Wednesday, 3 December 2025

 Jackson TAYLOR (Bayswater) (18:08): It is a great pleasure to rise and speak in support of the Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Amendment (Financial Assurance) Bill 2025, and of course, as I always do, I would just like to say a big thankyou to of course the minister and her team as well as to all the people in the department who have worked extremely hard to get this important piece of legislation to this place for this important debate, and of course thanks to all the people who were involved in the consultation, all the stakeholders, to bring this to the house today. It is always great to hear from colleagues talking in support of legislation in this place and of course always great to hear from the member for Melton – always extremely articulate. I know he had two bites at the cherry – one before and after a part of debate in this place – and it is always great to hear his musings in this place, so thank you to the member for Melton. I appreciate the member for Glen Waverley for giving his spot up – well, not giving his spot up but doing the old switcheroo and letting me go in first. Thanks very much, and of course I do look forward to the member for Glen Waverley’s contribution on this piece of legislation.

This bill sits under the portfolio of energy and resources. We know that Victoria has a proud resources sector. We know, however, that whilst we do have a proud resources sector, we do not have the biggest resources sector in the country. We know that there are places that are more fortunate in terms of where they sit on mainland Australia, places like WA, South Australia and Queensland. If you look at their revenue, a lot more of it is derived through resources than Victoria could possibly dream of. However, we do still have a very proud resources sector and that obviously forms a smaller part of our revenue base here. It is good, however, when we are talking about revenue, that we do have a strong partner in Canberra through the Albanese Labor government, who are now giving us a fair deal on GST. That has made a huge, huge difference to the state of Victoria and has made sure that we get our fair share, not just in our deal with GST but also when it comes to infrastructure spending. We have got genuine partners in projects like the North East Link, the Suburban Rail Loop and a range of other infrastructure projects that are good for Victoria and good for Victorians.

We know we have lost out on billions of dollars not just through where we are positioned on mainland Australia when it comes to resources, but we lost out on billions of dollars purely through the opposition and the opposition in Canberra basically talking down projects when they were in government either here in the state or federally. That has cost us billions of dollars. We had to go it alone on Metro Tunnel. We have had to go it alone in significant part when it came to level crossing removals and the West Gate Tunnel. But we have gone on and we have got the job done. Regardless of how Victoria derives its revenue, we have gotten on and delivered for Victorians.

When we come to the crux of this bill, we know it amends the Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Act 1990 to create a trailing liability scheme, specifying who the minister can call back to rehabilitate or fund rehabilitation if a declared mine licensee cannot meet rehabilitation obligations. The parties that can be called back include former declared mine licence-holders who held a licence on or after 6 May 2022; a related body corporate of the current declared mining licence-holder or former licensees who held the licence on or after 6 May 2022; and a related person, as determined by the minister, considering whether that person benefited significantly financially, influenced rehabilitation compliance or acted jointly with the declared mine licensee. It includes procedural fairness requirements, introduces a notification requirement for declared mine licensees to report changes in ownership control and makes clarifying and minor technical and consequential amendments as well.

We also know how critical minerals are to this state and also to this nation. Globally we know that lots of components in the energy transition and in 21st-century tech absolutely need those critical minerals, those critical resources. We know that Victoria is home to world-class deposits of critical minerals vital for our transition to a net zero future, and that is critically important. That is where governments are headed. That is where the private market is headed. We know that is the only way we are going to drive down energy prices. As we have seen, we have put downward pressure on energy prices in Victoria. When you look across the eastern seaboard, the results speak for themselves in terms of the prices here as compared to New South Wales and south-east Queensland on that eastern seaboard market.

We know critical minerals are crucial to that because we know we cannot have an energy transition without the key critical minerals and rare earths that we have in Victoria. For example, in north-west Victoria alone we have almost $200 billion worth of critical minerals and rare earths, alongside other key deposits elsewhere in the state. Victoria has globally significant deposits of critical minerals and rare earths, and this includes 51 per cent of Australia’s rutile and 22 per cent of its ilmenite. These are key titanium-bearing minerals vital for biomedical applications. Another example is that central Victoria has Australia’s largest antimony deposits, vital for solar panels and batteries, another huge part of the energy transition and a key pillar of a lot of the policy that has been driven formerly by the Andrews Labor government and now proudly by the Allan Labor government.

