Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Motions

Climate change

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (10:51): I move:

That this house:

(1) notes that we are in a climate emergency, caused by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil; and

(2) condemns the Albanese Labor government for approving 28 new coal and gas projects since coming to power, including three new coalmine expansions in September that will generate more than 1.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in their lifetime.

Over the weekend Rising Tide, one of the biggest civil disobedience exercises ever to take place in Australia, occurred at the Port of Newcastle, the world’s largest coal port. Thousands of people came together from all across the country, including my parliamentary colleagues Anasina Gray-Barberio and Ellen Sandell in the other place. They were there to make it clear that they do not support the approval of new coal and gas projects, and nor should anyone who has even the slightest concern for their fellow humans or life on this amazing planet. It was extraordinary to see the New South Wales government’s attempts to try and shut this protest down. It is something we are seeing all over the country, including in Victoria. If only these governments put even a fraction of that same effort into shutting down fossil fuel projects rather than protests, if only they applied proportionate consideration to the disruption and threat to safety that is occurring with climate change.

Victorian Labor will say that the approval of coalmines by the federal government is not relevant to them – it is not relevant to this Parliament. They will say it is a federal issue. Well, jeez, that is some leadership right there, isn’t it? Why aren’t they advocating to their federal colleagues? Surely that is part of the job of a state government. Why aren’t they standing up for the Victorian community, who are being ravaged by the effects of climate change again and again, which is a direct result of the decisions being made by their federal counterparts? The thing Labor do not seem to understand is that the atmosphere does not care where the fossil fuels are burnt. Atmospheric physics do not pay any heed to socially constructed geopolitical boundaries. The impacts of climate change are felt everywhere, and Australia and Victoria in particular are going to feel it disproportionately. Our continent and waters are warming faster than the rest of the world, and we are already feeling the consequences.

You will hear members, I am sure, across this chamber try to minimise Australia’s contribution to climate change by focusing only on the proportion of emissions we contribute through the burning of fossil fuels on Australian soil. We will hear Labor talking about how they are tackling local emissions and rolling out renewables. That is great – keep going. Yet our country is one of the biggest drivers of climate change globally because we export extraordinary amounts of coal and gas. We are the second-largest exporter of fossil fuel CO₂ emissions in the world. We are the second-largest exporter of coal, the second-largest exporter of gas. Australia is literally fuelling the climate crisis, and instead of recognising this and trying to slow it down the Albanese government keeps approving new coalmines. Just this term, since they were elected, they have approved 28 new coalmines. They approved three coal projects on Tuesday 23 September this year alone: Whitehaven Coal’s plan to extend underground mining for 13 more years, until 2044, at its Narrabri mine; MACH Energy’s mine at Mount Pleasant, extended until 2048; and Yancoal’s Ravensworth mine, extended to 2032. At least two of the mines, Narrabri and Mount Pleasant, will target thermal coal for export and for burning in coal plants.

Approving new coal and gas projects is incompatible with bringing down emissions. This is not my opinion; this is scientific reality, and it is a reality that Labor simply refuses to face. This year we have seen at least 15 national temperature records broken across the world. That has meant deadly heatwaves in places like Thailand, the Philippines and India; hurricanes that have decimated entire towns in the US; and flash flooding that has killed hundreds in Kenya. Our Pacific Islands neighbours are facing an existential threat, with sea level rise already occurring, as my colleague Ms Gray-Barberio spoke about so powerfully at the Rising Tide event. That is all just at 1.5 degrees of temperature rise. This year is shaping up to be the hottest on record so far. It is also likely to be the coolest year we will ever experience again. Let that sink in for a second. The UN Emissions Gap Report found that current policies put the world on track to 3.1 degrees of warming, a catastrophic, apocalyptic scenario. The United Nations, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and even the International Energy Agency have all said no new fossil fuel projects can possibly be allowed.

You cannot put out a fire by pouring more fuel on it, yet the Albanese Labor government is taking the complete opposite approach to climate action. The Liberals are not spared criticism here. Their deplorable track record on climate change speaks for itself. They love coal and gas and they are not ashamed to show it. Worse than the Liberals, Labor know what they are doing is unforgivable. But they are so cowed by the fossil fuel lobby, so scared of a climate trigger, they will do exactly what Scott Morrison would have done but then offer nonsense excuses or simply try to avoid the debate altogether. I do not actually get any joy from the illogical partisanship that has dogged climate change debate in this country. It should be above politics. It actually has to be above politics if we have got any hope of dealing with it.

Every time a Labor government is elected I, along with so many others, hold out a sliver of hope that maybe we will see genuine climate action, and every time without fail they disappoint. Actually ‘disappoint’ is not the right word; ‘betray’ is a better description of what it feels like. In defending the approval of new coal projects, Tanya Plibersek said Labor had to make decisions in accordance with the facts and the national environmental law. The facts around climate change are pretty clear and they say we cannot approve any more coalmines. In terms of the law, here is a thought: change the law. They are the government. That is what responsible governments do. Last year Labor rejected the Greens’ call for a climate trigger, a bare-minimum demand that climate impacts be considered as part of environmental planning approvals. Now they continue to hold out on negotiations on their nature-positive legislation. You cannot say you are acting on climate change by putting in a few wind farms and absolve yourself from responsibility for emissions that are the result of new coal and gas projects. This is how the whole climate change thing works: you have to stop making new emissions. Let us be clear, the only reason Labor refused to ban new coal and gas projects is because they are beholden to the coal and gas lobby.

