Wednesday, 21 February 2024

Energy security

Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (19:13): (537) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Energy and Resources, and the action I seek from the minister is on what the state government is doing to strengthen Victoria’s power supply and network. Last year Victoria’s energy watchdog warned the Labor government that its failure to maintain transmission lines was a major concern for both safety and power reliability. In November Energy Safe Victoria identified 50 ‍instances of neglect on powerlines. One structure which was identified as a major safety concern in the report contributed to the outage last week that impacted half a million Victorians. Last year the Australian Energy Market Operator also confirmed that Victoria was the worst state in Australia for energy security. It has also predicted that Labor’s accelerated closure of Yallourn will exacerbate the problem – that shutting down our coal-fired power stations and ripping this state off gas without a plan to keep the lights on is a recipe for disaster.

The SEC will not deliver enough renewable energy to meet the demand in time for Labor’s accelerated planned closure of coal-fired power stations. Nearly 18 months since the government announced it would revive the SEC, it has done nothing to shore up our energy supply. It has invested in one single project, as a minority shareholder, when the private sector was already doing the work without taxpayer funds. For almost a decade now Labor has mismanaged the grid and failed to ensure the resilience of the network, and Victorians are literally paying the price, with many now living in energy poverty. The minister for energy proudly but very incorrectly stood in this place two weeks ago and claimed power prices were going down, down, down. I take this opportunity to remind the minister that power prices have soared 25 per cent in the last year. At one stage during the initial outage on 13 ‍February, when all four units of Loy Yang A went offline, wholesale power prices soared to a whopping $16,600 per megawatt hour. In comparison, prices were just $60 in Queensland and $300 in New South Wales. We are paying more than ever for a power supply that is increasingly unreliable because of this government’s mismanagement. Minister, how can Victorians be assured that the lights will stay on when the Labor government is doing nothing to bring prices down and strengthen our fragile energy supply?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Morwell, could you just rephrase your question to provide an action for the minister?

Martin CAMERON: The action I seek from the minister is what the state government is doing to strengthen Victoria’s power supply and network.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: You would like an update?

Martin CAMERON: Provide an update.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: There you go. Thank you very much.