive undertaking. Nobody is stepping away from the fact that this is a big problem, a big challenge and a very big task. Firstly we had to set goals of where we wanted to be with our emissions, and we were a world leader, setting our target of reducing our emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2045. We had to invest in energy efficiency to save home owners and businesses money and invest in and support our renewable industries so we could get the new power into the system. While doing so we have stood by workers who have given us our energy and our wealth in the past, investing in them to ensure that they can fill the jobs in the new industries that are coming. These targets, and this investment in skills and training and workers, is the work of a responsible government that acknowledges a problem and puts steps in place to solve it.

We know that inaction is going to cost all of us dearly. For farmers it is drought. The more drought years there are, the less productive their farms are and the less likely they are to be able to pass their land on to the next generation. For consumers – for every Victorian – when that food is not produced, the prices are raised and it hits all of us in the pocket. It is cost of living. And there is the devastation of fire and flood, leaving alone the emotional turmoil of having to leave your home and everything involved in that – the distress it causes for our community broadly. Then there are insurance premiums – people are seeing this turn up in their bills. The effect on the cost of living that is coming from climate change is something we have been aware of for decades and something, unfortunately, that those opposite have not been willing to confront for decades. Whether it is with state governments – trying to push back on onshore wind, on renewable energy targets or on emission reduction activity – you have been nowhere to be seen. It was the same federally – 10 years of just rotating policy that was not about implementing solutions, it was about cheap politics.

Last year we reached a 1.5-degree temperature increase across the world. We are ahead of the predictions of where we were going to be on average temperatures. We are ahead of ocean warming. We are ahead of ice melting. So we do not know where this is going. Eighteen-year-olds today are likely going to be alive in the next century. I do not like talking about the next century, because the problems are here and the problems are every year. We have got to implement the solutions to this problem in the next decade, because we do not have decades to use this as a political football. I am sorry – I do try to generally be respectful in this place because we have to come and have a contest of ideas – but it is cowardly for those opposite to have sat on their hands for two decades more. As I said, we have known about this problem for four or five decades. It is cowardly to sit there in the cheap seats and take pot shots at those trying to get on with solutions. If you have got a solution, bring it to the floor and let us debate it. Talk about the investment you want to make. Do not talk out the side of your mouth.

Come on: we have got tens of thousands of jobs and we have got billions of dollars of investment ready to roll in this state that Angus Taylor left sitting in his top drawer when he was in federal government for years. We have finally got the regulatory framework for a new industry in this country after you scrapped the automotive industry. We can provide the renewable energy – cheap, abundant energy. We know that in Victoria we have got the cheapest wholesale rates in the entire country because we have done the investment. As I said before, there is 38 per cent renewable energy in this country. We are driving down emissions. We are leading, and we are doing it from government. There is a reason why you lot are sitting there in opposition – because you will not take a matter that is critically important to all of us seriously, and you are taking pot shots.

Motion agreed to.