Thursday, 2 May 2024

National Energy Retail Law (Victoria) Bill 2024

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Lily D’Ambrosio:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Jordan CRUGNALE (Bass) (16:21): Different day, different outfit, but I will continue on from where I left off. The national scheme ensures consistency across the country when it comes to dealing with retailer failures. It ensures that customers will continue to receive electricity or gas without disruption even if their retailer goes under. Crucially, in the case of gas this bill gives the Australian Energy Regulator the power to step in and direct the failed retailer’s gas contracts and supply to the retailer that takes on the affected customers. This ensures that the retailer has enough gas to service its new, larger customer base, bridging a gap in Victoria where the Essential Services Commission does not have the equivalent powers and the Victorian retailers of last resort could have insufficient capacity to service customers. Through this bill we are making sure that Victorians can keep their hot water going and keep cooking even if their retailer goes down. This bill also allows for the transfer of affected customers to multiple new retailers, so it is not just one retailer that shoulders the burden. The bill includes better financial protection for affected customers as well; currently there is a one-time fee imposed on customers of the failed retailers, but with this bill those costs will be spread across a wider consumer base. We are making things fairer for Victorians no matter what happens in the energy market.

Members opposite have a far less impressive record on energy, which we are well across on this side of the chamber. They privatised Victoria’s energy network, leaving Victorians to fend for themselves. Disconnections doubled, retail electricity prices increased by 34.1 per cent from 2010 to 2014 and people were left with no power and no heating. But when we took office in 2014 we promised to make energy fairer and more affordable for Victorians. Just as the opposition’s record speaks for itself, so too does ours. Through this government’s actions – through our nation-leading renewable energy targets and investments – Victoria has the lowest wholesale power prices in the national market. We are not stuck in the past, clinging to outdated sources of power and warmth; we are moving forward every day.

Because of this, Victorians are paying less on their energy bills – we know this. The new draft Victorian default offer shows an average 6.4 per cent decrease in electricity bills for residential customers – that is an average saving of $112. That is money back in the pockets of Victorians. 360,000 Victorian households are on the default offer and will see this direct bill saving. They will get it. We have not forgotten small businesses either; under the draft offer they will save $266, a 7 per cent decrease at a time when they need it most.

And, yes, this reduction in energy bills can be attributed to our investment in renewable energy. It is being driven primarily by lower wholesale energy costs, because this government is investing in the technology of the future. The Victorian default offer is lower than the average market offer around the country. We created it to put money back, as I said, in the pockets of Victorians, where it belongs. As I noted earlier, Victorians are also saving money through the Solar Homes and Victorian energy upgrades programs. We are helping them access renewable energy and more energy efficient products around their homes, reducing their power bills and keeping their homes warm – or cool – and running. By reducing energy use we reduce wholesale and network costs. These costs typically make up two-thirds of a retail bill, so by reducing wholesale and network costs we are reducing bills for Victorians. On average we know that households and businesses that undertake energy efficiency upgrades on their properties under this program save $110 and $3700 respectively. Again, that is money in people’s pockets. The Solar Homes program is going so well – over 320,000 total installs of solar panels, batteries and hot water systems so far, including over a quarter of a million solar panels installed. We are saving households thousands a year on power, and again, that is money back in people’s pockets.

In conclusion – I am going to finish up a little early, maybe to get into a different outfit – this government is taking another step, a positive step, a forward-planning step, in our energy journey with this bill by protecting Victorians in the retail energy market when times get tough. This is just another example of how the Allan Labor government delivers real reforms to support consumers when they need it most and make sure they get the best possible deal from the energy system.

Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (16:26): It is an absolute pleasure to rise this afternoon to speak on the National Energy Retail Law (Victoria) Bill 2024. As we have heard throughout some great contributions on this side of the house, it is an essential piece of legislation that will enhance protections for Victorian consumers and strengthen the resilience of the energy market. This bill marks a significant step towards safeguarding the interests of energy consumers in the face of an evolving and at times very challenging energy landscape. When I say ‘evolving’ – I note that the responsible minister is at the table, the Minister for Energy and Resources – I just want to put on the record the ambitious target Victoria has as the first state in the nation to level ourselves with the expectations of the Paris agreement, and that is reaching 75 to 80 per cent below 2005 levels of carbon emissions by 2035 and net zero emissions by 2045.

