Wednesday, 20 March 2019

 Mr ANGUS (Forest Hill) (10:20): I am pleased to rise to resume my contribution on the Essential Services Commission Amendment (Governance, Procedural and Administrative Improvements) Bill 2019. Just to recap on what I was saying last evening before the adjournment in relation to the background for this particular bill that is before the house today, we have got the Essential Services Commission Act 2001 and there was a review done of that act, as is required within that piece of legislation itself, that was conducted in late 2016. It was required to be done by 31 December 2016. That review resulted in 10 recommendations, and the government’s reply to that review was tabled in this house on 7 March 2017. The bill before the house now implements four of those recommendations that came from that review. The bill had been before the 58th Parliament. It was introduced on 22 August 2018, was debated on 18 September 2018 and went to the guillotine on 20 September 2018, which was the last sitting day of the 58th Parliament.

I will resume where I left off yesterday, and that was looking at the government’s reply to the recommendations. I had just dealt with recommendation 9, and I was looking at recommendation 10, which is to amend the act to schedule a review of the act to be conducted by 31 December 2026. The government in their written response supported that. That is also reflected within the legislation and is covered off, as I mentioned at the start of my contribution yesterday, under clause 1(a)(v), which says:

to provide for a review of the operation of the Essential Services Commission Act 2001 by 2026 …

That deals with the recommendations and the government’s response to the recommendations.

I just want to again look at some of the other matters that the Essential Services Commission (ESC) deals with. Perhaps before I do that I might just go back to what I said yesterday as well in terms of what the Essential Services Commission does. To quote their website, they are:

… an independent regulator that promotes the long-term interests of Victorian consumers with respect to the price, quality and reliability of essential services.

And it goes on from there.

So that sets the framework, and I think it is interesting to note that there have been and continue to be a large number of interesting reports prepared by the Essential Services Commission. I want to refer to one, which is the Essential Services Commission’s recent publication, Victorian Energy Market Report 2017–18, in relation to electricity-related matters. Some of the contents of that particular report, some of the findings, were that in terms of residential energy prices the prices for electricity and gas are up an average of 16 per cent based on the standard contract. That is the biggest annual increase since 2014–15. Since 2014–15 the standard contract for electricity has grown from $1522 to $1824, or some 19.8 per cent. For gas it has gone from $1316 to $1768, or 34.3 per cent. That is on the residential side. On the business side we can see that standard contract prices have increased 21 per cent for electricity and 14 per cent for gas, but even the discounted market rates have gone up by 17 per cent for electricity and 20 per cent for gas. We can see that the ESC has an important role to shine a spotlight on some of the cost of living challenges that people here in Victoria are facing. We can see just from those statistics alone that Victorian households and businesses are significantly hurting, with the cost of utility bills, particularly gas and electricity, continuing to rise. The commission has as important role to continue to keep the Victorian public informed about these matters and to expose the significant increases to the broader community.

The ESC talks further in its report about customers experiencing great difficulty in paying their bills, and they have observed a 25 per cent increase in customers on hardship programs. That equates to approximately 98 000 customers experiencing difficulty. The particular point I want to make there is that Victorians, and I certainly know that this includes many of my constituents in the district of Forest Hill, are really hurting from cost of living pressures, and this government is not doing anything about them. In fact, to the contrary, this government is adding to the cost of living pressures. That is part of the challenge for residents.

Mr Pearson interjected.

Mr ANGUS: We have still got the member for Essendon interjecting over there. He is still here, listening to this important debate.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Essendon will get his turn. The member for Forest Hill, to continue.

Mr ANGUS: I think, Deputy Speaker, he is very, very keen for a turn on this bill because he was here last night listening to me and he is back again today for some more. He just cannot get enough of it. It is interesting to see that he is so keen about it. Hopefully he will highlight some of these important matters in relation to the Victorians who are involved in hardship programs. We have on average 47 289 customers on hardship programs here in Victoria. That tells you what is really going on at the coalface, if you like, in relation to Victorian consumers. That is something that the ESC needs to continue to shed some light on.

We have disconnections increasing. The rate of disconnections is up: 55 474 residential and 5258 small business customers were disconnected for non-payment. It is up 21 per cent from the 2016–17 report. So we can see that there is an enormous increase and growth in that area. It just continues to be a problem. The number of complaints to the energy and water ombudsman have ticked up as well, and there are huge increases there. Headlines have appeared in the newspapers. The Herald Sun of Monday, 18 March 2019, has the headline ‘Water bill shock’ and talks about a $10 increase because 125 billion litres have been ordered from the desal plant.

