Tuesday, 27 May 2025

Ministers statements: State Electricity Commission

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:08): I was delighted to join the Minister for the State Electricity Commission this morning to announce that the SEC is back and it is doing what it has not done for 30 years: powering Victorian buildings with clean, reliable renewable energy and of course putting people first. When we were at the John Cain Arena this morning – I repeat, John Cain Arena this morning – ‘Powered by the SEC’ was lit up on the screens at the John Cain Arena –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The member for Polwarth can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Member for Polwarth left the chamber.

Jacinta ALLAN: and it was a big, bright orange reminder of the difference between us on this side of the house, who are focused on putting people first, and those opposite, who sold off the SEC, put profits before people and demonstrated quite clearly that they were not on the side of Victorians. Well, we are, and from 1 July the SEC is going to power our schools, our hospitals, our trains, our trams, our police stations and our fire stations with renewable energy. What is even better is that every dollar it earns is going to go straight back into building more renewables, like the renewables that are being built in Horsham, which the minister and I attended – what a great project that solar farm is in Horsham ‍– or indeed the renewable battery project in Plumpton. We are doing this because Victorian families and businesses deserve cheaper bills, not higher profits for overseas companies. It was a proud day, particularly. The Deputy Premier and I will be proud to tell our fathers that we have brought back the SEC, because they lost their jobs as a result of those opposite cutting and selling off the SEC.