We are putting hundreds of thousands of solar panels on roofs. We have committed to I think it is around the 800,000 mark of just solar panels on roofs. There are the batteries. There are the solar hot-water systems. We are absolutely well on track in meeting that key election commitment we made in 2018, extremely popular not just with suppliers in creating jobs but with households. The amount of electricity that is now generated through rooftop batteries in Victoria is absolutely leading the nation. We are global trendsetters when it comes to solar energy.

Paul Edbrooke: You’re a trendsetter.

Jackson TAYLOR: Thank you, member for Frankston. I appreciate that. That is very kind of you. I am going to tell my wife. She might disagree with you, but I appreciate it. But we are absolutely trendsetters when it comes to net zero. We have world-leading targets. You could argue on the world-leading front. I certainly would. But certainly on the Australian front we are absolutely leading the nation. We are setting the policy tone in this nation. Again, it is great to have a partner in Canberra when it comes to that energy transition, when it comes to realising the importance of our minerals, the importance of our trading and economic partnerships with other nations around this world, and that is absolutely the Albanese Labor government. We had 10 years of absolute policy inertia. We had God knows how many different energy policies, which left essentially no sense of direction when it came to the private market. We were absolutely behind, but now we are absolutely streaking ahead from a national perspective. It is fantastic to have that partner in Canberra, as I said, not just from a GST deal perspective, realising the importance of our critical minerals, which we are very proud to have here in Victoria, as detailed, but also to have a strong partner when it comes to the energy transition and moving not just to renewable energy but to that net zero future as well.

With the indulgence of the house, this is potentially the last time I will speak on a bill this sitting year or make any contribution, so I would like to say a huge thankyou to the catering staff and a huge thankyou to all the clerks. Thank you to the Hansard team. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Love your work – always doing great. They have to listen to all of our stuff, as exciting as it is, as blistering as it is. I would probably be low down on the list of contributors they enjoy listening to. You can nod; it is okay. You all do fantastic work, so thank you to you both and to all of your team, who are no doubt working behind the scenes constantly. To all of the attendants, to everyone in the library –

John Mullahy interjected.

Jackson TAYLOR: IT are fantastic, and security are fantastic, obviously in part led by the great man Mr Adam Boyd. He still calls me Mr Taylor. It is a bit of a thing. He is a great bloke. We love Adam and the team at security, IT and everyone else in between. Thank you so much for everything that you do to make Parliament run. Of course a huge thankyou to all of my electorate office team, and to all the electorate officers across party lines, to all the EOs in both chambers and to all the staffers, thank you so much for everything you put in this year. Finally –

Emma Kealy: Very wideranging.

Jackson TAYLOR: I did ask for the indulgence of the house. I am just saying thanks.

Emma Kealy interjected.

Jackson TAYLOR: I thank the member for Lowan for not point-of-ordering me but indulging me and allowing me to say thanks. This bill aims to ensure the mining industry remains responsible for the rehabilitation and closure of coalmines in Victoria and transitions from coal-fired energy, and I commend the bill to the house.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Juliana Addison): The very tolerant member for Lowan.

 Emma KEALY (Lowan) (18:18): You have no idea, member for Wendouree, how tolerant I am. I rise to speak on the Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Amendment (Financial Assurance) Bill 2025. This is a piece of legislation which is around the designated mines in the state, the Latrobe Valley mines. My National Party colleague the member for Morwell spoke so well on this because he knows these issues better than anybody else in this place. He lives and breathes it every single day. He understands it because he has always lived in the area, and he is always out and about fighting for a fair share for his community. I commend him for taking such a strong stand on backing his community day in, day out.

This element is around the declared mines, as I said. I understand, though, there are other areas of the mineral resources bill which have some impacts on my community, particularly when you are talking about this retrospective element of trailing liabilities for the rehabilitation of mines.

My electorate of Lowan is the home of a large number of mineral sands deposits. We have so many exploration permits around the region. We see that Stavely Arc, which goes through the electorates of Mildura and Murray Plains and into the neighbouring electorate of Ripon as well a little bit, provides many very valuable minerals, some of which have been mined for an extended period of time. We have all heard about the goldmine in Stawell, which is so well known and which attracted the Chinese originally to come out from their homeland to land at Robe and traverse South Australia and into Victoria via Stawell, then into Ballarat as well, in the seat of the Speaker. It is an important aspect and something that obviously has brought a lot of wealth to our state. When we look around Parliament house, there is gold leaf on every corner that you look at because of the gold rush in this state.