Victorian Labor, if you think this is not about you, you are wrong. As I said before, you have a responsibility to advocate. But let us look at the actions you are taking here. Here in Victoria the Greens obviously disagree with the Allan Labor government’s approach to new gas projects. They literally wrote a new bill just to support a brand new gas project offshore the other week. We had that pass through this place. We appreciate that Victorian Labor have done the responsible thing when it comes to our worst climate pollutant and set deadlines for our brown coal power plants, although some in Labor want to undo even that good work by giving coal a lifeline through the joke that is the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain project, which still has not completely been abandoned by them. At least we can applaud the fact that Victoria is on track to reach 95 per cent renewables by 2035. But every time Labor take one step forward on climate action, their approval of new coal and gas projects puts them a hundred steps behind.

Climate change is a collective problem. Addressing it takes collective action. We need people in positions of power at all levels of government, including everyone here in this place, doing everything they can to limit the worst effects of climate change. This is not a slowly, slowly sort of thing. The time for slowly, slowly was 50 years ago. It is too late. This is not the sort of thing we can hand off to the next generation to deal with. It is too late. The window is rapidly closing to limit the most catastrophic effects of climate change, but Labor governments, state and federal, are living in some sort of dreamland where they think that somehow the steady, sensible thing to do is to keep approving new coal and gas projects. As the eminent climate scientist Joëlle Gergis has said, approving new coal and gas is:

… an intergenerational crime against humanity.

I would urge everyone in this place to think about that and support the motion that is before us.

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (11:01): Before us is a motion which seeks to implicitly condemn the Allan Labor government by association with the Albanese government. For me – and those on this side – I simply cannot support it in its current form. We are not here to draw a false equivalence between jurisdictions; we are here to legislate for the Victorian community and do what is best for Victoria and the Victorian people. That is what my constituents in the Northern Metropolitan Region expect from me. They know that there is an open door and that they can come to me with concerns, and I do hear from them about the cost of living, health care, education and what the Victorian government, not the federal government, is doing about climate change. With respect, the Greens need to decide if their purpose in this place is to move stunt motions for cheap social media grabs at the end, or if they are here to meaningfully contribute to the governing of the state.

In fact on this point I have an amendment that I would like to be circulated in the chamber now. It is really a very simple amendment. I move:

1. In paragraph (2) omit all words and expressions after ‘condemns the’ and replace them with ‘Victorian Greens for wasting this chamber’s time debating the Albanese Labor government’s record on energy investments; and.’

2. After paragraph (2) insert the following:

‘(3) calls on members of the Victorian Greens parliamentary party to continue resigning their seats to run in the next federal election if they are more interested in the federal government.’

It only asks the chamber to remember who we are here to represent: the Victorian people. We continue to support robust debate and disagreement in this place, but we cannot lose focus on our state. It is, after all, the people of Victoria alone who have given us the mandate to legislate in this place. If our amendment is voted up, we will of course support the motion, and if not, the government cannot support it. That is because in its current form it completely erases the bold climate action –

Members interjecting.

Tom McIntosh: On a point of order, Acting President, the member is trying to make a contribution. There are continual remarks being made behind her, which I think is unfair when the contribution is being made. I think the comments being made were being directed at the member and not members talking amongst themselves. If we could continue with the member being able to concentrate on her contribution, that would be good.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Michael Galea): As you can appreciate, it is hard to hear from this end of the room. I will allow the member to continue, without assistance.

Sheena WATT: In its current form the motion completely erases the climate action that our government has taken every day since being elected. It has been my privilege over the last 12 months to serve as the Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Action. During that time I have seen firsthand just how much the Allan Labor government is doing to reduce our state’s emissions, and I see just how detached this motion is from reality. The motion before us cannot even articulate a critique of Victoria’s climate action strategy. This is because this government has done more to tackle climate change than any other government in our state’s history.

I am going to take a moment to reinforce some figures that will be familiar to this house, because I have taken the opportunity to repeatedly remind those on the crossbench and those opposite about our outstanding climate action record. I had hoped that others would not need reminding, but it is simply not the case. In 2020 we legislated a target of 15 per cent to 20 per cent emissions reductions. We smashed the goal and got closer to 30 per cent. We have legislated a target of 28 per cent to 33 per cent reductions for next year, and we are clearly already on our way to achieving that. It is all part of our plan to reach net zero emissions by 2045. I just want to highlight that this net zero target was actually brought forward to come sooner than originally planned because Victoria, our state, is performing so strongly when it comes to climate action. Make no mistake that this is a world-leading climate commitment, and we are getting there by pursuing a renewable energy rollout which is the envy of the nation. Since coming to government in 2014 we have tripled the share of power coming from renewable sources, and now 38 per cent of our energy is renewably generated. In fact that is far in excess of our goal of 25 per cent renewable power by 2020. Let me just say we are going further. We have legislated renewable energy targets of 65 per cent by 2030 and 95 per cent by 2035. This means we will have no coal-fired power by 2035. We have done the hard work on this front. We have managed the closures of our dirtiest coal-fired power stations while also taking care of the workers and the communities most affected by the closures.