These sorts of cost of living pressures are continuing to increase for Victorian residents, and as I said, that is certainly the case in my district of Forest Hill. It is incumbent upon the government to start doing something to alleviate the cost of living pressures because everything is going up and people are hurting. We now have this bill shock. It has not flowed through, so to speak, as yet onto people’s bills, but we know that will certainly be the case and people’s water bills, just like every other utility bill they are having to face, will continue to go up. That is hurting people within the flat wages environment that we are working in at the moment and people are really being stretched left, right and centre. The important work of the ESC needs to continue. It needs to continue to expose this government in relation to its poor governance and management, resulting in these cost of living pressures on all Victorians.

If I just turn back to the bill, we can see that I have covered a fair bit of it, but I just want to touch on part 4, which is on page 17 and makes consequential amendments to other acts. It deals with a whole range of other pieces of legislation: the Accident Towing Services Act 2007, the Electricity Industry Act 2000, the Grain Handling and Storage Act 1995, the National Gas (Victoria) Act 2008 and the Port Management Act 1995. It is interesting to note that one of the questions we had in the last parliamentary sitting week was about the port charges. We can see that they are out of control for port users. That is another area that hopefully the ESC can continue to expose and shine some light onto.

Having said all that, the opposition will not be opposing this bill. We do note that it has been a long time coming, but we will not be opposing it.

 Mr DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh) (10:29): It gives me great pleasure to speak on this important bill. I am pleased to do so not only because I get to talk about the values this government represents but also I do it in the esteemed company of the Assistant Treasurer at the table, whose bill this is. It also gives me pleasure because it affords me the opportunity to basically put down some of the fallacies put forward by the previous speaker, the member for Forest Hill. He was doing quite well for about nine-tenths of his speech, and then he strayed into territory which was false.

Apparently we are not doing anything to combat the cost of living—says someone from the opposition which has such a significant record on doing that, apparently. I have not seen any evidence of it. It is absolutely a relevant consideration of this bill, because it is one of the key objectives of the Essential Services Commission to protect consumer interests, including excessive pricing. But just to give a few examples of what we are doing for the cost of living, starting with the energy sector, we are deepening the supply of energy so that it brings down prices. We are actually doing that in a way that is not only important for energy pricing, but it is important in terms of our environmental outcomes and objectives, which are leading Australia in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, targets that are ahead of the rest of the states in terms of energy efficiency and targets in terms of renewable energy—all of that under this government. We are also providing a far more heavy hand, if you like, with the power companies, and far more regulation. As the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change made very clear in question time yesterday, we are bringing in the power companies. We are being harder on them so they are easier on the customers and the Victorian community.

We are doing far more than that though. We are providing free dental care in every public school; solar panels for potentially 650 000 Victorian homes; better schools, so families are not forced to choose independent or private schools if they do not want to; better and more efficient and effective public transport so people do not have to get behind the wheel of a car; glasses for kids; school lunches; excursions and a whole range of things that absolutely alleviate the cost of living pressures on Victorian families. For the previous speaker to talk about the cost of living and what we are supposedly not doing about it without referencing any of those is really mischievous.

But just to the bill, I am proud of this—

Members interjecting.

Mr DIMOPOULOS: Well, more directly to the bill. I am proud of this bill. I am proud of it for a couple of reasons. One is that the Essential Services Commission is part of the important architecture of consumer protection that exists in Victoria, and it was set up by a Labor government. It was set up by the Bracks Labor government.

Mr Scott: Hear, hear.

Mr DIMOPOULOS: Absolutely. ‘Hear, hear’, says the Assistant Treasurer. And it is far more than that. It is part of the important architecture, but it is not the only part of the architecture that protects consumers. In the life of the last Parliament I spoke on two bills of the Andrews Labor government that strengthened the powers of the Environment Protection Authority and increased its funding. I spoke on bills that enhanced workers protections and workers rights, whether it be in labour hire or through the Long Service Benefits Portability Bill 2018 or the workers compensation and WorkCover bills. They were all part of an architecture that protects consumers, workers and Victorians at large. This is a very important bill. As the Assistant Treasurer said in his second-reading speech, the changes we are seeking to make to the Essential Services Commission and to the act come out of an important review that concluded in 2016, a review that was set in motion with the initial establishment of the Essential Services Commission.

