Wednesday, 1 May 2024

Production of documents

Energy policy

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (10:18): I move:

That this house 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, the agendas and minutes, and any attachments thereto, of every meeting of the boards of the Australian Energy Market Commission, the Australian Energy Regulator and the Australian Energy Market Operator since 1 January 2022.

These three bodies are part of the national architecture of regulation and control of our energy markets. They are national bodies, but they have significant Victorian input. They are bodies that are not FOI-‍able. They are bodies that are difficult to keep tabs on. They are bodies that it is in the public interest to have greater scrutiny of, and it is for this reason that I believe it is in the public interest that this documents motion be carried and that these board minutes and agendas be delivered.

It is important to understand that there is a national structure here. The Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council has been established. In fact on 30 September 2022 the national cabinet agreed to establish the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council within the streamlined model of Australia’s federal relations architecture. The council replaced the former Energy National Cabinet Reform Committee, which was preceded by the COAG Energy Council. Victoria’s representative on that, who repeatedly appears in communiqués dealing with many of these matters, is Minister Lily D’Ambrosio from Victoria. There is also an energy advisory panel, but the national energy market governance is laid out on the Australian Energy Regulator website in a handy way for people who are wanting to educate themselves on these matters.

These bodies have boards. They have structures that provide governance of them. The board members are appointed by the energy ministers, and there is no reason why the Victorian energy minister cannot obtain copies of the agendas, minutes and attachments thereto of each of these bodies. Some of the bodies are public companies in terms of their having a registration of that type, but nonetheless they are publicly owned entities answerable to the energy ministers nationally.

In the case of the Australian Energy Market Commission, its head office is in Sydney. In the case of the energy regulator, its head office is in Canberra, although it has locations in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney. The Australian Energy Market Operator, AEMO, as I say, is a public company, a not-for-profit organisation. Its operating costs are recovered through fees paid by market participants, so these are effectively taxes on Victorians and others around the country. The head office of AEMO is in Melbourne. It has locations in Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney as well. There are annual reports, but those reports are silent on many different matters.

The chief executives are appointed by these boards, and there are a series of challenges in understanding precisely how decisions are made by these bodies. This is why the governance of the bodies is a matter of interest for all Australians. We have seen energy prices surge. Gas prices are up, according to St Vincent’s and their surveys. These are not average prices or some such, they are actually figures that are calculated from people’s actual bills and what they have actually paid. We saw gas prices go up 22 per cent last year and electricity prices go up 28 per cent – very significant increases at a time of cost challenges and housing affordability.

My point here is that there is plenty to scrutinise with these bodies. We need to understand decisions that are being made by these bodies with respect to pricing, with respect to the rollout of renewables and with respect to a series of price-setting functions and other regulatory functions that regulate market participants. These are bodies that in my view are secretive bodies. They feel that they are well above scrutiny. They feel that they are in fact able to coast free. Because they are answerable to many energy ministers and climate change ministers, they in effect become answerable to nobody. That is one of the problems with our energy markets at the moment. We need to have clarity of decision-making and transparency in decision-making to manage both the market behaviour and prices and the rollout of renewables and other aspects of the market, so it is in the public interest that these bodies are more accountable. It is in the public interest that we see the details of their decision-making, and that is why I brought this motion.

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (10:24): Well, well, well, here we are, talking about accountability. It seems like the Liberal Party are only accountable to their members for getting preselection. The Liberal Party have again shown they are out of their depth on energy, as is the shadow minister. Bringing, as the opposition shadow said, national architecture – these are issues for the feds. Perhaps he can talk to his colleague Mr Dutton. If the party was not in absolute nuclear uproar about where reactors would go and all fighting each other over this new nuclear policy, they might actually be talking to each other about energy policy. But we know they are not. We know they have not for 2½ decades. It is just all ideologically driven. There is no substance, there is no plan and there is no policy.

The government will not oppose this documents motion, and I will talk you through, Mr Davis, exactly why that is. It is because we do not have access to the minutes that you are asking for. They are confidential. We do not receive them. We cannot access them. You talk about access and accountability. The Australian Energy Regulator are FOI-able. I know this is hard to comprehend, but those opposite could do some work. Do some work, do some research; bring something to this place of some substance. On energy, as I have said, for 2½ decades you have brought nothing of substance to this place. The answers are to frack farms, poison the underwater aquifers and destroy our agricultural land, and now we are hearing about nuclear power generators. As I said before: where are the reactors going to go? Where is the waste going to go?

David Davis: On a point of order, President, this is a documents motion. It is a very narrow debate. I have laid out the reasons why we seek the documents, but we have been quite specific about those points and those reasons. The member is now embarking on a broad debate which is not about the documents and why the documents should be provided.

The PRESIDENT: Mr McIntosh, being the first government speaker, has more licence to go a bit broader, and I think he has been relevant as far as the energy market.

Tom McINTOSH: Thank you. If the shadow minister for energy wants to talk about accountability and they see themselves fit to form government, then their energy policies have to be accountable. If we are talking about nuclear reactors being put in all over this country, I think Victorians and Australians want to have accountability as to where those will be and where they will go. I think if farmers are hearing about their land being ripped up for fracking, as every single ex-leader in this place has spoken to from the Liberal Party – and they are all still here; the leader at the moment is Mr Pesutto. He is driven by the ideologues, the radical ideologues within the opposition, who do not want to hear the economics. They do not want to hear what the community have to say about wanting clean, affordable energy. We know that renewables are the cheapest form of energy and that the CSIRO are saying that, even when you put in transmission and storage, everything we are doing. But instead you lot want to go off into the never-never, 20 years away, with a nuclear reactor that you will not say – well, you have talked about Hazelwood and Anglesea. I do not know what those communities are saying.

But this side is giving tangible solutions to a real challenge of decarbonising our economy. We are already 40 per cent of the way there with electricity, but still you lot are kicking and screaming and refusing to be dragged along. Victorians know it is the most affordable form of energy. That is why they are putting solar panels on their roofs. That is why they are electrifying their houses. We know that you lot want to delay the inevitable and keep looking to dig up more gas. We know that conventional gas is not there. That has been proven by the head scientists, but you lot still want to keep going with it, because it does not matter what economically makes sense, it does not matter what community are saying, you are absolutely welded onto your ideological hatred of renewables, and that is the basis of it. That is driven by your membership, not the broader community, because again it comes back to preselection. That is why your party is in nuclear disarray, with leadership contests. Basically every sitting week the leader has to worry. Whether it is the two previous leaders who are still sitting in this place or whether it is someone else who is coming –

David Davis: On a point of order, President, the member has strayed miles from the bill –

The PRESIDENT: I uphold the point of order. Mr McIntosh, return to the motion, please.

Tom McINTOSH: Thank you. Victorians want a government that will lay out their energy policies and will deliver a plan taking us through this decade and decades to come, and this motion proves that the opposition have no plan for the future of Victorian energy.

Motion agreed to.