Wednesday, 2 April 2025

Electricity infrastructure

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (10:33): I move:

That this house:

(1) notes that the government has not made public the submissions to the:

(a) regulatory impact statement on electrification;

(b) Victorian energy upgrades strategic review;

(2) 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:

(a) the submissions to the regulatory impact statement on electrification and the Victorian energy upgrades strategic review;

(b) all documents relied upon or drawn upon by the Essential Services Commission during the granting of a transmission licence in February 2025 to Transmission Company Victoria, a subsidiary of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO);

(c) documents submitted to AEMO by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) in 2024 and 2025 concerning the Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector West (VNI West) project and the Western Renewables Link project;

(d) formal communications to AEMO since 30 June 2024 by the:

(i) Minister for Energy and Resources;

(ii) Minister for Climate Action;

(iii) DEECA; and

(iv) secretaries or deputy secretaries of the department.

This is a straightforward documents motion in many ways. It falls in a couple of parts. The first relates to these public submissions to the regulatory impact statement on electrification and the Victorian energy upgrades strategic review. The RIS on electrification is a highly impactful set of regulations the state government is proposing. There have been an enormous number of submissions – detailed submissions from industries that are going to be directly impacted and detailed submissions from members of the public as well. These are not public and they should be. There is every reason that these should be seen, and the community can actually make up their mind on the veracity of many of them. I have seen a number of them because certain industries have actually directly provided those to me and some have provided their submissions to the press as well. But many are not yet available.

In the case of the energy upgrades strategic review, we know what a dog of a project the Victorian energy upgrades scheme has been. We all remember the dozens of fridges that were delivered, with some businesses getting six or eight fridges delivered to their business. We can all understand the purpose of one or two fridges at a business, but it was very hard to see the purpose of six or eight fridges being delivered to those individual businesses. There is obviously a very significant cost to this scheme, and that scheme is sheeted directly home to those consumers, either households or businesses, across the state. It is a cross-subsidy that is paid by every energy user in the state. It is not very transparent for people; it is well over $100 a year now. The Victorian energy upgrades scheme is a bit of a catastrophe too in the way it is operating with the high price of abatement that is done through that scheme. It is high compared to other jurisdictions in Australia. It has been running at somewhere around $120 to $130 a tonne, very different from the figures in other jurisdictions.

The energy upgrades strategic review is being undertaken. I notice the Victorian energy upgrades bill is in the lower house but the strategic review has not been completed. We think that this should be completed and made public as fast as possible, but we also think that the submissions to this process should be made public so that people can see them. We note the government is legislating on this now before the review is completed. I also make the point that the legislation is there before the review has been completed and the review is being undertaken by the department itself, so the department is reviewing its own homework. I imagine it will give itself a good mark. It will say, ‘I’ve done very well as a department. I’ll do my own review and I’ll give myself a big tick.’ That is what I think they will do; I am making a prediction here. I think it is very amusing. Anyway, they are doing this review in secret. They are not doing it in a way that is transparent. The submissions that have come forward are not available.

In terms of the recent decision to give Transmission Company Victoria, a subsidiary of the Australian Energy Market Operator, a transmission licence, it is not a transmission company; it is a construction company that is doing the work of AEMO in constructing a particular set of lines. But it has been given the licence as a transmission company to go onto people’s properties at will, and we think the set of documents that lay behind the decision of this government body and its subsidiary TCV ought to be in the public domain. We think the documents submitted to AEMO by DEECA over the last year or so concerning VNI West and the Western Renewables Link should be in the public domain too. We know that AEMO is a particularly secretive body. It is a body that is a national body. It is a body that is not a transparent body, and this will help with transparency. It is the state government documents that have gone to AEMO.

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (10:39): Mr Davis stands over there and talks about transparency and all these sorts of things. I tell you what, the Victorian people have not seen an energy policy out of the Liberals for a good decade. They have no policies, nothing to bring to the Victorian people. Instead Mr Davis spends his time talking about publication of submissions to a review that closed a number of weeks ago. All these submissions will be made public for Victorians to see unless people have made it clear they would like their submission to remain confidential. But this is the best Mr Davis can stump up; this is the best the Victorian Liberals can stump up.

I have said it before and I will say it again: when a party are underpinned with no values, when there is no value set, when they did not know why they get out of bed every morning, when people in the Liberal Party do not know why –

David Davis: On a point of order, Acting President, this is a straightforward documents motion that picks up these points here. It is not an opportunity to attack the opposition gratuitously and widely in a way that has nothing at all to do with the motion.