The Essential Services Commission is an independent regulator with the purpose of promoting Victorian consumers’ interests regarding the price, quality and reliability of essential services. What are those essential services? There are many: the energy and water sectors are key, but there is also the transport sector, the administration of local government rate capping and the commercial passenger vehicle sector, which includes taxis. I might add that the Essential Services Commission also regulates the Victorian Energy Upgrades program, which was introduced by the Brumby Labor government. There is a bit of a pattern here. These architectonic programs and institutions are normally established by Labor governments. The Andrews Labor government strengthened that program. The program has helped cut power bills for Victorians. In 2017 alone it saved households more than $400 million in power bills, which is the equivalent of taking 500 000 cars off the road.

A review of the Essential Services Commission Act 2001 was completed in December 2016, as I said. This bill aims to address the recommendations of that review, principally around four key areas. The first area involves replacing the appeals panels that are provided for within the act with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The second area is that the bill allows the minister to nominate a person to act as an acting chairperson in the absence of the chairperson of the Essential Services Commission, which allows it to operate more effectively. The third area is that the bill seeks to clarify that the commission has the ability to report on the market structure and performance of industries it regulates, which gives it more power and more efficacy and makes it more able to provide impactful reports to government and the community. The fourth thing it does is it provides for a further review of the act to be completed by 2026, which is important. This is another part of this government’s brand. It seeks to review the operation of legislation to look for opportunities for reform.

The Essential Services Commission is a vital piece pf Victoria’s consumer protection framework, and this government has taken far more action than just seeking to strengthen the commission, particularly in relation to power pricing. For example, we have introduced what we term the energy fairness plan, which builds on the final response to the review by announcing further reforms to the energy retail market, including improving retail marketing practices by banning door-to-door sales and telemarketing by energy retailers and overhauling and significantly increasing penalties for wrongdoing by energy retailers, including new criminal offences for wrongful disconnections. The bill also strengthens the powers and capabilities of the Essential Services Commission and extends the $50 power saving bonus, which has seen one in four Victorians compare their energy prices, potentially saving over $60 million.

Already the results are clear. Disconnections are down both for households and for businesses. The Victorian energy price is trending down if you look at the historical data. There are a whole range of offset programs for people, whether it be solar panels for roofs, hot water services or a whole range of other things. What I have been proudest of during the last couple of weeks is that we introduced a bill to abolish the default offer, and that will save potentially between $200 and $500 per household. I think the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change and the other ministers who spoke on this bill reminded us that 167 000 electricity customers are on standing offers, so they are paying more than they need to for their power.

There is a whole range of work that we have done in this area. There is probably too much to mention in this contribution, other than to say that the Essential Services Commission was established by a Labor government, it is being strengthened by this Labor government and it will continue to be. It operates not only in relation to energy but also in relation to, as I said, rate capping—which again was the first of its kind nationally. It is also an agency that protects consumers in the commercial passenger vehicle industry, and again the reforms that we undertook in that industry were a first for Australia. The work this apparatus does is largely unseen by Victorians until there is an issue or a problem. I recommend to people that they spend 5 minutes of their spare time during the week to have a look at the Essential Services Commission website. It is a very, very user-friendly website. It gives pretty decent information about how important this agency is, why it was established and why it is important that it is protected, reviewed and enhanced. That is exactly what this legislation seeks to do. I commend the bill to the house, and I commend the minister’s work on it.

 Mr McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (10:39): I rise to make a contribution on the Essential Services Commission Amendment (Governance, Procedural and Administrative Improvements) Bill 2019, following on from the outstanding contribution of the member for Forest Hill earlier today and late last night. We do know that this bill has had a few false starts over its time and that it has been a while in the making, but, as was mentioned by the member for Forest Hill, we will not be opposing the bill.

I will begin by looking at the purposes of the bill in general terms. The main purpose is to amend the Essential Services Commission Act 2001, and the bill does that in five ways. It repeals provisions for appeal panels to hear appeals in relation to requirements, decisions or determinations of the Essential Services Commission and made under the Essential Services Commission Act 2001. Secondly, it confers review jurisdiction on VCAT in relation to requirements, decisions or determinations of the ESC made under the Essential Services Commission Act 2001. Thirdly, it makes provision for the minister to appoint a person to act as chairperson of the ESC. Fourthly, it makes provision for the ESC to report on the market structure and performance of regulated industries. And fifthly, it provides for a review of the operation of the ESC by 2026.

