Corio Bay Gas Import Terminal
Dr READ (Brunswick) (14:28): My question is for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. In the wake of the extraordinary floods in New South Wales the IPCC has just handed down a report calling for drastic reductions in fossil fuel use this decade. Why is the Labor government allowing a new gas import terminal to be considered for Geelong when there is good evidence that we can and must reduce gas consumption?
Ms D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park—Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Minister for Solar Homes) (14:29): I thank the member for Brunswick for his question. There is an overlap there with the Minister for Planning’s responsibility, but I have got that role here today too, so I am very happy to take that and of course as the minister for energy. We understand on this side of the house what it takes to make a real impact in terms of climate change. We not only have a plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, but importantly we have five-yearly targets that give a strong signal of the government’s own leadership in tangibly delivering on emissions reductions for 2025 and for 2030. Right now, for the purposes of the member for Brunswick’s information, there is an expert panel that has been appointed by me to inquire into recommendations for what potentially the 2035 target should be. So we are not wasting any time here. We understand that some prefer to comment and be commentators rather than political activists who actually present solutions and get things done. But I can tell you and I can assure you that without Victoria’s leadership the rest of this country would not be in any position to actually deliver the results that we are seeing being claimed by others. We have a target of halving our emissions by 2030, and we will achieve that.
Whilst we do that, we are creating tens of thousands of jobs in the new economy—the new economy that every Victorian can have a stake in. Whether it is about helping them to put solar panels on their roofs right across our state, whether it is about putting batteries in their homes and indeed helping businesses to do the same thing or indeed running huge Victorian renewable energy target auctions that get those big projects coming here, it means that in Victoria, as a recent analysis showed, we are leading the country in terms of creating jobs—jobs right here in Victoria, tangible jobs that are meaningful to Victorians.
The next phase of course is offshore wind, because we know that Victoria will lead the way in this new sector, creating the thousands of jobs, the meaningful, just transition—not just transition, it is meaningful work. This will happen. We have got the targets for offshore wind.
Gas of course is one of the features that needs solutions. No-one has suggested at any point that gas and the decarbonisation of gas do not need a solution. Absolutely, but these things do not happen in isolation. You do not discount all the heavy lifting that we have done thus far because those opposite want to focus on one particular project that in effect is really just words and not action.
Dr READ (Brunswick) (14:32): Two days ago the Secretary-General of the United Nations said that investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is ‘moral and economic madness’. We have not yet heard the minister refer to the gas terminal that I asked about. Why is Labor even considering this project rather than stopping it from the outset?
Ms D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park—Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Minister for Solar Homes) (14:32): I thank the member for the supplementary question. These proposals have processes. They are independent processes. They will be considered in the usual way on their merits but be in no doubt that without Labor in government nothing would have been done. Words are cheap, posturing is cheap. An accusation of immorality somehow on this side of the house when we are actually delivering the fastest reduction in carbon emissions of any jurisdiction in this country, the fastest here in Victoria—I am sorry, I absolutely reject that assertion, I absolutely reject that accusation. Victorians can be very proud of the record that we are producing: creating the jobs, reducing emissions significantly—and we have only just begun to do that. There will be more to come. I can assure the member for Brunswick that is exactly what we will do.