Michael Galea: Further to the point of order, Acting President, this is a motion requesting documents regarding energy. Mr McIntosh is well within his rights to discuss the topic at hand as the lead government speaker.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): I think what we will do with the points of order is just bring Mr McIntosh back to the documents motion.

Tom McINTOSH: I am going to double down here: Liberal Party policy on energy is an absolute disgrace. It has been for years, whether it was federally – their revolving door of energy ministers and media advisers; every time there was a new media adviser there was a new media policy –

David Davis: On a point of order, Acting President, this is a narrow documents motion. It has got nothing to do with federal matters or leaders. It has got nothing to do with media advisers, which is where he was heading. I am sorry, media advisers have got nothing to do with this motion.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): I ask Mr McIntosh to come back to the motion.

Tom McINTOSH: Wow, the Victorian opposition energy minister has just said that federal –

David Davis interjected.

Tom McINTOSH: What are you? Shadow, sorry – shadow indeed. He just displays how little he understands about energy, how little he goes into detail and how Fly Davis operates on the fly. Here we are again. He is asking for submissions that were submitted only a couple of weeks ago rather than coming to Victoria and saying what their plan is on energy.

We know they have no plan. The Liberals are nothing but negative. They bring negative, nasty opposition to everything. They have stood against renewables for decades. Victorians have shown the Liberals they want solar on their rooftops and that is exactly what they have done. Now Victorians are showing the Liberals they want batteries in their homes and that is exactly what they are doing. They have shown they want hot water that is cheap and affordable, with heat pumps, and the Liberals again stand there and naysay. I want to ask the Liberals what their is position on the tens of billions of –

David Davis: On a point of order, Acting President, again, it is a narrow motion. It is not for the member to ask the Liberals a set of questions. We are talking about this very straightforward, narrow documents motion.

Michael Galea: On the point of order, Acting President, Mr Davis is attempting to debate in what is a point of order. That is not a point of order, and I ask Mr Davis to stop making frivolous points of order in order to debate.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): There is 2 minutes, 43 seconds left. I ask Mr McIntosh to stay with the motion.

Bev McArthur interjected.

Tom McINTOSH: I will get to the point: the Liberals have no energy policy, and that is exactly why they come in here with these ridiculous motions asking for submissions to be released that were only submitted in recent weeks. If Mr Davis was serious about his role, he would be standing up and saying to Victorians that one of the most important things for this state is electricity for our businesses, for our homes, for our government services. It is absolutely crucial to this state. It has been crucial to the success of this state, to things like the automotive industry – which you guys scrapped, if you do not remember that –

David Davis: On a point of order, Acting President, we are now diverting again from the motion. We are now talking about the automotive industry. I put it to you that the automotive industry has a very, very tangential link to this motion.

Michael Galea: On the point of order, Acting President, Mr McIntosh has not been speaking for 3 minutes, but he has been interrupted four times now by Mr Davis. I ask for him to be allowed to continue his contribution.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): I bring Mr McIntosh back to the motion.

Tom McINTOSH: The Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources has now said that energy has nothing to do with manufacturing in this state. That just shows how little he grasps the concept of how important it is in this state, and that is why Victoria cannot afford to have the Liberals in power, because they have no values, no policies, no idea on how to power this state. That is why we see cheap stunts. And that is why I was talking about media advisers, Mr Davis, because you do not have in-depth policies –

David Davis: On a point of order, Acting President, he is diverting now to talk about media advisers, which has nothing to do with this motion.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): I will bring Mr McIntosh, for 1 minute and 38 seconds, back to the motion.

Tom McINTOSH: If the Liberal Party would come to this place with an idea, with a chestnut of an idea on anything, but let us say energy, one of the key things that underpins this state, we could sit here and we could debate ideas, we could debate investment.

Renee Heath: On a point of order, Acting President, I would just like to bring up Mr McIntosh’s favourite point of order, which is that it is unparliamentary to point.

Tom McINTOSH: I was holding a pen. How can I be pointing? The key point here –

Bev McArthur: On the point of order, Acting President, Mr McIntosh’s pen in his hand is clearly a weapon of destruction.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): There is no point of order. I will bring Mr McIntosh back to the motion, please.