That is why I am so energised by the State Electricity Commission. I have spoken about it with enormous pride and I am not going to miss an opportunity to speak again about the SEC, because as we transition away from fossil-fuelled energy production here in Victoria, the SEC is securing the renewable energy jobs of the future and investing in local communities. It is expected to create 59,000 jobs, including 6000 apprenticeships, through the renewable energy transition. It is only a few weeks ago that we enshrined the SEC into the Victorian constitution, and it is already creating more jobs for Victorians. Only last week I had the good fortune to join the minister on a visit to the newly completed Melbourne renewable hub in Melton, in Plumpton in fact, and this SEC project has employed over 650 people to date and will store energy enough to power up to 200,000 homes during peak periods. I know and was happy to see that the minister and the Premier visited another SEC project in Horsham, which will power 51,000 homes and create just under 250 jobs, because with the SEC these projects are happening sooner and are bigger than they otherwise would have been. What an enormous achievement that is, and with over 100 companies lining up to partner with the SEC, there are plenty more projects like this to come.

We have offshore wind targets that lead the nation. We have set targets to produce 9 gigawatts of our state’s electricity through offshore wind by 2040, and this has the potential to create thousands of jobs and drive billions of dollars of investment in our economy. We are channelling those financial benefits to our renewable energy transition to go right to where they belong – the hip pocket of Victorians. Partly thanks to our state’s renewable energy production, Victoria’s retail power prices have fallen over the past few years and are now at 2018 levels. That is really important, and I would like to reinforce that again – that is 2018 levels. We have achieved this in the face of a global trend of energy prices increasing in other jurisdictions.

We are also making it easier for Victorians to reduce their household energy consumption through the energy upgrades scheme and Solar Victoria. I spoke about that in the last sitting week, but I will just say that there is so much to be proud of when it comes to our record on climate action in this state. Solar Victoria is one that I would like to point out. Their work particularly supporting Victorians to put the sun to work in their homes is outstanding. I have been so excited to hear from so many constituents recently, encouraging them to take advantage of the rebates for solar panels and household battery storage. It has been enormously popular. There have been over 360,000 installations of solar products in Victoria, and 280,000 of these are with solar photovoltaic products, with 7500 of those being solar PV installs at rental properties. As a result, we have ensured that the Solar Victoria program has ensured that rooftop solar now has a greater energy generating capacity than Yallourn.

We are going even further. Let me finish off with some red-hot facts that certainly bring me joy. Solar Vic has supported the installation of 16,200 batteries and 30,000 hot water systems, and we have created 5500 jobs in the process. Thirty per cent of those rebates, I have got to tell you, have gone to regional Victorians, and more than half of them have gone to people with an income of less than $100,000. Climate action is non-negotiable for us on this side. But standing right beside that non-negotiable action is that we do not leave people behind, and that includes the workers. I am so glad to see that as part of this we have the creation of 59,000 jobs, as well as a suite of supports for those in rental properties and apartments and those on lower incomes. Once the program is complete, let me tell you, it will help Victorians save more than $500 million per year on their electricity bills. That is a phenomenal number, worth celebrating. Whether it is through the already existing renewable projects like the SEC, the Victorian energy upgrades or Solar Victoria, our government is doing what needs to be done to reach our world-leading emissions targets – that is right, world-leading emissions targets. Those who wrote this motion have not delivered a single megaton of emissions reductions in Victoria, and this motion seeks to distract us with federal policymaking. Our government is seeking meaningful and bold action to combat climate change, and for these reasons I hope that our amendment will be accepted by the chamber.

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (11:11): I am pleased to get up and comment on motion 663 from Dr Mansfield. It is a motion that seeks to attack the federal Labor government, and to that extent there is plenty to attack. I am not sure that they have chosen the targets wisely. We all understand the issues that we face with respect to climate change. We have just had the big meeting in Azerbaijan recently, and none of us can be unaware of the significant issues we face and the need to move to a lower carbon environment and to do that in a thoughtful way that does not damage our economy and does not damage our standard of living.

Tom McIntosh interjected.

David DAVIS: You would actually agree with me on all of that, I would have thought. The attack is on the Albanese Labor government for approving 28 new coal and gas projects since coming to power, including three new mine expansions in September that will generate more than 1.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in their lifetime. Look, overseas interests, other countries, are purchasing fossil fuels to fuel their economies. Obviously there has to be a sensible movement in the position of a range of other countries, and that is partly what Conference of the Parties was talking about – looking at ways of putting in place support for a range of countries across the world who are in a less strong economic position than some of the OECD countries.

I do want to say here though that the Albanese Labor government has a lot to answer for. Airbus Albo is moving around the world having a lot to say, but he has not delivered on the $270 he said he would cut from energy costs before the election. In fact the prices have surged upwards. Contrary to the contribution of the government speaker, Victorians are actually paying more in this last couple of years under this government in Victoria and nationally, and the impact on household bills has been profound. We saw the St Vincent’s work, which was discussed at length in this chamber a couple of weeks ago, and their energy tracker looks at the actual costs, the actual bills that businesses and households pay. Businesses are paying much more. Households are paying much more; households are paying 22 per cent more for gas and 28 per cent more for electricity in Victoria on the most recent figures released by the St Vincent’s energy tracker.

