Climate change
Ms SANDELL (Melbourne) (14:58): My question is to the Premier. Just a few weeks ago the world’s climate scientists, the IPCC, released their latest report, sounding the alarm about the worsening climate crisis and how it will affect all of us, with more bushfires, heat, floods and extreme weather events. One of the key messages from these thousands of climate scientists was very clear: the world needs to stop burning fossil fuels and should not start any new fossil fuel projects. Given this, why has the Victorian Labor government giving consent to a gas company, Beach Energy, to start gas drilling beneath one of our national parks and close to the Twelve Apostles marine sanctuary?
Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:58): I thank the member for Melbourne for her question. I will refer the specifics of the member’s question to the Minister for Resources in the other place and ask her to provide a fulsome written response in relation to any approvals that have or have not been granted by our government, or any other government for that matter. What I would say, though, is that I agree with the member for Melbourne when she quotes an enormous number—the vast, vast majority—of climate scientists who know and understand, as this government does, that there is no time to waste. We need real action and we need a government with a policy that is driven by urgency and a real sense of purpose. And that is what we have been proud to take to the last two elections and to receive and be humbled by the very considerable support of the Victorian community, to be given that precious gift, the greatest of gifts in many ways, not only the opportunity but the obligation to govern and lead our state. In doing that we have taken a positive and optimistic plan to be the centre of renewable energy in our nation. That is what we have done and that is what we will continue to do for so long as we have the support—that precious gift—from the Victorian community. Some talk; others get on and get it done. We have been criticised for it by many, but we have pushed on with an ambitious and optimistic agenda to make our state the centre of renewable energy generation and storage in our nation.
That of course can be seen through many different things. We had the biggest ever reverse auction in the country’s history. The bid pool was some 3000 megawatts. We thought we would get about 600 megawatts away out of that auction. We got considerably more than that. We have of course our legislated targets. Not everybody necessarily supported those legislated targets. Others can account for their own fairly patchy record when it comes to these things. But what I would say is that we have seen more—
Members interjecting.
Mr ANDREWS: See, shouting does not work against climate change—or much else actually. But the key point here is you can talk, you can even make a bit of noise, you can even laugh about climate change if you want, but the best thing to do is to get on and do something about it. That is what this government has proudly done every day that we have been in office.
I could of course go on to talk about solar homes—essentially putting power stations on 750 000-plus roofs with no up-front costs. It is not only a great cost-of-living measure, giving people control over their power bills for the first time in a long time, perhaps ever, but also doing good work by the planet and by our kids and grandkids.
I would, however, say this: the Greens do often think that this is literally a switch and you just flick from one system to the new, from a flawed system to a perfect one. If only the world and public policy and public administration worked that way. They sadly do not, but we will push on regardless to do the hard work to keep— (Time expired)
Ms SANDELL (Melbourne) (15:02): Premier, the community supports the government’s actions in supporting and encouraging renewable energy, but they are also rightly disappointed that on the other hand it is this Labor government’s policy to support and open up gas drilling right across Victoria’s land and in our oceans. Given that the IPCC made it very clear that new fossil fuel developments should simply not go ahead, why is it the Victorian government’s policy to still support new gas drilling right across Victoria?
Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (15:02): That is a very important question. We have been criticised for not doing enough to limit gas. We have been criticised as having done far too much. If I might say, I think that the position we have arrived at is a very balanced one. It also happens to be 100 per cent in accordance with the commitments we made at the last election. ‘Say what you do and do what you say’—that is how we govern, and no amount of reinterpretation by those opposite, no matter what colour you might attribute to them, will change that. We said we would have the nation’s most ambitious renewable energy program. We are delivering it. We said we would reduce emissions and have legislated targets to keep us and future governments accountable. We are doing that. The member for Melbourne essentially asked me to apologise for having delivered on all the commitments we made and having the most ambitious and optimistic plan in the country for renewable energy. I shall not apologise for that. We are proud of it.