Tom McINTOSH: The only weapon the Liberals are setting up in this state is a nuclear reactor that could be used as a weapon against us. I will again come back to the fact that if we are going to discuss energy in this place, if we are going to discuss the most important thing to this state, we need to have serious, fair dinkum conversations. I want to know, Mr Davis: what is your position on the tens of billions of dollars of investment in offshore wind in this state? What is your position on continuing to see Victoria’s renewable energy generation grow? It is now 40 per cent. From day dot, you said it cannot be done. You say everything cannot be done, because that is all you do. So where are you on offshore wind? You are against the jobs, you are against the investment and you have got fairytale ideas on nuclear that are never going to amount to anything. It is up to this side to ensure the generation capacity, the storage capacity, the ability for Victorians to generate their own power at home or to have a generator going into the grid so that we have assured, reliable, affordable energy in our grid. I am absolutely proud to be part of a Labor government that takes it seriously, unlike a joke of an opposition who run their energy policy through their media advisers.

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (10:48): This opposition – the opposition over there; that is what they are – are absolutely in opposition to anything that requires transparency in government and accountability in government. You would not know what it meant. It is a secret state you are operating over there. Mr Davis’s motion requires publication of all documents relied upon or drawn upon by the Essential Services Commission during the granting of a transmission licence in February 2025 to the Transmission Company Victoria, a subsidiary of the Australian Energy Market Operator, or AEMO. As I have said before, this decision is a complete fiction. It is a travesty, ignoring not only the consultation responses Engage Victoria sought from the community but the letter and the spirit of the rules. TCV has no intention whatsoever of transmitting electricity; it cannot and it will not. In fact as a wholly owned AEMO subsidiary, it would be completely inappropriate if it did. This is simply a decision of convenience, one which bends the rules purely to allow TCV to exploit existing law to force access to 250 farms in our region potentially affected by the VNI West project. These things matter. When the laws in this area were created, it was understood that private property rights are vital and that to override a landowner or a home owner and force access could be permissible only in the most vital circumstances. For the same reason, the power is granted only to a small number of essential agencies, those actually involved in transmitting power and ensuring its safety.

Instead of changing this law, however, this government’s agencies are simply ignoring it. That is why we need every document that Mr Davis has called for here. Granting the licence to an organisation not involved in delivering power is subverting the original intent of the Parliament that passed the legislation – get that into your heads. Section 93 of the Electricity Industry Act 2000 details the powers. They are clearly granted to an electricity corporation, elsewhere defined as ‘an entity which holds an Essential Services Commission (ESC) licence’.

We absolutely need these documents – we need every single one of them – and if you are absolutely a responsible government, you will readily supply them. What have you got to hide? You are forever hiding behind a secret veil of government operation, which is just fundamentally disgraceful, and the Victorian public deserve better. We need full disclosure of how this travesty of a decision was cooked up behind the scenes, behind closed doors. You will not tell anybody anything. The Victorian public, especially the landowners, and everybody associated with the rollout of transmission towers in this state deserve to know exactly what is going on behind the scenes in this place. Why wouldn’t you want to provide them?

The ESC’s licence award to TCV is far from the only questionable thing about VNI West. VNI West is a generation-defining potential infrastructure development. Serious questions remain about its necessity, its resilience and the fact it will result in us becoming net importers of energy from New South Wales. The least we need to know is what the government is saying. What are you saying behind the scenes to roll out this operation that you are trying to roll out? I might say that you have been such a failure you have not got one spade in the ground for the Western Renewables Link project, which was meant to be finished last year – a total failure. You want to run roughshod over the lives and livelihoods and the environment of every single person in this state when you are rolling out the transmission operation in this state. We need every document that Mr Davis has called for.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:53): Mr Davis, you are all wind and no turbine. What a ridiculous motion we have before us today. You are asking for documents – submissions to an inquiry which will be published. I know that Mr Davis has a hard time understanding things like staffing timelines and things like that. No wonder he is putting forward a six-week select committee this afternoon. He has clearly got no comprehension of workload of committee staff and of staff in other agencies as well, because this government has been very clear that we will be publishing these submissions, the ones that Mr Davis is calling for, which goes to the point of, again, the ridiculous motion that we have before us today. What do we expect from the party whose best policy is the $600 billion nuclear fallacy that Mr Davis and his friends want to inflict on Victorians?

Motion agreed to.