Tuesday, 14 May 2024

Energy policy

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (20:28): (882) My action is for the Minister for Climate Action, and the action I am seeking is for the Allan Labor government to commit to rapidly getting off gas despite federal Labor’s Future Gas Strategy. Federal Labor has bought the gas lobby’s marketing spin by claiming that gas is essential to reaching net zero. In fact they have essentially said we will need gas in perpetuity. This is an extraordinary betrayal of the Australian public, who had hoped this government was genuine about climate action. Mining and burning fossil fuels is the opposite of a transition to a net zero economy. Labor is literally gaslighting the nation. Coal and gas are the main contributors to global warming. They are driving climate change, and every day climate scientists are sharing evermore grim outlooks as the world fails to curb their use. The Future Gas Strategy is the Australian government giving up on a climate-safe future. It is accepting 3 degrees of warming with catastrophic consequences. Our children deserve better; we all deserve better. The Greens are here to make sure we do better by ending coal and gas.

Here in Victoria we have a government that has shown welcome signs that it wants to move away from gas – for example, by banning gas connections in new developments. But Victorian Labor are still supporting offshore gas exploration and are not moving fast enough to get households off gas. Victorian households are the most gas dependent in the nation. The best and quickest way to get off gas is to reduce household demand. The Greens want to see an outright ban on the sale of gas products. We want to see more support for home owners and rental properties being retrofitted to be all electric. For example, heating and cooling via electric reverse-cycle air conditioners should be mandatory for rentals and public housing, and the government could provide land tax incentives for landlords to electrify.

Homes also need to be made more energy efficient, so they need to use less energy in the first place. Combined with a full-scale rollout of renewables and a commitment to electrification of our homes and eventually our industries, we can reach our 100 per cent clean energy targets within a decade. We have all the tools we need to do this. What is lacking is the political will, and there was no clearer display of this than the federal Labor government’s announcement regarding gas. The calls to stop burning fossil fuels have been made for decades and have reached a deafening pitch. Why can’t the Labor Party hear them? It is time to end fossil fuels, which includes gas, and we urge Victorian Labor to commit to this.