The bill adopts the national retailer of last resort scheme in Victoria, which is provided for in the National Energy Retail Law. The retailer of last resort scheme is a key consumer safeguard designed to transfer customers to alternate energy retailers should their current provider fail in the market, and obviously it is based on an older South Australian piece of legislation.

I have listened really intently to this debate. It is not, I would say, a hobby of mine, but certainly it is an interest of mine to listen to what people in the community and people in the opposition are talking about when they talk about energy and when they talk about renewables. I would say it has been a fairly robust but sensible conversation, but it does seem to me that there is always a barrier. On the other side of the table there are plenty of people that I think are progressive in their thoughts about the evolution of changing to new and clean energy resources, but for some others there does always seem to be a barrier they put in place. When we talk about the Liberals DNA, this is that optic.

For example, and this was only a couple of days ago, we have got Mr Littleproud, a federal member, saying that regions are at saturation point and cannot cope with more wind or solar. A person by the name of Andrew Blakers wrote an article for the Conversation, dated 29 April 2024, and his article was titled ‘No threat to farmland: just 1200 square kilometres can fulfil Australia’s solar and wind needs’. Mr Littleproud has said we cannot have any more wind or solar farms or transmission lines in Australia; we are at saturation point. This author has done the sums, and he said:

When we switch completely to solar and wind, do we have the space for all the panels, turbines and power lines?

And it is an interesting question, because we do hear a lot of rhetoric about these things, but sometimes these issues are too large for one person to find the data or do the research to get the solution. Mr Blakers has done the sums, and he has come up with the data that all we need is 1200 square kilometres to fully decarbonise Australia with solar and wind. That is not much. The area devoted to agriculture is about 3500 times larger at 4.2 million square kilometres. The area of land that would be taken away from agriculture works out at about 4.5 square metres per person, or about the size of a living room, so there is one debunked statement that was made the other day. Perhaps we have taken it the wrong way. Perhaps we have perceived it differently, but from what I read that has been debunked quite thoroughly.

We have also got at a more local level the barriers put in place by the former or failed candidate for Dunkley recently. I think he is a smart guy, and I think he knows that there is such thing as climate change. I think he knows that renewables are something that he needs to consider and that Frankston council needs to consider. But the thing that shocked me and I think shocked the whole electorate, indeed some in Victoria, was not the comment about sleeping with a baseball bat under the pillow but more that the candidate could not discount a nuclear reactor in Dunkley. There is a lot of research that needs to go on here, and there is a lot of misinformation that is floating around. I will get to that, because it really is something people need to consider. This brain – I was going to swear then, sorry. This silly policy of saying we should go nuclear is just outrageous, and it is based on very, very little fact. We have got people talking about that they cannot discount nuclear in Dunkley, and I know the member for Nepean is having a conniption fit now because he is not for nuclear. I can see it in his eyes.

These are small nuclear reactors or small modular reactors. They are around the world. They come from a place of driving submarines. I think the Russians even tried to power an aircraft, a strategic bomber, at one stage during the Cold War with one, which would be in the air the whole time. Submarines, ships – I think the Russians out in the tundra have got lighthouses that are powered by them, and these things are deteriorating so badly now that people are getting poisoned and dying. That is the nature of these things. They are high waste, they are low gigawatt and they are very costly financially. It takes a long time to build them.

The one thing we have got to think about at the moment is the security of a small modular reactor. We do not have to talk about international terrorism; we can talk about domestic terrorism in the state, and there are some people who would be tempted to do very nasty things. I think the one thing we need to consider now, apart from every other negative that comes with an SMR, is how do we keep these things secure? How do we keep them secure from people that would wish us harm? It seems to me that some of the opposition, through what they have been saying, know the cost of everything, but they know the value of nothing or they know the investment of nothing. The renewable energy revolution is something they are part of right now. They are part of it. Every time they ride a tram, that is solar energy. Every time they switch on their lights, increasingly that will be renewable.

I have got no issue with healthy scepticism. I am a sceptic myself – just ask the person that came into my office the other day and was complaining about people listening to him with 5G. I am a sceptic of that. But what I see from the opposition at times is scepticism, and I get a little bit worried because I was always taught when I was a teacher that the learning begins when you put your ego aside. I think we need to change that to ‘the progress begins when you put your politics aside’ for this one. We are already doing the heavy lifting on renewables, and as I said before, this state is leading the nation in the fact that we have aligned ourselves with the Paris agreement targets, which is no mean feat.