We just need to be very clear about what is actually happening here. In Victoria we have now got an insecure energy supply. The state government’s decision not to allow exploration for gas has had a devastating impact on Victoria’s economy. We are seeing businesses leave the state now because of the uncertainty of supply and the increased cost of gas. We have got a state government that has declared war on gas. They have gone to war with gas. That is what they are intending to do; they are intending to block off the use of gas in this state. As to the idea that shifting to electric will in and of itself improve the greenhouse outcome, well, in fact if you moved to electric today you would probably be producing more greenhouse gases than if you used gas today. That is the truth in Victoria today. When you flick on your gas hot water or you flick on your gas heating, you are actually producing less in terms of greenhouse gas emissions than an electricity supply that still has a very big reliance on brown coal from the Latrobe Valley.

Tom McIntosh: So are you anti brown coal, Mr Davis?

David DAVIS: No, no, I am actually just stating a bald fact. The state government has said they are closing coal in the valley in 2028, the first tranche, and then the last one in 2035. We have asked for documents in this chamber. We have asked for the government’s agreements and the government has not provided those, so we do not know on what basis these agreements have been struck to bring forward the closure of these brown coal stations and the impact that that will have. I say the government ought to get on and provide those documents. New South Wales, in an equivalent situation, did provide very detailed documents. That is not the case in Victoria, where they have fought the release of these documents very significantly.

The Albanese Labor government has also botched the process of bringing on a number of renewable options, and we have seen this matched by the misbehaviour and misperformance in Victoria of the current energy minister. We have seen the slippage of outcomes with respect to the Port of Hastings to assemble for offshore wind. The government say they are going to get rid of coal and they are going to replace it with offshore wind and other arrangements, but the truth is that all of the proposed low-emission technologies are intermittent – inherently intermittent.

David Limbrick: Not nuclear.

David DAVIS: No, no, the ones that have been talked about by this government are all inherently intermittent, and they need storage with them. They say they are going to do batteries, but none of the batteries have the scale or the capacity to provide –

David Limbrick: They never will.

David DAVIS: Well, I am not judging future technologies in the more distant future, but I am saying that at the moment they do not have the capacity to deliver the reliability and security that is needed for Victoria’s power system. That is the simple fact. Gas will be needed, as will firming the electricity network – a source that can be turned on and can be turned off as required. If we get another burst in winter – low wind, low sun – like we saw in June this year, or a longer version of that, we will be in deep trouble. We know that the gas pipelines were going at full bore. The interconnector that runs across the bottom of Queensland was running at 108 per cent of capacity, pumping gas down into Victoria and New South Wales. Because of this state government’s war on gas, they have not allowed exploration. There has not been a single new exploration permit granted in Victoria since 2013 – three of them were granted in 2013.

Tom McIntosh: And your moratorium, Mr Davis. You introduced a moratorium when you were in government for that limited space of time.

David DAVIS: And it was a mistake. I would say that the state government kept that going to 2021, but even beyond 2021 they have sent out a signal: ‘Don’t come to Victoria; don’t look for gas.’ All of that is actually a key problem that we face.

I want to also point to the fact that in Victoria the situation with the capacity investment scheme has also seen the feds –

Tom McIntosh: He has taken a missed message. He has taken a message mid-speech.

David DAVIS: No, no, I am just wanting to talk about the federal situation, and there is a big failure in the capacity investment scheme. The capacity investment scheme ought to have included gas, and it was Minister Bowen and Minister D’Ambrosio who actually blocked the capacity investment scheme having gas in it. The federal government ought not to have fought against gas in the capacity investment scheme, because to bring on the low-emission technologies that we all see are part of the future, they do need the firming capacity parallel with them. The capacity investment scheme ought to have had gas as part of it, and it was Minister Bowen and Minister D’Ambrosio who blocked gas being on the capacity investment scheme. If people do not agree with me, I invite them to go and read the transcript of the press conference immediately after the energy ministers meeting. You can see a coordinated pile-on by Bowen and particularly by D’Ambrosio as they kicked the proverbial out of gas and indicated that they would not be supporting gas being part of the capacity investment scheme.

I note that South Australia has brought its own scheme forward in the last week or two. This is actually quite interesting. The South Australian Labor government have recognised that they have got to have support for gas, and a version of a capacity investment scheme, as I say, has been brought forward in the last week. We are in a position as a state where we need to be quite clear about our future. We need to have more low-emission technologies, but we need to have the firming and the security and supply to enable households to have what they need and businesses to have what they need.

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (11:21): I also rise to speak on this motion put forward by the Greens. Once again the Greens have come into this place and pointed the finger at everyone as if they have no responsibility for actions that have happened in Australia in the past around carbon emissions and energy production. I think it is important to look at the history of the Greens and the actions that they have taken historically and are taking now which have actually held back energy production in Australia – indeed have held back low-emissions energy production in Australia.

Let us start with the genesis of the Greens in the first place. They originated from a protest movement which was protesting what? It was protesting renewable energy in Tasmania. That project never went ahead. It was very successful, and they gained lots of support for stopping low-emissions production. Many years later, back in the late 1990s, there was a bill that went through federal Parliament; I think it was in 1998, from memory. The Greens conspired with the Democrats at the time, a party that was in Parliament, to put forward an amendment that would effectively outlaw new nuclear reactors in Australia – again, another low-emissions technology which the Greens conspired with others to knock on the head.