I think it is important to understand what the Essential Services Commission actually does. It is an independent regulator that promotes the long-term interests of Victorian consumers with respect to the price, quality and reliability of essential services. It regulates Victoria’s energy, water and transport sectors, administers the rate capping system for the local government sector and regulates the Victorian energy upgrades program—and I do have a few concerns about that.

I have looked at the ESC’s website. It talks about how it regulates the electricity and gas industries, which is only part of the work that the Essential Services Commission does. It says they regulate through a combination of legislation, licences, codes and guidelines and talks about the energy team being responsible for the licensing of certain businesses and also establishing and maintaining codes and guidelines, promoting and enforcing compliance and reporting on the performance of energy businesses and on energy prices. However, as the member for Forest Hill highlighted in his contribution, the ESC does not set energy prices, but it does set the minimum feed-in tariff, so on the one hand it is taking an independent stance but on the other hand it certainly has a major say.

A review was commissioned back in 2016, which resulted in 10 recommendations. The government did respond to this review in 2017, and the bill before us now is a result of four of the recommendations that came from the review. The review was of the Essential Services Commission Act 2001 and the purpose of the review was to determine whether the objectives of the act and the Essential Services Commission are being achieved and are still appropriate, and whether the act is effective or needs to be amended so as to further facilitate the objectives or insert new objectives if need be. In undertaking the review consideration was also to be given to the range of regulatory issues, regulated sectors and advisory issues that fall under the auspices of the ESC; appointments of commissioners and panellists; regulatory reform and the reduction of red tape; and arrangements for repeals against decisions made by the commission. It is fair to suggest that more input from the public should have been sought and considered.

There were 10 recommendations in the report, but essentially four have been addressed in this bill. I can only assume the other six will be raised in the future, but I am sure only if it suits the government’s agenda to do so.

I want to mention briefly recommendation 2 of this review in relation to appeals. It talks about amending the Essential Services Commission Act 2001 to cease the ESC appeal panels and confer the jurisdiction to hear appeals on VCAT. The document states that the changes are supported by a communication strategy providing clarity to stakeholders regarding their access to the appeals mechanisms available to them, the avenue for assessing these mechanisms and the processes to be followed and also by funding for VCAT to hear appeals regarding the Essential Services Commission. It is important to note in terms of the number of appeals that it is very low.

Recommendation 3 deals with the deputy chairperson. It recommends amendment of the Essential Services Commission Act to appoint a deputy chairperson who will act in the office of the chairperson during a vacancy in that office or when the chair is absent. Recommendation 4 talks about consultation. Recommendation 5 talks about public reporting.

In summing up, as I mentioned earlier the bill amends the Essential Services Commission Act 2001. It makes amendments to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 and various other acts. It repeals provisions for the commission-specific appeals panels to hear appeals in relation to requirements and decisions made under the principal act and transfers jurisdiction to VCAT to replace the appeals panels. It allows the minister, rather than the Governor in Council, to appoint an acting chair of the commission, and that is for a maximum term of up to six months. It provides that the act will be reviewed again by the end of 2026. My main concern is that the bill amends the act to allow the minister to appoint an acting chair rather than them being appointed by the Governor in Council.

As the member for Forest Hill stated, we will not be opposing this bill.

 Mr PEARSON (Essendon) (10:46): I am delighted to make a contribution on the Essential Services Commission Amendment (Governance, Procedural and Administrative Improvements) Bill 2019. I want to thank the parliamentary secretary to the Treasurer, my very good friend the member for Oakleigh, for his very succinct and erudite contribution on the merits and strengths of the bill.

I did listen with great interest to the contribution of the member for Forest Hill last night and today. I am truly surprised that he was able to get out half an hour on this bill, but I do congratulate him nonetheless. It was probably not the greatest contribution he has made to this house, but nonetheless I did at times find it enlightening and entertaining.

Ms McLeish interjected.

Mr PEARSON: Clearly the member for Forest Hill must have supported the member for Eildon in her bid to become the deputy leader of their party. Far be it from me to interfere in those internal party machinations that dominate the Liberal Party these days.