As far as this bill goes, it is designed as a fail-safe in a lot of ways when we have those natural disasters. I have heard some people even talking about Black Saturday and fires during this conversation. I am not sure what happened on Black Saturday with those breakers on different poles and whatnot should come into this conversation. But the bill is designed to make sure that people have a consistent source of energy and that, whether it be floods, whether it be storms or whether it be any other kind of natural disaster, people are able to be plugged into the grid.

As I have said before, I think what is frustrating some people in this conversation is the vigour and eagerness of those in opposition now to say, ‘No, no, we believe in climate change’ – which is great, because previously we had people, especially in the other place, who were vehemently against science. You know, ‘One scientist out of 99 says it doesn’t exist, so it doesn’t exist.’ We have dragged them kicking and screaming to science, which is just like magic, but it is real. I think now we have got to accept that we have this problem, and now we both agree with it, come along with us for the journey. Let us go on the journey together. It will be better for Victorians if we can have a productive, pragmatic relationship. It has been interesting to hear some of that, I think, coming through on the other side – some real positivity, some real factual conversations – but there still do seem to be the sticks in the mud. This bill is a good one. I thoroughly endorse it and I commend it to the house.

Alison MARCHANT (Bellarine) (16:36): I rise to contribute to the National Energy Retail Law (Victoria) Bill 2024. This bill certainly is another reform that our government is making to protect Victorians in that retail market. I have spoken in this place several times on various bills that are energy related and on the topic of renewables particularly and the SEC. It probably speaks to the amount of work that we are doing in this place, having to speak on so many bills in this space. I know the minister is here in the chamber today. We are doing so much, and I would like to point out the amount of work. I am not only very proud to be part of a government and to work behind a minister who is ambitious for our state – we have achieved so much already, and there is a lot to continue to do – but proud we are a government that has got on with it, with consumers and Victorians at the centre of our reforms. That is what our reforms have been about. They are about our consumers. They are about our Victorians having the better deal for them.

The fact is we are bringing back the SEC. It is a really exciting part of our energy transition. We are building our renewables and building our batteries, our storage, and indeed when I look around the country I do believe that we are leading in this space. This bill marks a significant step towards that safeguard, like I have talked about. The best interests of our consumers are at heart in this energy landscape. It is a complex landscape, and it is ever evolving, but this bill particularly is there to provide a national retailer of last resort, and that is a scheme for Victoria. This bill applies to parts of the National Energy Retail Law in Victoria. We have our own energy retail laws, and they are regulated by the Essential Services Commission, and those Victorian retail energy laws are, as I said, tailored to benefit Victorian consumers. This last resort scheme is really a way to give consumers those protection measures that are needed. It aims to transition customers to alternative energy providers in the event that their current one collapses in the market. It has that primary goal of ensuring stability and guaranteeing uninterrupted electricity or gas supply for our consumers. Unlike other jurisdictions where energy retail laws are regulated by the National Energy Retail Law and monitored by the Australian Energy Regulator, Victoria does maintain its own regulatory framework, and that, like I have said, is enforced by the Essential Services Commission. Victoria does have some of the strongest energy consumer protections in this country, and that will indeed continue.

In the last eight years we have done some incredible work in this space and what I would say has in the past been deemed impossible by others. I do love a moment of ‘told you so’, but this certainly is a moment where we can celebrate the ambitious targets we have reset but also celebrate the achievements that we have achieved in government in a really short amount of time. We had a federal government that wasted decades in this space. We did not have a federal partner. We had constituents saying to us they wanted action on climate change, they wanted action in the energy space, they wanted reduction of emissions, and we wasted at a national level 10 years. Thankfully we do have that partner now in Canberra that is certainly willing to be a really strong partner with us in the work that we are doing.

We have not only embraced our renewable energy, though; we have more than tripled the share of renewables in power generation. We are leading that transition, but we also know that we want to put ‍– excuse the pun – power back in the hands of the Victorian people as well. And they have done that. They have put solar on their roofs. They have been able to do that to reduce their bills. They are embracing that clean energy, and many households now are also turning to looking at batteries and electric vehicles, and the technology keeps improving as we do that transition.

