Tuesday, 20 February 2024

Bills

Climate Change and Energy Legislation Amendment (Renewable Energy and Storage Targets) Bill 2023

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Lily D’Ambrosio:

That this bill be now read a second time.

James NEWBURY (Brighton) (13:55): I rise to speak on the Climate Change and Energy Legislation Amendment (Renewable Energy and Storage Targets) Bill 2023. I start by saying that the coalition will not be opposing this bill that we are considering today. What we have seen over the last week is something I know every member of this place is concerned about. We saw last week 530,000 ‍people go without power. Today, right now, 3170 still do not have power connections, and 2620 homes remain unconnected. We must have energy that is reliable, affordable and clean, and what we saw last week was the biggest blackout in our state’s history. When you listen to the government, the first thing they will say is, ‘It is not our fault. A weather event was unforeseen, and we could not have done anything about it.’ We know that is not true. So when we consider this bill today, although the coalition will not be opposing it, we have serious concerns, because we know that the government is not providing secure and reliable energy for Victorians.

Over recent days we have heard of multiple examples where the government was warned about the issues that we have in our grid. It was warned by very informed peak bodies of concerns about the grid, the infrastructure and the potential impact of significant events. I refer to just one example, the energy market operator warning last year that:

The story for Australia is becoming more and more clear, but also more and more urgent …

Quite simply, Australia’s energy transition is happening at pace. Our coal fired power stations are closing down at the same time as demand for electricity is increasing and without urgent and ongoing investment in new sources of electricity, and the transmission that we need to connect it to consumers – there are significant risks to reliability.

That is what played out only a week ago with 530,000 people left without power and thousands still without. We know from media reports that one in seven of the 13,000 electricity transmission towers is damaged by patchy or extensive rust. The system needs investment and the system needs upgrading, because if we want to ensure that the community is provided with reliable, affordable and clean energy, we must make sure that the system works, and it is not working. And the human cost of the last week was, frankly, catastrophic – the worst blackout in our state’s history. So when we consider this bill, we are not just considering targets. What we are also considering is how we ensure the plan for our energy transition works to guarantee that we have reliable, affordable and clean energy into the future, and each of those aspects I will be speaking to later today. But we know that there are no guarantees when it comes to reliability. We absolutely know that the cost of energy has increased 25 per cent over the last year, so the issues around affordability –

The SPEAKER: Order! The time has come for me to interrupt business for question time.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.