However, it has been a long time since we have had a similar rush on minerals in my electorate, and there is deep concern within the community around the safeguards for mineral sands mining. There is deep concern when it comes to the risks around that and the protections that will be in place for the landholders, but also for the community. Some of that is around the concerns of our farmers around putting mining ahead of agriculture. There are many in my community who feel like they have not been heard, and there are examples around the state where mines have not been rehabilitated back to their productive value.

This legislation will deal with some of those elements. This legislation will deal with elements around rehabilitating coalmines in the Latrobe Valley. But I have seen firsthand that we have mineral sands mines across regional Victoria that have not been rehabilitated properly. There are areas where certainly the base has not been put back in in an appropriate way. It has been bulldozed in nice and quickly at the end, or to beat rain or during rain, and it has not been prepared appropriately. As a result, we have cracks in the ground which would fit me inside very easily. There are also issues with the different layers being mixed. There are chlorine and boron which have come to the surface levels, which are absolutely toxic, for those who are unaware, to grow the produce that farmers need to grow to be able to earn a living. We have also got increased rates of weeds through that sand as it is rehabilitated and as the soil is put back in that order. Because it has been sitting in a pile in a paddock for a period of time, all of the organic matter is lost. All of those things that make for a good soil combination to make for farmland, the soil that we need, is reduced.

So it has got a twofold impact. On the one hand, we have got an increased cost of production because it costs more in chemicals to get rid of the weeds. On the other hand, the productivity is lower; we have got lower growth rates. We are not seeing the same production possible in areas that have been mined compared with an area right next to where that mine was. Now, this is where there needs to be a consideration for trailing liabilities in other areas of mining, not just around those three mines that are rehabilitated coalmines, but also looking at making sure that if mining is to go ahead, there are appropriate safeguards in place to make sure that our Victorian farmland, if it is used for mining, will be rehabilitated to a point where that production value is maintained. And if that production value cannot be achieved again, there needs to be compensation back to the landholder. But there also needs to be a recognition that if this land cannot be rehabilitated, if there is not the scientific research to back it in that it can be rehabilitated, there must be an additional value put on the net amount of agricultural land that will be taken out of this state, because we can never forget what agriculture contributes to the state of Victoria. It is not just about putting food on our table or of growing fibre that puts the clothing on our backs. It is also about being an economic driver for the state of Victoria. It is about being an economic driver for Australia as a nation, but also it will always be the economic backbone of our rural and regional communities.

There are many people in the farming sector who feel like their voice has not been heard by the Allan Labor government. There are people in this community who have questions that could be answered, and I think that it is absolutely reasonable that they have the opportunity to ask questions of government officials when at the same time the government is talking about how mineral resources are going to help fund Victoria’s future and how we are going to ride the wave of a mineral sands boom. You need to take the community along with you. You need to be able to ensure that they understand what those safeguards are. Is there going to be input along the process of any mining approvals? Particularly through the technical reference group, will there be a voice of agricultural professionals – of experienced people who understand the local soil types – to give input and reference to the EES process? At the moment the voice of agriculture and the expertise of our local farmers are not included in consideration of the environment effects statement. Are we going to have greater access to information from Resources Victoria, as in a front-facing shopfront where people can come in and ask basic questions so they can understand more about whether there are any exploration licences on their land and they can understand what the processes are for when they can give some input into how their land is utilised, how it will be rehabilitated, what work plans are in place and particularly if there is a variation to a work plan? They need to be able to understand when they will be able to have their voices heard.

We also need to make sure it is fair and equitable. We know that mining companies can afford the top end of town lawyers. It is not fair that our farmers do not have similar supports to back them in, particularly when agriculture is one of the most important drivers of our rural and regional economy. These are things that the government should consider when they are considering amendments to legislation such as this before us today, but it is also about how we can make sure our community understands that mining can work alongside agriculture or, where it cannot, that it should not go ahead. We are not hearing that from the government. Farmers have just been shut out from that discussion, and people are very, very angry. They are very, very angry that they have not been heard. They have been talked about, but they are not being heard in terms of what the impact will be on their land, what the impact will be on the future productivity of the land that they own and what the impact will be on the net agricultural sector and production within the state of Victoria. While we see this legislation bringing in trailing liabilities for the Latrobe Valley coalmines, I do urge the government to take a similar amount of time to look at what is in place for mineral sand mining. In particular, if there is one thing you can do today, you can make sure that the voices of people within Ag Vic are included and working with Resources Victoria to understand what the impact will be on our local soils to make sure that we do not stuff it up, because you can only stuff it up once and it is gone for good. It is too important to get this wrong. We need to have more information to our communities, our communities to be listened to and appropriate action to be taken so that we have the safeguards we need for mining to go ahead in the first place and that there is accountability but then the rewards come back to the communities that will host those mining areas.

