Electricity infrastructure
Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:43): (644) My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. Minister, with shadow minister for energy Mr Davis I recently visited communities across regional western Victoria, who explained their concerns about what they call the Victorian government’s reckless renewables expansion. We met CFA brigade volunteers from the areas which will pay for your government’s rush to an inflexible 95 per cent generation target, a target decreed without consideration of the environmental or social cost new transmission lines will impose on regional Victoria. Adding insult to injury, this year’s budget hit farmers with a 59 per cent rise in the fire services levy. The CFA volunteer brigades we spoke to have decided that except in the case of threat to life they will not fight fires on land hosting high-voltage transmission lines. Minister, will you instruct the taxpayer-funded Fire Rescue Victoria to take their place?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:44): I thank Mrs McArthur for her question. There is a little bit in that. At the outset, I have limited capacity to direct an agency such as FRV, and again it does scare me, the fact that you continually ask me on that side of the chamber to do things that I think are probably inappropriate. But putting that to one side, Mrs McArthur, just recently I have corresponded with you on similar issues. Obviously it is your region and you are speaking to people. I want to assure you that, like you, I acknowledge the hard work of our CFA volunteers. They make an invaluable contribution to their communities. Their safety is something that is of utmost importance to the government and indeed the CFA as an organisation. A comprehensive, safe system of work is something that they always undertake, including training, organisational equipment briefings and the like. We have CFA participating in the key stakeholder planning phase of any of these renewable projects, as you have referred to.
But also importantly, I want to reiterate this myth about transmission lines. There are over 6500 kilometres of transmission lines in Australia. I can confirm that Andrew Dyer, the former Australian energy infrastructure commissioner, reported that the risk of a 220-kilovolt or higher transmission line causing a bushfire was virtually zero. When we continue to talk about transmission lines, I do not mind if people have objections – that is fine – but conflating that and causing fear that this infrastructure results in fire is not only inappropriate, it is dangerous and it is beneath elected officials to run that type of commentary.
Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:46): Thank you, Attorney. Minister, the brigades we met with have explained how abandoned they feel by the state government’s decrees on transmission lines and the failure of your colleagues, the Premier and the Minister for Environment, to address their communities. Peter Knights, captain of the Gre Gre brigade, wrote to me:
Our volunteerism is not a commodity for sale or exploitation, especially when it is being promised to a greedy industry of largely foreign investors by cash strapped governments through ill-considered policy and idealism …
The CFA was born out of a commonality of its members, to defend our communities in our regions. This imposition of renewables infrastructure across farming regions breaks that commonality … creating deep division.
Minister, will you commit to meeting with the brigades Mr Davis and I visited to explain how the life-changing impact of your energy policy is fair to these volunteers and safe for their communities?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:47): Mrs McArthur, I certainly went through my concerns about your linkage of your opposition to an energy project with my role as the Minister for Emergency Services. I want to debunk that myth that transmission lines are in the words of experts ‘likely to cause no fires’. When it comes to CFA firefighters – time and time again – my ministers statement today was about commending and thanking volunteers. They do a tremendous job. They are highly trained to manage a range of hazards and risks and respond to emergency situations. They are always there to respond to their community. When it comes to CFA volunteers that are concerned about particular projects – particularly in relation to the energy sector – they are looped into planning decisions and guidelines. The CFA are at the table making sure that their voices are heard.
David Davis: On a point of order, President, the minister may have inadvertently misled the house. I am aware of the New South Wales fire service blaming the Black Summer bushfires of 2019–20 in part on fires caused by faulty transmission infrastructure. So I just think it is important that the minister, if she has made a mistake, correct the matter.
The PRESIDENT: Do you want to respond?
Jaclyn SYMES: No. I am not wrong.