Wednesday, 9 February 2022

Climate change

Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (17:45): Today I grieve for the lack of leadership on climate change shown by the Liberal and National parties at national and at Victorian levels. As a number of my colleagues have detailed on the same subject matter, it is something that is a great fear for the next generation and for young people. They want us to act. They have said they want us to act. They do not want to be left with this legacy.

Australia has not just been an outlier on climate change; our national government is a laggard on climate change, an international embarrassment. COP26 was held in Glasgow between 31 October and 12 November last year, in 2021. It was embarrassing in the extreme, not just for people of my generation but for young people worldwide, seeing whether Australia could decide whether or not they would even attend. The National Party was split. That rump of the coalition held our national government completely hostage right till the end. They stretched it right to the end, and then apparently, yes, they signed up for net zero by 2050—but no incremental targets, nothing before 2030. Every generation of electors and then those that were only just born that are not voters yet were treated with contempt, because there was a secret deal done behind closed doors. We have no idea what that so-called National Party signed up to, led by that buffoon, Barnaby Joyce, who stole back the leadership so he can pay his increased child support because of his personal problems. That is why he is back as the Deputy Prime Minister. Victoria, the most progressive state in this nation, has to put up with that buffoon and his lack of leadership on climate change.

Then we got to that conference and we were roundly condemned by other countries from all over the world. Australia’s contribution to major global climate talks in Glasgow was labelled a ‘great disappointment’ by the United Kingdom’s top government adviser on climate change, who accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of failing to understand the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Lord Deben, the chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee, an independent body that advises the UK government on emission reductions, said progress had been made at the COP26 talks in Glasgow but that Australia had not helped. He said:

When Scott Morrison tried to explain what he was going to do between now and 2030, it was just a whole series of words …

You cannot go forward without signing up to eliminating coal. We can’t go on using coal, and Australia has to come to terms with the fact it’s changing my climate and the climate of the rest of the world.

Lord Deben went on to say that our Prime Minister ‘really doesn’t understand the urgency’. Maybe he does or maybe he does not, but what is more urgent to him is what will happen between now and May and keeping him in those white cars in Canberra. I have not always thought that that was what motivated the Liberal Party, but, by hell, my experience of the National Party in Victoria and what has always motivated them is driving around in those white cars ahead of anything that their constituency wants. They say they are the party of farmers, but they no longer are that. They are the party of resources, of energy and of old technology.

I am really proud of Victoria’s farmers. My family—both sides—are primary producers in all sorts of food production, in every type of food that you can imagine. I am in regional Victoria all the time as the Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Victoria, and I am really proud of our farmers and the actions that they are taking. The Victorian Farmers Federation has a very good policy and the NFF has a very good policy, and they understand that climate change is real. The current edition of the VFF magazine has farmers saying that they need action on climate change and they are part of it.

And what do we see from the coalition here? Were they standing up and urging their federal counterparts to do what needed to be done, giving voice to the community’s concerns in Glasgow? No, they did not do that. Have they supported any of our government’s actions on climate change? On renewable energy our government has driven the largest increase in renewable energy in Victoria’s history. When the Leader of the Opposition was the Minister for Planning he smashed the renewable energy industry, effectively banning wind farms.

When we created the first state-based renewable energy target, which has now created 24 000 jobs, so many of them in regional areas, and driven billions of dollars of investment, what did the coalition do? They voted against Victoria’s renewable energy target, and the opposition leader promised to scrap the target if elected in 2018. Now he is back as leader again. We have promised to power all government operations, including trains, hospitals and schools, with 100 per cent renewable energy. The opposition leader, the member for Bulleen, promised to use Victoria’s power contracts to fund hospitals, schools et cetera and to fund construction of a new gas-fired plant in 2018.

We have supported the Latrobe Valley community through the closure of Hazelwood, establishing the Latrobe Valley Authority and committing $266 million to support that community through that transition, investing in their assets and growing jobs. The opposition leader said the Victorian government should pay Hazelwood, then Australia’s most polluting power plant, to stay open, even when its owners had decided to close it.

On energy prices, the ABS figures show that power bills are at their lowest level in five years, having fallen by nearly 10 per cent in the past 12 months alone. The Australian Energy Market Operator expects Victoria’s power prices to fall by a further 8 per cent over the next three years, largely due to the significant influx of new renewable energy capacity.

On the other side, on their watch, retail energy prices increased by over 34 per cent in their four years and at a time when they were turning down the opportunity of new energy. We have introduced the energy fairness plan, the biggest regulatory shake-up of the energy sector in Victoria’s history. The plan has included the Victorian default offer, improving transparency on customer bills, such as best offer requirement, stronger powers for the Essential Services Commission and bans on dodgy marketing practices by energy retailers, such as cold calling and doorknocking. What did the opposition do? They voted against this legislation that banned the cold calling and door-to-door sales of retail energy contracts and other dodgy marketing practices.