Really great for the Geelong region and Victoria – but I will proudly say it is in the Geelong region – is the Victorian Big Battery. It is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, and it does symbolise that transition that we are having, the innovation and the determination. I was interested to see that the footprint of that big battery is just under the size of the GMHBA Stadium at Kardinia Park – so two great things in Geelong, the Geelong Football Club and the Victorian Big Battery, with a very similar footprint. But yes, it is a great space to be – there is a lot of energy from that ground as well.

We also know that this type of investment is about the energy, but it is also about driving down our emissions. It is about slashing those greenhouse gas emissions, and we are doing that here in Victoria as well. We have set targets, but we have actually met them and done more. We have comfortably surpassed our 2020 renewable energy target of 20 per cent, and then we increased our 2030 renewable target from 50 per cent to 65 per cent. We are not shy of setting ambitious targets for ourselves.

We have talked about the large-scale battery, but we also know that we need to do at a local level some small community and neighbourhood batteries. Proudly, four of those neighbourhood batteries will come to my electorate, in the Borough of Queenscliffe. It is going to be an exciting project. I went along to a community forum where the community could learn more about the investment that is coming. We are partnering with Mondo Energy, the borough and a group called Queenscliffe Climate Action Now, and the community have really been the drivers of this transition for their own local communities. Proudly, we are going to be investing in these four neighbourhood batteries to allow more solar in the area, to soak up that solar, to store it locally and to really have those benefits at a local level, so it is a really exciting project. I said to the community on the night that they are really leading this transition at a local level. They are on this journey. There are still things to work out in terms of seeing the long-term benefits, but they are willing to give this a go. They are willing to say, ‘We want to lead in this space.’ So it is a really exciting time for that community.

Just on the solar and batteries, another exciting project, again driven by the community, was under the greener government school buildings program. We were able to partner also with the local primary school, the climate action group, the borough and the Queenscliff Music Festival with a really generous donation from them to put 74 solar panels, which is a 30-kilowatt system, on the school roof. That has been able to support the school to reduce their own energy bills but also feed that solar into the neighbourhood batteries that will come to the town. So this really has been a collective effort where government and communities come together and say, ‘Look, this is what we want to achieve,’ and it is supported by community organisations, and then we can get on with the work that we are doing.

This bill is vitally needed in a world where energy is our everyday life. We need energy in all our daily lives, and it is imperative that we really safeguard that when we have adverse outcomes within the market. Imagine a scenario where you now no longer have energy. Your provider has failed. You need to access power. It can be chaotic and very much an inconvenience to families. That is where this retailer of last resort scheme will step in. For years Victoria has operated a successful scheme, but as we are doing this transition, as we are seeing the markets change, we have seen that turbulent energy sector, so that is why this bill is so important. We know that bringing back the SEC was one of the biggest things at the last election. We talked about putting the power back into Victorian hands, where privatised companies and greed are not the drivers of an essential service like power. We as a government knew that we had to remove that privatisation and put it back into government hands, and I am really proud that we have done this. This bill is another example of this government delivering real reforms in the energy sector. We make reforms that put consumers at the centre, and we ensure that Victorians are getting the best deal from our energy system. We will continue to lead the nation in this space.

John MULLAHY (Glen Waverley) (16:46): It is a pleasure to rise and speak on the National Energy Retail Law (Victoria) Bill 2024, yet another piece of important legislative reform from the Allan Labor government that has been brought to this place in recent months. From the outset I would like to acknowledge the Minister for Energy and Resources here at the table for her leadership in this space and indeed her entire team’s work to make this package of energy reforms happen. Our reform agenda in the energy space has been as bold as it has been expansive, and it would not be possible without the power of work put in by the minister, her advisers and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action.

Make no mistake about it, our record on energy speaks for itself. We are world leaders when it comes to the renewables transition. Since coming to government we have tripled the share of renewable power generation, not by accident but by strong intervention from our Labor government into the energy market, pulling all the levers to accelerate our transition from dirty, unreliable fossil fuels. We have held the country’s largest reverse auctions of renewable capacity, installed the largest battery in the Southern Hemisphere, just mentioned by the member for Bellarine – go Cats! – and supported 300,000 Victorian households with rebates to supercharge the uptake of rooftop solar. The results are clear. We smashed through our 2020 renewable energy target of 20 per cent, and we are well on track to meet our future targets. That is exactly why we committed to going even further in the lead-up to the 2022 state election, with our 2030 renewable energy target raised from 50 per cent to 65 per cent, and by 2035, 95 per cent of generation will be sourced from renewables. It is ambitious, and thanks to the Allan Labor government we are getting on and making it a reality, not with words but with tangible action.

