Thursday, 22 February 2024

Energy security

Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (14:18): My question is to the Premier. The Labor government supported the 2022 electricity distribution network resilience review recommendation that real changes needed to be made so that there would be more investment in the resilience of the energy network grid. Why hasn’t the Labor government actioned this recommendation?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:19): I thank the Leader of the National Party for his question. I reckon he made a strategic choice to ask me the question and not the minister for energy. I think that was a strategic decision on the Leader of the Nationals Party’s behalf, quite strategic. It shows that there are some tactics that go on in their tactics meetings on the other side of the chamber. There are some tactics that go on over there.

I will take some further advice from the energy minister. However, I note that you can only have a review of that type if the government initiates it, and following the storm events of 2021 and moving into 2022 we initiated the review, and indeed the recommendations have been accepted from that review and we are working on implementing them. I can give you a good example – two good examples. There is the legislation that passed through the Parliament last year that gave the state minister the opportunity and the powers to intervene with the privatised power companies, and we all know why she needed to have that legislation passed through the Parliament, don’t we. The privatised power stations, the privatised transmission lines, the privatised distribution networks – we needed to have additional support for the minister for energy to do her work in dealing with those privatised entities that are managed by the national regulator.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Frankston, you can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Member for Frankston withdrew from chamber.

Peter Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, the Premier has had plenty of time to give background to the question, and I would ask you to bring her back to answering the question as to why the government has not actioned the recommendations out of that review.

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Nationals has re-asked the question. I remind members that a point of order is not an opportunity to repeat the question. The Premier was being relevant to the question that was asked.

Jacinta ALLAN: The other example is of course a recommendation that was around providing for greater localised resilience for communities that were particularly at risk and vulnerable to high weather events like that which we saw come through our state last week and also which we saw in a number of locations in both June and October 2021. The example I give is the investment that was made in putting solar panels on community buildings and making sure they were connected up to localised batteries so that you could provide some additional resilience into local communities when you have a weather event like that which we saw last week that went through our state, which was of a massive size and scale in terms of the destruction that occurred. We will continue to do everything we can in a privatised network. A former Liberal–National government privatised the power stations, privatised the transmission lines, privatised the distribution businesses –

Members interjecting.

Jacinta ALLAN: The minister for energy is working incredibly hard, both implementing recommendations out of the review –

John Pesutto interjected.

Jacinta ALLAN: You can talk to AusNet about how much intervention the minister for energy has had with that organisation in the last week. That is exactly the work that we will continue to support Victorian communities.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition, I am tired of reminding you not to interject across the table. The member for Eureka can leave the chamber for an hour.

Member for Eureka withdrew from chamber.

Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (14:22): Given Labor’s failure to act on the 2022 recommendations, how can Victorians have any confidence that Labor’s sham inquiry into last week’s events will improve the resilience of the energy grid?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:23): In my ministers statement earlier I outlined to the house how we have emergency services personnel on the ground right now fighting fires and responding to the high wind events that are being experienced across the state, and as a result of that there have been additional power outages. I think it is incumbent upon us to allow those emergency services to do their work. In reference to the inquiry, it is far better in terms of learning the lessons from these sorts of extreme weather events to have this work done by experts and independents, not by politicians who are doing it for a political stunt to correct their own homework.

Peter Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, I would ask you to bring the Premier back to answering the question. We all understand the risks of today. We all understand what the emergency services are doing, and we will not be verballed –

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Nationals knows that that is not the way to raise a point of order. You have been in this place a very long time. That is not a point of order. The Premier was being relevant to the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: The Leader of the National Party’s presentation of the inquiry speaks to the politics behind the antics of the opposition this week. We will continue to support communities as they work through the emergency being faced right now and look at how we can strengthen our response into the future.