With our Solar Homes program we have invested a record $1.3 billion in Solar Victoria to support Victorian households’ move to solar. This has created over 5500 new jobs, abated more than 820 000 tonnes of emissions and helped families’ energy prices. Despite boasting about having solar panels on the roof of his home, on 7 September 2021, in the Age, the Leader of the Opposition has made no significant commitment to household solar for Victorians.

On climate change we have been one of the first jurisdictions in the world to legislate net zero emissions, and we have passed a nation-leading climate change act and set targets to halve emissions by 2030. What did those on that side of the house, the coalition, do? They voted against the strengthened climate change act, and they gutted this act when they were in government.

I could go on and on about the ‘us and them’ and how they are not listening to the community and not working with the community. But I would like to focus on some of the great work that has been done with our farmers, the farmers that the National Party and the Liberal Party at a federal level have abandoned and are not supporting. When the member for Murray Plains was the minister for agriculture he did not support the development of the work that scientists were doing in supporting our farmers in tackling climate change. What he did was close numerous worksites across the state and diminish that work. We have actually worked with our farmers. On 2 May 2021 the Victorian government announced the agriculture sector pledge, an investment of nearly $20 million over four years to manage climate change risks, build business resilience and improve productivity. Last year the minister convened an agriculture and climate change forum with discussion and positive energy, reinforcing that we have a strong foundation to work with industry to deliver those important commitments.

We are continuing to work with farmers and the sector, and there will be regional round-table discussions during this month and the next to shape that shared vision for the Victorian agricultural sector, unlike the National Party in Canberra, which signs up to a secret deal, which does not have a conversation with its farmers, with anyone, with any elector in this country. They sign up to a secret deal. But we will work with our farmers.

As well we take a partnership approach to growing jobs. Our regional partnerships are working with all industry sectors and with local councils and community representatives, education and health in all of our regions. I want to call out the Great South Coast regional partnership. They have a hydrogen proposal—and that is the hydrogen facility that is being set up at the Warrnambool campus of Deakin University—and it is going to mean that all the buses throughout Warrnambool and into the south coast are going to be run on hydrogen, clean energy running around in that town.

There is the Mallee regional partnership. One of its top priority actions is the KerangLink interconnector and the renewable energy zone 1 Kerang–Red Cliffs spur so that we can build and diversify the economy with a focus on that emerging sector and value-adding. Of course we know the masses of solar farms and alternate energy that is happening in the Mallee region. As someone that moved from the Great South Coast in Warrnambool to Mildura when I was 16, that was the first time I ever saw solar panels. So that region has always been a leader. Every house had a solar panel and had a solar hot-water system when we moved up there. I do not like talking about my age that much, but it is 40 years ago. Get with the program—the conservatives need to get with the program.

In Gippsland our regional partnerships have identified also hydrogen and carbon capture and storage to grow the economy down there and to help it transition from coal. The work that our agriculture and regional development minister is doing with our department is world leading. We are proud of it. At a federal level we have Mr Littleproud, a stark contrast. There could not be a bigger contrast. The National Party says it represents farmers. We saw the federal government tearing itself apart, dragged kicking and screaming by The Nationals, and we now have a minister that is not even sure if climate change is real. He said that he does not think it really matters. Well, Victorians do think it matters. They do think it matters. Alongside his leader, Barnaby Joyce, he wrote an opinion piece last year that said:

If the Nationals supported net-zero emissions we would cease to be a party that could credibly represent farmers.

What a bizarre thing to say when farmers know and they want action. They are right on one thing though: the National Party certainly does not credibly represent farmers. Farmers know that climate change is a threat to their livelihood. That is why they support our government’s actions to reduce emissions, and our government will continue supporting them.

I have talked about being all over regional Victoria, and particularly this year, week in, week out. I have been to almost every region in the state, and I will continue to do so. I happened to be in Mildura two weeks ago, and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was there. What an utter disgrace! And this mob think that they are going to get re-elected and that the people of the Mallee will vote for them. He fronted up, this climate change denier, offered nothing and had the temerity to say to everyone he spoke to that there is no money for Mallee—no money, no ideas—that massive electorate, the most remote electorate in Victoria. Well, I have got a message for them: I think that Victorians will send the coalition a message in the forthcoming federal election, and that lot on that side, the state coalition, will go down with them as well. Climate change is real. We need to act, and our future depends on it.

Question agreed to.