Renewable energy
Dr READ (Brunswick) (14:25): My question is for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. Last week Origin Energy announced their Eraring black coal plant will close in three years. The week before AGL announced they would close a New South Wales black coal plant, Bayswater, in 2033, well ahead of their brown coal-burning Loy Yang A in the 2040s. Victoria’s brown coal is much more polluting than the black coal in New South Wales and Queensland, yet we are seeing their less-polluting power stations closing ahead of ours. Isn’t it time that the Victorian government announced a planned transition out of brown coal within a decade so that communities are not left waiting on the vagaries of the market?
Ms D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park—Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Minister for Solar Homes) (14:26): I thank the member for Brunswick for his question. There are a lot of assumptions that have been built into that question, many of which I reject. For a start, Victoria is absolutely leading this country in the transition to clean energy, creating the thousands of jobs that come from moving away from fossilised electricity production to renewable energy production. We are the state that is leading the way. We have absolutely delivered more than 32 per cent of our generation coming from renewable sources, up from just under 10 per cent when we got elected—just under 10 per cent when we got elected. We are the leader in the creation of jobs when it comes to the renewable energy sector of any state and our pipeline of projects is second to none.
Now, let us remember that the privatised electricity system is just that. Businesses make decisions based on their own shareholder responses. But understand this: there is no doubt, globally or right across Australia, that the best place to invest in new energy technologies, new renewable energy supply, is right here in Victoria. We are the destination of choice. So whilst the Greens can carry on and try to make an issue of something that we are absolutely leading on in the country, I will not take any advice or take the opinion of those opposite on the Greens side in terms of ‘Well, what are you doing about it? Oh, aren’t you behind?’. The evidence speaks volumes of the exact opposite, and I am not going to sit here—I am not going to stand here either, for that matter—and take that advice from the Greens. Businesses will make their decisions. What governments do is produce the policies and the ambition for the investment to flow. That is why we have made announcements around offshore wind. We have the best offshore wind resource in the country, and we aim to take full advantage of it because we know with the pipeline of employment that comes through that, the diversification of local economies, including in the Latrobe Valley, off the coast of Gippsland will be—
Mr Andrews: A resource second to none.
Ms D’AMBROSIO: Will be a resource second to none, absolutely, Premier, and we will be the envy of this country. Let there be no doubt that this is a transition that is in full swing. Our government is taking us on the road to that change—producing the jobs, creating the local investment, delivering a clean economy and cutting bills for every single Victorian.
Dr READ (Brunswick) (14:29): I am very pleased to hear about the pipeline of renewables and the offshore wind. Whether we are actually leading the nation when we are coming fourth in terms of renewable energy—behind Tasmania, the ACT and South Australia—is a debatable point. However—
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my right!
Dr READ: My supplementary question, though, is whether leaving the transition to the decisions of the private companies is effectively an admission that we are outsourcing this transition and whether that is appropriate.
Ms D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park—Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Minister for Solar Homes) (14:29): I will resist being frustrated by this. Honestly, in comparing us with Tasmania, which reached—congratulations—100 per cent renewable energy by damming their rivers, the Greens are saying they are happy to have their rivers dammed. I am sorry, Victoria is the industrial powerhouse of this country. Our population and our reliance on energy, the fact that we actually produce surplus energy and send it to other parts of the country, mean that our transition is much harder but also that the strides that we have made have actually been much bigger and much more important and have delivered far more carbon emissions reductions than any other state in this country. We are absolutely proud of that achievement—and we are creating the replacement jobs for Victorians to enjoy right here in this great state.