 John MULLAHY (Glen Waverley) (18:28): I rise to speak in support of the Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Amendment (Financial Assurances) Bill 2025. That is a big mouthful. It is good to hear that those on the other side also want to make sure that our environment and agricultural land and all that are protected and that when mining companies do go out there and dig up our resources they make sure that the land is returned to the way it should be. This is an important and necessary piece of legislation, and it strengthens the regulatory framework, protects Victorian taxpayers and ensures that those who have profited most from Victoria’s coalmines are the ones who properly and fully fund their rehabilitation, not the public, not local communities and not future generations. I would like to acknowledge the contributions from both sides of the house. I would like to acknowledge the member for Morwell, who gave a wonderful contribution based on his local community, because this will affect his local community directly, but also the member for Bayswater, who is a great member who gives wonderful contributions. We will miss him after the next election, but I know he has got a whole lot more to give over the next 12 months or 11 months. I look forward to what he will be giving to us here in the chamber.

This bill delivers on a clear public commitment made by the government in May 2022 to introduce a trailing liabilities scheme for declared mines. The three vast open-cut coalmines in the Latrobe Valley are Hazelwood, Yallourn and Loy Yang. These mines have powered our state for decades. They have supported jobs, industry and economic growth. But as Victoria transitions away from coal-fired energy, we must also confront the reality that these sites are among the most complex, risky and expensive to rehabilitate anywhere in the country. Communities in the Latrobe Valley know this. They live alongside the consequences – the impacts on land stability, hydrology, water quality and public safety – and they rightly expect that rehabilitation will be done properly, safely and fully and that the companies who reap the profits will meet every dollar of their obligations. This bill helps guarantee exactly that.

Across Victoria operators are already required by law to rehabilitate mine sites so that the land is left safe, stable and sustainable. That work begins long before mining starts, from planning to progressive rehabilitation during operation and ultimately the full restoration of the site at closure. Most operators do the right thing. They plan responsibly, they lodge bonds reflecting the true cost of rehabilitation and they progressively reduce the disturbed footprint over time. They work with Resources Victoria on compliance, reporting and inspections, and they restore land so that it can support new environmental, cultural or community uses. There are examples across our state where this long-term work has been done successfully: parts of the Fosterville Gold Mine returned to box-ironbark forest, former farmland near the Splitters Creek facility restored to wetlands and progressive rehabilitation underway at sites such as the Davis pit near Stawell. These examples demonstrate what responsible rehabilitation looks like.

But the scale and complexity of the Latrobe Valley coalmines, the only declared mines in Victoria, demand a much stronger safety net. These are mines where the physical and geotechnical characteristics, the vast voids and the interaction with groundwater and surface water all pose significant and ongoing risks to public safety, the environment and the critical infrastructure. Hazelwood is already progressing through its rehabilitation approvals, Yallourn will close in 2028 and Loy Yang has a scheduled closure in 2035, and each of these sites will require decades of careful planning, engineering and long-term monitoring. The Victorian community deserves certainty that these obligations will be met not just today but long into the future.

This bill introduces a trailing liabilities regime – a measure of last resort, but a vital one. The purpose is simple: if a declared mine licensee fails to meet its rehabilitation obligations or is unable to do so, the government will have clear and robust powers to call back those who have had significant financial benefit or substantial influence over the operation of the mine. This means former licensees; it means related corporate entities, including parent companies and subsidiaries; and it means any party that has materially benefited from the mine or shaped its operations to such an extent that it is fair and reasonable that they contribute to rehabilitation. Crucially – and this is important – employees and contractors are explicitly excluded. This addresses a longstanding community concern and ensures responsibility sits where it belongs: on those who made the decisions and profited from them. The bill’s call-back provisions are consistent with the Commonwealth’s approach for offshore petroleum decommissioning, again reflecting that major industrial assets require a major accountability framework. This regime is not a substitute for existing obligations, it does not shift current responsibilities and it will not be used lightly. It is a backstop, a safety net, designed to protect the public from the worst-case scenario, and that is exactly the kind of robust, responsible regulation Victoria expects.

