Friday, 14 November 2025

 Lily D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park – Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Energy and Resources, Minister for the State Electricity Commission) (14:46): The Allan Labor government is focused on what matters to Victorians, and I want to update the house on what this means. This means creating more good jobs, providing real help with the cost of living and protecting our environment. This is why Victoria leads the country on tackling climate change and growing renewable energy. Our climate agenda has created thus far 15,000 new jobs. We have slashed the cost of electric appliances for more than 2.4 million families, we have unlocked $8.6 billion in large-scale renewables since 2014 and, with free public transport for under-18s, we will be lowering emissions and the cost of living, all powered by renewables through the publicly owned SEC.

Sadly, this week some people have shown their true colours on climate. They like to operate under veneers of pretence, but when you strip back the veneers, gee, it is pretty ugly, I must say. I would want to hide them too, to be frank. In fact you could run a power plant on the glare from those veneers, and that is exactly what you would get.

Members interjecting.

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

Member for Bulleen withdrew from chamber.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: In contrast to our government’s policies, yesterday the Leader of the Opposition said that climate action is not important, which is no different to what he said when he voted against the very climate change act in 2017. When people think this way, they are saying they are happy for energy bills to go up. They are happy for jobs to dry up and to deprive young people of future careers. The same voices this week were the ones that opposed the VEU program, opposed the Solar Homes program, opposed the SEC, opposed our renewable action plans. And the two powerbrokers in the other place voted to get rid of net zero at their recent state conference in September – the two powerbrokers that sit behind the throne.