We know that right now the private multinationals, which have made billions of dollars off the backs of Victorian families and businesses, are getting up and leaving. That is an unmistakable fact. Their coal-fired power plants are getting old and breaking down, so they are packing their bags and they are leaving the market. It is why we as a government are stepping in and bringing back the State Electricity Commission, the body those opposite sold off back in the 1990s in the depths of Kennett’s privatisation era. It is a government-owned energy company that is investing billions of dollars into 100 per cent renewable energy across our great state.

Wayne Farnham: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, on relevance, Jeff Kennett did not start the privatisation. It was Joan Kirner.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Nathan Lambert): There is no point of order.

John MULLAHY: In doing so, there are three things that the new SEC is accomplishing. Firstly, it is supercharging our renewable energy transition, investing in more projects and more capacity in the system. Secondly and consequently, it is going to drive down the power bills of Victorian households and businesses, because more supply of renewable energy means lower prices. Of course as a by-product of our investment it is supporting the creation of thousands of great union jobs across Victoria, including for traineeships and apprentices. I know there is a power of work underway to establish the SEC centre of training excellence. The three things – more renewables, cleaner energy prices and quality union jobs – are a huge win for Victoria.

We are seeing it in action, with the latest prices of the Victorian default offer down 6.4 per cent for Victorian families and 7 per cent for Victorian businesses, driven by cheaper supply from reliable renewable energy. Not only that, but the Victorian default offer is 16 per cent lower than the average default market offer and lower than the national default offer too. Long story short, it means more money back in the pockets of hundreds of thousands of Victorian households and businesses as a direct consequence of the investments in renewables from the Allan Labor government. It is very simple and, dare I say, not like splitting atoms.

Victorians are big fans of our bold energy policy agenda. I heard that at the doors out in Glen Waverley during the last election campaign, and I continue to hear it loud and clear when I engage with constituents on their doorsteps and at the train stations too – what we should be doing in this place for the Victorian community. I am proud to be part of the Allan Labor government that leads with that principle, and it is the principle that applies to this piece of legislation before the house today. It is all about protecting Victorian families and businesses from the failure of the market, because when retailers collapse, Victorians should not have to bear the consequences and be cut off from the energy they need. That is what this bill is about.

Since 2007 we have had the retailer of last resort scheme. That has worked well to ensure customers of failed retailers have been quickly transitioned to another retailer, thus avoiding disruption to their energy supply. But with an increasingly complex market, we are committed to making the retailer of last resort scheme stronger. This bill adopts the national retailer of last resort scheme here in Victoria, providing a uniform and consistent framework for managing the collapses of retailers. What does that actually mean? Well, here in Victoria we have our own energy regulations managed and enforced by the Essential Services Commission, ensuring Victoria has some of the strongest consumer protections in Australia. But other states and territories have energy retail laws that are regulated by the National Energy Retail Law and monitored by the Australian Energy Regulator.

This bill takes parts of the National Energy Retail Law and applies them to the Victorian regulatory system. More specifically, we are giving the Australian Energy Regulator the powers that the Essential Services Commission does not have – namely, the ability to provide extra energy to the energy retailers of last resort. For example, if a Glen Waverley family buys their gas from a retailer that goes bust, not only will the Australian Energy Regulator have the power to seamlessly transfer the family over to the retailer of last resort, but it will also be able to provide that retailer of last resort with the extra gas it needs to supply that Glen Waverley family. We know that when energy retailers have gone bust in the past, retailers of last resort have suddenly found themselves needing to supply a significant number of new customers at very short notice. It is all about ensuring supply is maintained, which is a win for consumers. It is an important piece of legislation and will go a long way to ensuring that we have the best possible consumer protections in place for Victorian families and businesses, especially in situations where energy retailers go belly up.