Beyond the trailing liabilities regime, the bill also makes a series of important technical and administrative amendments. It strengthens the operation of the rehabilitation plans, ensuring declared mine rehabilitation plans are regularly reviewed and updated as mine closures progress; it improves the minister’s power to vary mineral licences and work authorities, particularly in emergency situations or when new risks emerge that require swift regulatory action; and it clarifies how the code of compliance will operate under the new general duty model introduced in 2023, a reform that will fully commence in 2027. It represents a modern risk-based approach to regulating mines and quarries, and it includes a range of minor amendments to ensure consistency, transparency and ease of operation across the act. These changes may be technical, but they matter. They improve certainty for communities and clarity for industry and confidence in the regulator.

At the heart of this bill is a simple principle: if you profit from a mine, you are responsible for its rehabilitation – not the Victorian taxpayer, not the next generation, not the people who live beside the sites or who have carried the impacts for decades. Local communities in the Latrobe Valley know better than anyone the scale of this task. They know the importance of stable land, safe water systems and a rehabilitation process that respects environmental, cultural and recreational values. They know what happens when rehabilitation is not done properly – risks to public safety, to waterways, to infrastructure and to confidence in the future use of the land. This bill demonstrates that the government has those communities’ backs. It shows that we are not only planning for the end of coal-fired energy, we are planning responsibly for what comes after.

Although this bill focuses on rehabilitation and accountability, it is also part of a broader story about Victoria’s resource sector. We are modernising regulation, we are supporting responsible exploration and we are unlocking the quarry materials and critical minerals that will power a clean energy future. Critical minerals such as copper, antimony and high purity silica and rare earths will be essential to battery technology, solar panels, advanced manufacturing and the global transition to net zero. Victoria has world-class deposits – billions of dollars worth – in the state’s north-west alone. That opportunity comes with responsibility to ensure mining is safe, sustainable, culturally respectful and aligned to community expectations. Responsible regulation, the kind that is strengthened by this bill, is central to achieving that balance.

It is the 171st anniversary of the Eureka Stockade today, when miners in Ballarat decided to take on the government to ensure that there was no taxation without representation. It is pretty similar to the reason why the Americans got rid of the British over there. Essentially mining has a long and storied history here in the state of Victoria. We know about this building and that at one stage Victoria was actually the richest place in the world by GDP based on the fact that we were digging out so much gold at that time from Ballarat and Bendigo. We know that we will continue to do mining. We need to make sure that we are doing it correctly and doing it right. I think this is a bill that completely backs that up. We need to make sure that we do it in a sustainable way.

We need to take advantage of how many critical minerals we do have here in Victoria. We saw an agreement between Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump recently between our two countries about exploring critical minerals and making sure that if we are going to explore that here in Australia, and if we are going to dig it up from Victoria, we get a return on that investment. The fact is that these resources are the Victorian people’s assets. If they are going to be dug up from Victoria, then we need to make sure that we get a return on that capital and a return on that investment so that we can pay for education, pay for health care and pay for the transport system we need for the growing economy here in Victoria.

This bill is about fairness. It is also about accountability. It is about ensuring that the enormous responsibility of rehabilitating the Latrobe Valley’s coalmines is carried out by those who profited from them, not by the people of Victoria. This bill provides that assurance. It is fair, it is responsible and it is forward looking, and I commend the bill to the house.

 Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (18:38): I rise to make a contribution to the Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Amendment (Financial Assurance) Bill 2025. Before I get onto what I was going to talk about, I just might comment on the member for Glen Waverley’s contribution, where he talked about the Eureka Stockade and the rising up there and a couple of things. I will remind the house of what I actually said in my member’s statement yesterday about a rising up of the farmers in Victoria who are violently opposed to some of the renewable energy projects, particularly the Western Link and particularly VNI West. They will rise up, but they want to do it to get rid of the Labor government – and they will. They will get rid of the Labor government because the Labor government has treated them appallingly, Acting Speaker Addison, as you would know as a member who represents some of that particular area there. So yes, there will be more rising up and it will be from the farmers there, because, as I said, Sally McManus, the ACTU president, said bad laws are made to be broken, and those people are going to break the law there and make sure that VicGrid does not go on their land to build that powerline. I am emphatic in my support for them, and all power to them for what they are doing around that.