Dr Mansfield was slagging off Australia for all our exports of coal and that sort of thing. I would like to make the point that lots of people attack Australia, but Australia does something actually very good for low-emissions energy production throughout the world. We export very large amounts of uranium. In fact the electricity produced with Australian uranium produces electricity almost equivalent to Australia’s entire energy grid, and that is zero carbon emissions. So through the uranium exports we are effectively offsetting already our entire electricity grid, but for some reason we are not allowed to use that same technology in Australia. I do not know why. It certainly has got nothing to do with science. It must be more to do with religious reasons, I think. Now the Greens have the cheek 20 years later to say it is too late – it is 20 years too late – even though they were responsible for putting the kibosh on this in the first place.

Then Dr Mansfield mentioned the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain project that has been proposed in eastern Victoria by a Japanese consortium. I paid very close attention to this. I am very supportive of this, and I will be very disappointed if the government caves in to these extremists. They are sequestering all of the carbon in this project. It is a zero-emission project. It is exporting hydrogen using effectively a stranded asset that Victoria will not use, which is brown coal. It will sequester the carbon and export the hydrogen back to Japan. I have been paying very close attention to what Japan is doing in technology for many years because of my connections to Japan. What they want to do with hydrogen is set off a huge hydrogen economy within Japan. But they need to pump prime that with a large supply to begin. They are not planning on using brown coal forever to produce hydrogen. Actually what they want to do is use nuclear technology to do it, but in the meantime they are going to try and export it from Australia. I really urge the Victorian government to show more support for this project, because it is groundbreaking technology. It will lead to jobs and economic input in Victoria, and it will strengthen the relationship between Australia and Japan.

As anyone that studies decarbonisation will know, there are many industries that just simply cannot electrify. A good example is steel smelting, another one is cement production. These are very, very difficult to decarbonise. Japan wants to use hydrogen to decarbonise these industries. There are already test plants being planned for producing steel. Rather than using metallurgical coal they can use hydrogen. Similarly, there are ways of producing cement. For many other industries that simply cannot electrify, they are planning on switching them to hydrogen. But Japan needs to secure a large hydrogen supply to kick off that process. It a quite a unique opportunity that we are presented with here, and indeed the Japanese have scoured the entire world looking for this type of thing. To simply oppose that because of a religious belief that says ‘We cannot use brown coal’ is absolute madness. What the Japanese are planning in Victoria is wonderful and should be supported by all Victorians, whether or not they care about climate change and whether taxes and stuff can change the weather.

I will note another thing Victoria does that is excellent. There was quite a surprise recently when it was discovered that uranium produced in Victoria was being used in the United States to produce, again, zero-carbon energy. We are very lucky in Victoria that we have these wonderful things called mineral sands. We are exporting them around the world. They are very highly strategically valued, because China for a long time has had a stranglehold on this market. There was a strategic priority by the last federal government to prioritise mineral sands developments. With the mineral sands that are being exported, the primary material that they are trying to get from them mostly is an element called neodymium. Ironically, guess what neodymium is used for. It is used for making magnets in wind turbines and electric cars to support the renewables industry, because we need neodymium.

A by-product of these mineral sands, something that just happens to be in the ground with it, is also other stuff, like uranium. The Americans, not wanting to waste the uranium, are processing it and are going to use it for peaceful purposes in nuclear reactors in the United States. Australia, due to our reluctance and our anti-science, this religious belief against nuclear technology, are being left behind. It is so embarrassing for Australia that the UK government was shocked and did not even realise that Australia had prohibited nuclear energy. They could not believe that we were so backwards as to not consider this, because every other major developed nation is looking at this, including Japan, who some people want to hamper by stopping this Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain project. We must embrace new technologies. This includes nuclear technology, but it also includes, and we need to look at, mineral sands. We need to look at what they are doing with coal to hydrogen; it is an amazing technology.

We need to embrace these technologies and not stand in their way like what the Greens want to do all the time. They think that you can just power everything with wind and solar – we can make ourselves perpetually dependent on China forever, perpetually renewing everything that we have to rebuild every 10, 20, 30 years. This a dangerous thing for us to do. They used to talk about pumped hydro – in fact I had a debate one on one with Adam Bandt about this a few years ago – saying, ‘This is the way that we’re going to store the energy’ and this sort of thing. Of course when people started looking at the analysis of it, and there are lots of pumped hydro sites in Victoria, what it involved was flooding national parks and forests in Victoria, with salt water in some cases. I do not think anyone is going to be supporting that, let alone the Greens, so that is not going to happen. The batteries are good. They are pretty cool; they have pretty big capacity. They are not going to be utility scale to power the state for the entire day, like we saw yesterday when it was 90 per cent powered by coal. It was not windy; it was pretty cloudy. Renewables were not doing their job yesterday.

We are going to have to look at other things to supplement them, and that means gas. The integrated system plan – there is nothing in there saying that we are going to get rid of gas. We are going to have gas well into the future, and the reason that we need large amounts of gas is because of what we are doing by making ourselves perpetually dependent on Chinese renewables. I will be opposing this motion. I urge the federal government to come up with more of these projects for energy. We must put Australia first and stop strangling our ability to produce energy in this country. We are lucky that we have all these resources and yet we tie our hands behind our backs because of foreign global masters that seem to dictate every move that we make. We have got to stand on our own feet, embrace technology and move forward.