The member for Oakleigh summarised very neatly and eloquently the benefits of this bill. I did listen to the member for Forest Hill’s contribution. He talked at length about his concern about energy prices—electricity prices and gas prices. It is well-known that my cousin is a constituent of the member for Forest Hill. Although my cousin is a very good man, he bats for the other side. He does support the Liberal Party and he does spend some time with the member for Forest Hill. I suspect that it has been my cousin who has been bemoaning some aspects of this portfolio to the member for Forest Hill. But the member for Forest Hill did talk at length about his concerns about electricity price rises, gas price rises and water price rises.

Indeed this is a theme that those opposite pursued with a level of vigour, I think it is fair to say, over the course of the 58th Parliament. If I look at Hansard and I look at the contributions made by the now member for Bulleen—the former Leader of the Opposition—and the member for Caulfield, who was the shadow Minister for Energy and Resources in the 58th Parliament, the then Leader of the Opposition raised the word ‘electricity’ 11 times in question time, and he raised the word ‘gas’ three times. The member for Caulfield raised the word ‘electricity’ 13 times and ‘gas’ three times. So you can see there is a theme—that those opposite raised this with a degree of regularity, I think it is fair to say, over the course of the 58th Parliament. We have heard today and last night in the member for Forest Hill’s contribution that they also have raised issues or concerns about price rises.

The wonderful thing about the Westminster system of democracy is what we all chase—in the case of Victoria at the end of four years, an election campaign. I am a devotee of good public policy. I love a bit of good public policy. I love the opportunity that an election campaign enables for a political party, especially one of the major parties, to outline its bold vision for our state and our nation, because you spend three or four years grinding away in opposition, as in the case of the coalition, or in the case of government doing the operational work of running a state, and you are given that moment—those 25 days here in Victoria—to outline and map out your bold vision for the state of Victoria and where you want to take the state. Again you had the now member for Bulleen and the member for Caulfield talking at length about issues around electricity and gas. Of course, therefore, you must then think, ‘Okay, this has been an issue that has been explored with some degree of interest by the opposition over the course of four years. I wonder what they were doing behind the scenes’. They have come into this place in question time, they have raised issues about energy prices on numerous occasions and they have sought to probe the executive arm of government as to what the government is doing. It begs the question: what is the alternative? What is their response?

I am delighted to have been provided with a copy of the Independent Policy Costings of the 2018 General Election Policies of the Liberal-National parties of Victoria, produced by none other than the Parliamentary Budget Officer. I refer the house’s attention to page 171 of this report. This is one of the big policy agenda items of those opposite that they took to the election last year:

Establish a tender process by which the winning energy retailer will provide discounted electricity

That is a novel idea, isn’t it? So in substance—and there is not much here—this policy would:

… establish a tender process by which the winning energy retailer will provide discounted electricity and gas to over 910 000 eligible low income and vulnerable government concession recipients.

The great idea of those opposite was that they would run a tender process—which is probably not dissimilar to running a business case for building Rowville rail or Doncaster rail—to offer discounted electricity. That is it. Now, you might say, well, run a process—that is fine. You might want to subsidise that to sweeten the offer because the question is—and those opposite are devotees of the free market; they love the free market; they are adherents to the free market ideology of Adam Smith—if the market is not already doing it, then why would that be the case? There is no money in it.

What do those opposite offer up instead? They are offering up, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, costs of $3.2 million to run the tender process. They are not offering any sort of discount; they are not offering any sort of support to sweeten the offer for these companies to do it. They are just saying, ‘We will run a process so these private sector oligopolies can reduce their profit margin with no incentives’. It is just absolute economic bunkum—it is sheer and utter laziness.

It gets better, though. I really like this policy from those opposite, which they took up last year:

Introduce a Fairer Water Bills plan that will reduce household water bills by up to $100 per year

Fantastic. How are we going to achieve this outcome? The summary of the policy is that those opposite, if they had won the election, would have introduced a Fairer Water Bills plan that would have required water authorities to identify business costs savings that could be passed back to customers as reductions on household bills. This is the best bit:

A suitably qualified individual would be appointed to work with Victoria’s water corporations to identify savings. Savings would be identified between December 2018 and June 2019 with customers starting to receive rebates on their bills from the 2019–20 financial year.