When we talk about mining in this state, we look at the gold rush that we had here in the 1850s and the 1860s. The lovely building we are in is a benefit from mining. For those that have the opportunity to go to functions at Government House, that is a benefit of mining. And the story about the ballroom at Government House, which we go to for large public functions, is that it is 1 yard longer than the ballroom at Buckingham Palace. Why did Victorians do that? Because we could. Because we had gold. It is longer than the one at Buckingham Palace, just to stick it up those redcoats that were there at that particular time. If you go to the State Library, that is another beneficiary of it. So we have a proud history of mining in this state that has stood us in good stead, right from the gold rush times.

The coal power stations that this piece of legislation is talking about – and it is legislation that is necessary to make sure that those coalmines are rehabilitated appropriately – have provided this state with cheap power for the last 80, 90 years. Sir John Monash’s vision has been absolutely brilliant for this state. We created a large manufacturing industry here in Victoria because we had reliable, cheap power. We actually do not have that anymore – which is a separate issue to the debate on this particular piece of legislation – because we now find industry is moving away from this state because the cost of energy is too great. But this is about rehabilitating those mines that provided tens of thousands of jobs to this state and a huge economic benefit to this state through the cheap and reliable power that we had.

When we think about Australia as a nation, we have the standard of living that we have in Australia particularly because of the mining in Western Australia and Queensland. It is the coal exports, the iron ore exports and the natural gas exports that actually keep Australia’s economy afloat. It is not people that work as baristas making coffee and doing all those other jobs that people talk about., it is the mining industry. One of the people I know in Echuca did his trip around Australia a couple of years ago, and he said that when you look at the ships lined up at Port Hedland and when you look at the ships lined up at Gladstone to take away coal and iron ore, it is like a taxi rank: they are queued up to come and get it. If you think about the jobs, the wealth and the tax that has been created for this nation from those particular industries, that is why we enjoy the standard of living we do. There is an opportunity for a new generation of that here in Victoria. But as the member for Glen Waverley said, we have got to make sure it is done well.

We saw reports of the recent trip by our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to America and his discussions with President Trump. The US desires to have a more independent supply of some of the critical minerals to get away from its reliance on China and on Russia, where a lot of the critical minerals, the mineral sands, are and where the antimony supply is. There is an opportunity for Victoria, because we have had mineral sand mines and potential for quite a few more. But this legislation, I think, will flow on from the coal industry to those particular mines to make sure the rehabilitation is done right.

One of the particular concerns that a lot of farmers have is about yes, there will be a mine and, yes, the company that has that mine will have every intention of doing the right thing, but what happens if with five years to go on a mine it is flipped to an offshore owner who is in the Cayman Islands or somewhere else in a tax shelter and there is no-one to chase to actually get the money to make sure that rehabilitation is done. My understanding is that this legislation, with the follow-through powers to connected entities, has a way of solving those particular issues.

I would like to see that mining and agriculture can work together in this state. At the moment there are a lot of tensions from the mining point of view. I think it is exacerbated by the issues around renewable energy projects like those I just talked about, VNI West and the western link, but there is an opportunity for us to create wealth for the state and for the nation out of the critical minerals that we have here, out of the antimony and out of the new generation of goldmines in this state. Those that I talk to effectively say there is still more gold in the ground than Victoria has actually taken out over that particular time. So there is a real opportunity for wealth for us into the future out of those mines as well. But it is so important that the rehabilitation is done well.

What has raised concerns for farmers where there are new proposed mineral sand mines is that there is a chequered history of how well that rehabilitation has been done. The member for Lowan talked about that particular issue, and I am sure the member for Mildura will also talk about that issue in her contribution. Some mines have been rehabilitated well. The soil has been layered back in appropriately, and with work there are crops and pastures able to be grown on that land. There are others where it has not been done well. There is one particular example in the north-west where unfortunately for the mining company – it is one that is very, very vocal and well respected – they started to fill the mine in, as I understand it, with the proper layering of the different layers of soil, and then near the end they got a rush of blood in a hurry and pushed a lot of it in with a bulldozer. That country is not growing crops anywhere near as it should. This legislation will give the opportunity for the government to actually follow the path and find the people that have to come back and rehabilitate the likes of that mine properly into the future.