On this side of the chamber we are about getting on and delivering tangible benefits for the Victorian community. If you will indulge me, the contrast could not be sharper in comparing our record to that of those opposite. When the Victorian Liberals last sat on these benches, electricity prices increased 34 per cent and disconnections doubled to almost 60,000. They dumped Victoria’s energy reduction target, they all but banned wind farms, with the strictest planning laws in the country, and in their last budget they slashed funding to the energy and resources portfolio by almost 20 per cent.

While their record is clear, so is ours. We are leading the world with the transition to net zero, faster than leaders like Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg and Canada. We have more than tripled the amount of renewables generated in Victoria, and we are well on track to reach 95 per cent renewables by 2035. We have brought back the State Electricity Commission, which is investing $1 billion in renewable projects, and as a result default offer bills are coming down by 6.4 per cent for Victorian families in the new financial year. I am proud to be part of the Allan Labor government that is believing in the climate science, taking action and delivering results for the Victorian community, and I commend this bill to the house.

Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (16:53): I am so proud to rise to speak to this bill, the National Energy Retail Law (Victoria) Bill 2024, in the presence of our fantastic minister, the Minister for Climate Action, who is bringing about this excellent transition for our state to renewable energy. I am very happy to be speaking about this this afternoon. We do have the fantastic minister here, but I would like to quote another leader in the space of this transition to renewables. I would like to quote somebody who said:

We want a greener power supply, a future for our children, less reliance on coal and sustainable renewables ‍…

Of course I quote the member for Ovens Valley, and I am so glad that the member for Ovens Valley is on board with this transition. He must be one of our strongest supporters and is a brave man to speak up amongst the benches of those opposite. But he is not the only one opposite to have an excellent idea. We heard from the member for Mildura. She went to France, and she came back with a great idea. She said we should put solar panels on roofs and have batteries where they are needed. Sacré bleu! We are already doing that in this state. We have solar panels on our schools. We have solar panels on the museum – maybe not whatever the museum over there is called, but the Melbourne Museum. We have got solar panels, and even the Melbourne market is talking about the massive space that they have for solar panels. But I do thank her for her contribution to that – and the greener schools program as well – some great contributions from those opposite. If they ever want to further their support for this amazing work that we are doing under our amazing minister, we are happy for them to get on board. It is good that they are speaking. We almost do not have to speak on this side, because to be honest our record speaks for itself. What we have done speaks for itself. The transition to renewables is upon us, and they seem to be coming along now for the ride. I really hope it is true.

It is not by accident, this amazing transition progress that we have made, going above and beyond our own already ambitious targets, and what this boils down to is: it is not about us. I know we do like to talk about our achievements in this space, but I think one of the things we are most proud of is that the work that we are doing is bringing down power bills for Victorians. We know that for a lot of Victorians the discussion about this relates mostly to the hip pocket, and we absolutely understand. We all have had the experience of a power bill that brings us a bit of shock. We have had constituents contact us with difficulties with their bills. We know that with the work to transition to renewables, the reduction in power bills for people is what makes them stand up and take notice, so I am really glad that those opposite are starting to stand up and take notice as well of the work that we are doing.

There are facts to back that up, when we talk about the lower costs. The average Victorian default offer is 16.2 per cent lower than the average default market offer. That is real savings for people in cost-of-living difficulties. That makes a real difference to their lives, so that is what drives us. That is what gives us the passion to keep working hard and to continue with that transition. We know that there is fearmongering from those opposite. We heard from the member for Euroa that people that live in regional areas will be without power because they will not be able to have gas. Nobody is taking anyone’s gas away.

A member interjected.

Lauren KATHAGE: Oh, you are awake, I am so glad. That is correct if somebody would like to build a new home. What makes it remarkable is that their own communities, the people that they represent – do they not want them to have cheaper power bills? I would have thought that they would want their constituents to be supported to have the option of electric and gas. I thought that they would want cheaper power bills for the people that they represent. Unfortunately, it seems that they would prefer fearmongering and mischief-making rather than the honest good work of this government, bringing down power prices and moving us to cleaner, greener renewable energy for the children that the member for Ovens Valley speaks of.

The SPEAKER: The time set down for consideration of the remaining items on the government business program has arrived, and I am required to interrupt business.

Motion agreed to.

Read second time.

Third reading

Motion agreed to.

Read third time.

The SPEAKER: The bill will now be sent to the Legislative Council and their agreement requested.