What a load of rubbish. They were going to employ some bozo on $200 000 a year to run around tightening up water pipes in water plants to create savings that are passed on to consumers, which might result in $100 of savings a year. It is absolute rubbish. It is nonsense. They had four years languishing in opposition, and this is the best they could come up with. This is the best they could do.

There is also this idea:

Put the supply of 500MW of new electricity out to tender with the aim to construct a new power station …

We know that the Liberal candidate for Frankston gave a very commendable interview on Sky News trying to explain that policy. We are not going to be lectured to by these—

Ms McLeish: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the member on his feet has strayed far from the bill. The candidates in the state election have got nothing to do with this bill, and I ask you to bring him back to the bill.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Essendon has strayed somewhat from the bill before the house. I ask him to come back to speaking on the bill.

Mr PEARSON: Thank you, Deputy Speaker, for your guidance. The issue is that there is an essential services commission amendment bill before the house. This is an important piece of regulation. It is regulation that those opposite might talk about but that they are trenchantly opposed to. Let us be honest, the member for Forest Hill’s aspiration in life is to be Alan Stockdale’s love child. That is what he would like to be, and when they come into this place and profess—

Ms McLeish: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I ask you again to bring the member on his feet back to the bill. He is making imputations, I feel, against members of this house which I think are inappropriate.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I ask the member for Essendon to come back to the bill.

Mr PEARSON: This is an important piece of legislation. We are actually ensuring that there is an appropriate regulatory framework in place to protect consumers. You cannot trust or believe those lazy dilettantes opposite when it comes down to it. We are not going to be lectured by them in terms of providing consumer protections, when the best they can come up with is some of the weakest public policy you would ever come across in a debate.

They took this to the election last year, and it is just rubbish. We have got the runs on the board when it comes to having an appropriate regulatory framework to protect consumers, and you just cannot trust and you cannot believe those opposite, because their idols are people like Alan Stockdale. Their idols are the free market. They will have a bit of fig-leaf dressing around offices like the regulator-general, which they introduced in 1994, but they are not to be trusted and they are not to be believed. It is only the Labor government that is committed to providing efficient and effective regulation of our utilities.

 Ms HALFPENNY (Thomastown) (10:56): I also rise to speak on the Essential Services Commission Amendment (Governance, Procedural and Administrative Improvements) Bill 2019. It is difficult to follow the member for Essendon and the most interesting contribution that he made, and of course I agree with all sentiments and everything that was said.

This piece of legislation, as was also said by the member for Essendon, has been debated in this house previously, with some slight variations and amendments, but in essence it is still the same piece of legislation that goes towards strengthening consumer protections, particularly, in the case of the Essential Services Commission, those essential services that we all need in order to live a decent life—electricity, gas and water. Also of course there is regulation around ports, which is very important in terms of security, economic development and trade, transport, industry and so on.

This legislation is very important. It is really a technical and structural piece of legislation. It does things such as replacing appeals panels and using the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, or VCAT, to hear reviews and appeals. That is just a bit of streamlining and it provides more efficiencies, but of course the Labour Party and the Victorian Andrews Labor government is very, very strongly committed to the need to regulate industries that people rely on for their very existence when it comes, as I said, to things like water and electricity. We believe there ought to be proper regulation of these industries.

As many people in this house would know, we have introduced and are dealing with legislation that provides more protection for consumers and households when it comes to electricity pricing and the way that electricity companies deal with households. We are making sure that, for example, the Essential Services Commission publicly reports on the markets and market structures and performance of the regulated industries which they are overseeing. While there has been provision for public reporting in the past, this guarantees without doubt that there must be reporting that is done in a public form so that people can understand what is going on in those markets and how they are structured. They have a right of course to express opinions about whether those industries are acting in the best interests of consumers and households when it comes to providing pricing on things like electricity, gas and so on.

This is an essential piece of legislation. There are also some small items around things like the minister being able to appoint a person to act as chairperson in the absence of the chairperson. These are things about which I guess some people would ask—and I think the opposition was talking about this—why is it the minister rather than the Governor in Council? But really once the chair is there that is the main position, but if there is an absence or something, sometimes it is a bit difficult to go through that process. The minister ought to be able to appoint someone in the best interests of the community and Victorians as a whole when it comes to a person to act as chairperson in somebody’s absence or where there is a vacancy in the office.

We are also providing for further reviews, because this legislation did not just happen.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.