We will not be opposing this particular piece of legislation, but it is something that we want to make sure is used responsibly to make sure that remediation is actually done properly. For those that drive down the Princes Highway through the Latrobe Valley, there are some very big holes in the ground there that will need a plan. Some of those plans, as I understand it, are about filling those mines with water in the future, because as those that were around when we had the Hazelwood mine fire know, there is a very real risk with those old mines. If the coal that is left there catches on fire without the workers and the water there, there is a real risk that it will burn for a long time. I felt so sorry for the people of Morwell that lived through that mine fire and the ash and everything that was in the air, let alone the issue about when the highway nearly slipped into the mine as well, which predates that.

This will ensure that there is the opportunity to make sure that on ENGIE, Energy Australia and AGL actually do the right thing in those rehabilitations. Being large major corporate entities in Australia that will have a history in the future here because they are all, in one way or another, getting into the renewables energy market, they are not going to blot their copybook by doing something dodgy and spinning it off to an offshore entity that does not have the money to finish it, but they still need to be held to account to make sure it does happen into the future. This will be, I hope, legislation that ensures our next golden era of mining in this state, which I think will be around the critical minerals and antimony. There is a real opportunity for this state to do it well. Historically maybe we did not do it as well as we could, but let us try and do that better into the future. As for those that ask ‘What is antimony?’, just to finish off, it is effectively the hardening material that makes bullets and that makes tanks less prone to being shot through and so on. Most of that comes out of China and Russia. There is a real opportunity for us in this nation to be a supplier to the Western world around these critical minerals and antimony.

 Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (18:48): I am very pleased to rise to speak on reform of the Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Act 1990. It is certainly some very important regulatory reform, because I think fundamentally it is about respecting the land that has been utilised for a mine. I know that there is an emphasis, certainly in this state, upon rehabilitating the mine as you go – as you are working the mine – and not leaving it to the end. It is also about accountability in the way that you leave the mine, certainly having reaped the financial benefits of having made the mine in the first place. I do not know if you say made or dug – there is probably a more appropriate word – but in any case we know what the point is. Under this legislation – we are looking at the purpose – the new provisions will:

… reduce the likelihood that rehabilitation costs are passed on to Victorians; and provide the Government with a new tool to require those who derived greatest financial benefit from mining projects to be responsible for remediating the rehabilitation risks and liabilities caused by the project.

I am very pleased to say that we do have good examples of appropriate rehabilitation – it can be done. Therefore regulating in this way certainly has a good purpose, a sound purpose. I will give examples. There are parts of Fosterville Gold Mine, a currently operating gold mine outside of Bendigo where in 2021 an open pit was returned to box-ironbark forest, and since 2017 around 3.7 hectares of farmland neighbouring the Splitters Creek evaporation facility has been restored to its original wetlands landform. This has provided a habitat for native and terrestrial species as well as an open space for the community. This is what we are talking about when it comes to accountability and return, and respecting the land that has been used for a mine.

I will just refer to the technical element of this bill when we are talking about what is a declared mine, which is if the minister is satisfied that there are geotechnical, hydrogeological water quality or hydrological factors within these sites that pose a significant risk to public safety, the environment or infrastructure. I should say currently there are only three mines that meet this criteria which have become declared mines: they are the open-cut coalmines at Hazelwood, Yallourn and Loy Yang in the Latrobe Valley. I do want to commend the workers who over many decades have provided – and will be continuing to provide – energy for this state. Of course we are on a steady transition and we are committed to that, but I do want to respect those communities who have worked so hard and made a significant contribution to the energy that has powered hospitals and powered the whole state over many, many decades. They have certainly made a very important contribution, and I want to pay respect to that as well.

When we are talking about what powers or further powers et cetera that this bill will have, the trailing liability regime will be a measure of last resort, and it will allow the minister to call back a former licence-holder of one of the three declared mines in the Latrobe Valley. The minister could then direct a person to contribute to rehabilitation costs or comply with other rehabilitation requirements that apply to a declared mine licensee if they have failed in their obligations under a declared mine rehabilitation plan.

I did speak before to opportunities or I was referring to the transition of energy in the state. We know that there are certain opportunities when it comes to deposits of critical minerals that are vital for our transition to a net zero future, but at the same time we must be sure that when we are talking about any exploration or mining, it is done in a way that protects the environment, cultural and social values and is in line with the expectation of traditional owners and regional communities. Further to that I will say our critical minerals boom could lead to 7000 new jobs in the north-west of Victoria alone and ensure Victoria has a place in the global spotlight when it comes to these essential logistics chains for the future economy.