Jacinta ERMACORA (Western Victoria) (11:30): I speak on the Greens’ motion in relation to oil and gas and the federal government. I must admit my eyebrows raised when I read the motion. To say I was surprised by the Victorian Greens putting forward this particular motion is a bit of an understatement. It is difficult to fathom why the Victorian Greens are using the time and resources of the Victorian Parliament, using their general business slot, to discuss the Albanese government. I presume they are aware that the federal government is also sitting this week in Canberra, not in Spring Street, and if they really want to deal with federal issues, perhaps they ought to explain why their federal counterparts – the federal Greens – knocked off Labor’s carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS) in 2009.

I am going to go into the effects of this. It is a question that has been raised repeatedly over the last 15 years. You could even say that it haunts the Greens to this day. Fifteen years ago they joined with the federal coalition to oppose a policy that, if it had been implemented in 2009, would have set a national cap and a trade emissions trading scheme. It was designed to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by setting up a cap on emissions and allowing businesses to trade emissions permits. It was to provide incentives for business to reduce emissions and invest in clean energy technologies. Just imagine where Australia would be today if that policy had gone ahead. It would have formed the early foundations of a national response to dealing –

Tom McIntosh: On a point of order, President, I raised during another member’s contribution that if members are making a contribution, they can do so without a running commentary, particularly when it is perhaps out of earshot. The members of the Greens are sitting here making a running commentary while the member is trying to make a contribution. I think if the member could do it in peace and some silence, it would be good.

The PRESIDENT: My hearing must be pretty bad from all that drilling when I was an electrician. I could not hear anything. Actually, I thought the chamber was quite calm compared to other places, but I will remind members that interjections are unruly.

Jacinta ERMACORA: The CPRS would have formed the early foundations of a national response to dealing with climate change in 2009; instead it was scuttled by the federal coalition and the Greens. Imagine how much easier it would have been for state governments across Australia to further implement environmental policies on the back of national investment and business incentives. Despite this, despite the subsequent decade of the Liberal government doing nothing on the climate crisis, this Victorian Labor government has taken the national lead in tackling climate change. To use a racing analogy, the Greens are telling us to saddle up the horse, but I can tell you that we are well and truly in the race.

Today I think it is far more appropriate to talk about what the Labor government has done in Victoria in this Victorian Parliament over the past decade to deal with the climate emergency. Victorian Labor has done more to tackle climate change than any other government in this state’s history. We have cut emissions at the fastest rate in the country, amongst the fastest in the world. We have exceeded the 2020 emissions targets, and we are already within the range of our 2025 emissions target. With Labor, Victoria has more than tripled the share of power coming from renewable energy since 2014 – it is now 38 per cent. We have done the hard work of managing the closure of our dirtiest coal-fired power stations, with care for the workers and communities that are affected. With Labor, Victoria has legislated renewable energy targets and is putting us on track to have no more coal-fired power by 2035. Under Labor we have enshrined the banning of fracking in the constitution. We are the first state to release the Gas Substitution Roadmap. Federal Labor have implemented offshore wind targets. These targets will bring online significant contributions around the nation. The Victorian government are not going to waste the next decade delaying better energy outcomes for Victoria. To this end, Victoria is the nation’s leader in large battery storage. Battery storage technology is strengthening the grid and making storage cheaper for clean renewable energy when it is most needed.

Just last month it was awesome to visit the Terang big battery in the south-west with the Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosio. This project will act as a battery but also has a grid-firming function as well, which is exactly what Mr Davis is concerned about, so I am sure he will be thrilled with the news that that capability is right there. This was made possible through a $7 million investment as part of round 2 of the Labor government’s Energy Innovation Fund. The project will include 38 inverters and 48 battery containers and create up to 150 jobs during construction.

Victorian Labor has reestablished the SEC. Just last week I was delighted – I could not join, because I was sick, actually – Premier Jacinta Allan was in Horsham to announce that the Victorian government will build an enormous solar and battery farm and that it will power more than 50,000 homes. For the record, it is the first state government owned energy project since the electricity grid was privatised in the 1990s. The SEC will retain 100 per cent ownership of this park, with the Guardian on 20 November putting it better than I could:

This is a big moment – a big moment for the generation of renewable energy in our state, but also a big moment in terms of putting power back into the hands of the Victorian community [and putting] people ahead of profits.

I could not have said that better myself.

Putting Victorians first, we have actively helped Victorians to reduce their energy bills. We have helped more than 360,000 Victorians receive rebated solar panels, electric hot water systems and batteries. Cleaner, cheaper energy is also creating jobs across our state, and I could go on. Our extensive record of achievements in this critical area speaks for itself, so we will not be lectured by the Greens in this chamber, in this Victorian Parliament, about what Victorian Labor has actually achieved for all Victorians in the energy sector. We do not just talk. We do not block. We do not spend time politicising the federal government and what they are doing. We are getting on with the work of achieving clean and cheaper energy.

In closing, I would like to condemn the Victorian Greens for wasting this chamber’s time debating the Albanese government’s record on energy investments, and I call on the members of the Victorian Greens parliamentary party to continue resigning from their seats to run for federal election if they are more interested in federal government policy.

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (11:39): I am pleased to rise to add my voice to the discussion of the Greens motion today, and we have heard many and varied contributions so far. I would like to start with a comment that Dr Mansfield made – I was listening to it in my office. She started off on atmospheric CO₂ and how the atmosphere does not recognise where that CO₂ comes from. She spoke about the physics of it, and indeed this is most true: some of the largest clouds of CO₂that are emitted, in relation to this important issue, happen to be from bushfires, out-of-control bushfires. To that point, we know over the last decades the number of bushfires that have been occurring. Of course they have been occurring in the landscape for millennia. They were occurring when our traditional owners used to burn to manage the bush, to manage the forest, but over periods of time there have been lightning strikes and bushfires. There was the 1939 fire – you could go on – the 1983 fire, 2003, 2006 and, tragically, the 2009 Black Summer bushfires. Indeed the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre estimated that CO₂ emissions from the Black Saturday bushfires were up to 165 million tonnes, noting that the total annual emissions of that time were about 330 million tonnes. Therefore bushfires are significantly adding to the atmospheric carbon dioxide that the world, as Dr Mansfield said, does not recognise or know where it has come from.

Bushfires are a huge contributor, and what does this government do? This government takes away an industry that provided the implementation, the machinery and the expertise to mitigate bushfires. It is also regularly not adhering to the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission recommendation in relation to the number of hectares of preparatory burns – a 5 per cent rolling target across the public estate, and it is now somewhere down around 1 per cent. We know that as part of that, while flora and fauna are not in this debate, over 3 billion animals died in the process. So, no, atmospheric carbon dioxide does not recognise where it comes from, but it certainly comes from out-of-control bushfires and the neglectful, wilful, ideological policies of a Labor Party that is trying to out-green the Greens. That is the point I would like to cover off with.

In relation to climate change and climate action, I know and I hear and I respect that many Victorians want more work done on climate action. Indeed both the coalition in the federal space previously and all governments have lent or are lending their ears and their eyes to this. What I do know is that there is great tension in the federal Labor government under Mr Albanese, between Mr Bowen and Ms Plibersek, in relation to renewables and also with this government’s minister Ms D’Ambrosio. There is a huge tension, because in the transition to renewables neither the federal or state government has got their act together. They cannot decide where the renewable energy terminal is going to go. Minister D’Ambrosio said, ‘Let’s put it at Hastings,’ but then Ms Plibersek blocked that. They have not had the discussion, they have not done the homework and their timeline for net zero is going to be blown out well and truly because of this incapacity to get it organised. What will happen with that of course is that jobs will go to Bell Bay, potentially, in Tasmania. They could go to New South Wales, and it could be a raving disaster.

What we also know and have heard before is that, yes, in 2017 Hazelwood shut, Yallourn is slated for 2028, Loy Yang A 2032 to 2035 – now it has been pushed out – and Loy Yang B sometime after that. We heard today very much from speakers on the government benches about the SEC. What a disgrace it is. We heard again government members talking about the SEC, and where did they talk about it? They talked about it in Melton and they talked about it way over there in Horsham. I want to congratulate my colleague Emma Kealy for doing an amazing job of calling out the government and the Premier on a particular issue in her electorate at Horsham. What happened was there was one person employed in the SEC hub in Morwell. That is right, one person. All hail to that person. The Premier at the time said the SEC would be brought back to Morwell and would create 59,000 jobs. This government was weaponising this issue to grab votes. We also heard back in the day, and I have spoken many times on this issue, about the Latrobe Valley Authority. Now it is in a little backroom corner. It is going to be absorbed into Regional Development Victoria – out goes that thought bubble.

What we want to see here on this side is action on climate change. We want to see affordable, dispatchable, reliable – I would like to say ‘cheap’ but nowadays it is almost impossible to say it is cheap. The other day I was travelling in my beautiful Eastern Victoria electorate, and I was coming past the wind turbines on the western side of Wonthaggi. It was a nice day. The sun was out, so all fair and well for solar. There was not a breath of wind. We all know that –

David Davis: I tell you what, Kilcunda is one of the windiest places in the world.

Melina BATH: It is, so it was a bit surprising. Kilcunda is a windy place – it is a beautiful place – but there was no wind. At any time, solar and wind turbines have intermittent capacity, and we need stability in the system.

The other point that I would like to pick up – it was a point raised by Mr Limbrick, and I often raise it in this place – is the importance of being technology neutral in making sure there is a reduction in CO₂ emissions. One of those ways is carbon capture and storage. One of those ways is actually using the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain, and I want to thank the Latrobe City Council for again putting their impetus to the government and sharing their vision of the importance of the opportunity of having HESC. Not only that, I know my colleague Martin Cameron, member for Morwell, has been with a delegation recently to Japan, and they are champing at the bit to enable world-leading hydrogen technology in our region as well.

Nothing is a silver bullet. Everything needs to be done in context. This government has been failing on its targets. We have spoken a great deal about gas. Gas is just a disaster in this state. You are cutting gas out. There is legislation or regulation to remove the opportunity of plumbers to replace gas appliances in homes. We have seen many of our economists and leaders speaking about the danger if we keep cutting gas. Gas needs to be part of that peaking opportunity, part of that transition. This government has, as Mr Davis has said, had a war on gas. It is nonsensical. Gas needs to be part of the solution as we move to decarbonise in this state. I just think, unfortunately, the Greens once again have got the wrong bull by the wrong horns.

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (11:49): It is not too often I briefly agree with my colleague from Eastern Victoria Ms Bath, but I do on that last point: the Greens have absolutely got the wrong bull by the wrong horns on this one.