Now, if we are talking about that very important subject of energy transition in this state, what does that actually look like? I am very pleased to say that the Minister of Energy and Resources, the member for Mill Park, announced just a little bit earlier this year that 42 per cent of the state’s electricity was produced by cheap renewable energy. This was over the last financial year, putting Victoria well on track to meet its legislated renewable energy target of 40 per cent by the end of this year. Victoria has met every renewable energy target it has set to date and is well on the way to meeting the next ones, of 65 per cent renewable energy generation by 2030 and 95 per cent by 2035. Victoria now hosts over 90 large-scale renewable energy projects, thanks to our Allan Labor government, adding almost 7 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity to the grid, which is helping to lower energy prices for Victorian households and businesses. I am really pleased to say that Victorians are also embracing rooftop solar on their offices, warehouses and homes, with panels contributing almost 11 per cent of Victoria’s energy in the last financial year. I know businesses in my electorate are getting on board with that; we have seen that in Fishermans Bend. They can see that into the future, if they do not plan ahead and get solar on their facilities, they are going to have considerable costs to offset in the future. And I am pleased to see a number of businesses are taking advantage of our energy rebates. That is a market decision, that is an economic decision, but also a sense of accountability when it comes to the emissions being generated by their various enterprises.

I should say another important point – because we hear a lot about energy prices, quite rightly; it is a very important point – is record investment in renewables means Victoria consistently has the lowest wholesale energy power prices in the country. Over the last financial year Victoria’s average wholesale price was $107 per megawatt hour, compared to $115 for Tasmania, $127 for Queensland, $138 for South Australia and $151 for New South Wales. That is not by accident, that is by design, certainly by investing in renewables but also by investing in legislative tools that help give people more choice, and the Victorian default offer as well.

These well-constructed legislative reforms have certainly assisted Victorians in being able to have access to fairer retail prices. This is also the impetus for further investment in the renewable energy sector. There are more than 50 gigawatts of proposed or committed renewable energy projects in Victoria, and this shows strong investment interest in the state and a pipeline of projects ready to replace the old coal-fired generators. We know that with coal-fired generators again it is the market that is driving this. Often there are concerns about – perhaps for those who are less concerned about the environment or energy prices – government’s involvement when it comes to the phasing out of coal, but it is the market that is driving it. There are economic imperatives and there are sound decisions being made about transitioning to more energy-efficient sources but also as a way to curtail energy prices into the future. These are fundamentally economic decisions but also environmental ones as well.

Coming back to that issue of the critical minerals and what they can mean, in the north-west of Victoria alone we have almost $200 billion – that is quite a large figure – worth of critical minerals and rare earths, alongside other key deposits elsewhere in the state. But I will put the caveat of needing to respect – and much has been said in the chamber about this – agricultural land and land more broadly to make sure that where mines are invested in there is appropriate regulation and rehabilitation so that the community does get to have the benefit returned to them but also that we restore biodiversity. We know now more than ever that all our existence is dependent on respecting our ecosystems and also making sure that we maximise energy efficiency to create a much kinder and safer future for all Victorians, thinking not only of ourselves here in the chamber but also the future generations, because we will leave a legacy one way or another. It is having that accountability and this stronger regulation and the ability when it comes to declared mines to make sure that Victorians themselves are not having to pay for situations where mines have not been sufficiently rehabilitated to a standard that meets our community expectations.

I am certainly buoyed by this legislation. It is very important. We have seen examples of where there has been positive and appropriate rehabilitation, and we want that to continue into the future.

 Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (18:58): In the about 90 seconds I have it is still worth me getting up to go to bat for our food and fibre producers, as I always do in this place, particularly when it comes to mining and rehabilitation of land. The Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Amendment (Financial Assurance) Bill 2025 introduces a trailing liability scheme in relation to the declared mines, but as the member for Lowan pointed out, the same sort of scheme might be considered for farmers.

As the member for Albert Park noted, in the great north-west of the state our soil is unlike any other in Australia, not only the red loam soil for growing just about anything but the incredible deposits of critical minerals and rare earths that are underneath that. Yes, there have been some very successful mines and very successful rehabilitation programs that have taken place, but there has also been a very poor rehabilitation program. The same sort of scheme would be very beneficial for those food and fibre producers who are considering or have mining companies knocking on the door.

I have heard a lot of talk in this place this afternoon about renewables. As the member for Murray Plains stated earlier, there are a lot of those food and fibre producers who are very, very angry with the renewables projects going on in that part of the state.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.