I always look to take the opportunity to talk to action on climate change and the work we do on energy in this state, but I also generally like to talk about the work that we are doing in this state for the people of this state and the contribution that we are making to reducing emissions worldwide. I am very proud of the fact that this government, this state, this jurisdiction, has been a world leader. When you look at our 2035 reduction targets on emissions – world-leading, particularly when you think of where we are starting from. Our state has been blessed, has been fortunate, with natural resources. We have had an economic advantage that we have used in the last century, whether it be for manufacturing or various other businesses, government or whatever. We have had energy there that we have used. Of course those opposite scrapped the auto industry and other massive industries that we saw from last century that are now gone, but this government has got on with ensuring that we have the power for this state – affordable, dependable, reliable power that will take us for decades, to the end of this century and beyond. I am incredibly, incredibly proud of that, whether it is the work we have done in home efficiency, whether it is the work we have done in energy generation on people’s roofs with solar, whether it is wind and the work we are now doing in offshore wind, whether it is in transport or whether it is the many policy areas that we are working on to reduce our emissions across our state.

While it is a massive task, it is one that we are getting on with and we are delivering on. Year by year we are making our way towards our goals, and we are ahead of our interim goals. The fact that in this state we are generating over 40 per cent of our electricity from renewables is sensational, something you will never hear those opposite acknowledge and something you will rarely hear the Greens acknowledge. We are over 40 per cent off our peak of emissions – again, another incredible achievement for a state that has traditionally and historically been a high-emissions state, one of intensive emissions with our brown coal.

But it is good to hear the Greens talking about climate. I do not think we have heard it much recently – definitely not this year. The Greens have pivoted as a party. They have been playing in a lot of spaces. The early members of the Greens, those that were environmental activists and people who came together not under political motivations but under outcome motivations – there are fewer and fewer of those in the Greens political party today. I think with a federal election looming we see the Greens not only listening to probably internal polling but listening to results across New South Wales, ACT and Queensland elections and Victorian local government elections, and they are seeing that people do not like what they are putting on the table. If you want to get as close as you can get to the worst of American politics, it is the Greens political party. They are radical in their actions, in their divisiveness and in what they are doing, and it is dangerous to the underpinning of democracy in this nation and in this state. It is incredibly dangerous.

Democracy is something that we should never take for granted. Democracy is something that we all work towards every day. Although we are in different parties – or are independents, crossbenchers or what have you – we all have to come together for the best interests of everybody in our state, with our different ideas, and get on and govern for everyone. The problem is when you have intolerance, when you have divisiveness and – I think worst of all – when you have arrogance, you get really, really bad outcomes. When you do not listen to other people, when you do not listen to community, when you do not take in the thoughts, the beliefs and the ideas of all of your community and when you just wipe some aside as being stupid or you wipe them aside as being not relevant, that is not governing for all. In doing that we risk our incredible example of democracy.

I think what we have seen this year with attacks on MPs’ offices, what we have seen with the Labor state conference, for example, with so many people ambushing it and trying to knock doors down, is complete intolerance. It is violence; it is aggression. I am proud of the fact that I am in a party where for our conference we come together and we discuss and debate ideas. Journalists are welcome. People from the public are welcome. It is televised. The Greens do it behind closed doors. We know a behind-closed-doors mentality leads to really bad outcomes. It leads to bad behaviours, and I will not go into this. It happens across all parties, all commercials, all unions. You have people who act inappropriately, but you have got to shine a light on it, and you have got to get it out. The Greens’ culture of being perfect, of everyone else being wrong and of them being intolerant and morally superior leads to behaviours not being identified within their own party. We have seen those behaviours play out around the nation, whether it be with their MPs or whether it be within their organisation. Every organisation is going to have issues, but you have to acknowledge those. The Greens have not done that, and they are paying the price. We saw it play out a number of years ago in Cooper, where their branch membership tore themselves apart. We are seeing it happening now in Jagajaga, where there have been resignations en masse.

It is politicking, and I think what we are seeing here today is blatant politicking. We are approaching a federal election, and we are standing here debating the actions of the federal government. I have no problem debating these issues as and where they are relevant to the state. I have no problem with any political party coming to this place with positions of policy, with ideas. Bring it to this place and let us debate what you want to see implemented in this state. Let us not see this place used for cheap politics that the community not only in Victoria but nationwide are absolutely waking up to with the Greens political party.

I actually wonder whether this motion was written by the former Greens member for Northern Metropolitan before she left the building to start her federal campaign – one that felt like it started some time before she left – rather than having us debate something on one of the many climate-related policies that we have here, whether it is electrification of our buses, whether it is the 600-megawatt auctions we have done for the energy that provides government its power, whether it is the 9 gigawatts that we are looking to establish in offshore wind to power this state, whether it is supporting Victorians to save money and electrify their homes, whether it is the 40-plus per cent reduction in emissions in what was traditionally a heavily carbonised economy or whether it is the 40-plus per cent renewable energy generation that comes into our grid that we should absolutely celebrate and that is growing every year, and in 11 years we will have 95 per cent renewable energy.

That is a plan to deliver emission reductions in Victoria that we can all be proud of. We can go out to the rest of the world and say, ‘We are doing our bit; we implore you to get on with doing your bit.’ We are working with industry. As government, we are setting goals for our people in Victoria, and people are clear, and that is what we should be celebrating – not sitting here debating federal politics.

Business interrupted pursuant to sessional orders.