Oil and gas exploration
Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (14:23): My question is to the Premier. Victorians have just suffered catastrophic bushfires once again. Communities have been forced to watch so many of the things that they love go up in flames – their homes, farms, livestock and wildlife. And while some people faced fires, flash floods inundated communities and swept cars out to sea across the Great Ocean Road. The Premier herself has acknowledged this is climate change. It is, and regional Victorians are now paying the price. We all know that burning coal and gas causes climate change, so why has this Labor government approved five new gas-drilling projects in the last nine months alone?
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:23): I thank the member for Melbourne for her question. I will make this observation: it is of course easy to talk about climate action. A big step towards being able to talk about it is to believe in it and to understand that it is real, that you have got to take action and that you have got to understand that, whether it is getting more renewable energy into the grid, funding our emergency services or having resilience measures in the system, you have got to believe in this first. So I acknowledge that the member and the Greens are at least on that journey of acknowledging that climate change is real and it is having an impact. I also appreciate that the member for Melbourne has also acknowledged that it impacts regional communities like mine, which I am proud to represent – like so many of us on this side of the house are proud to represent. We stand with those regional communities by understanding that climate is having an impact. It means farmers are having to rethink all of their traditional practices. They have to rethink the changes of the season and what that means for how they have, for decades, gone about being primary producers and change their practice.
But I make the point that it is easy to talk about climate action; it is another thing altogether to do something about it. That is why I want to acknowledge the extraordinary work of our colleague and friend the Minister for Climate Action. We have a Minister for Climate Action who has been doing a huge amount of work in this space. I will be clear: what we are focused on and the measure that really matters here is that here in Victoria our emissions have fallen by 31.4 per cent. That is not just by taking one action alone. There is a cumulative set of actions, whether it is about working with that same agriculture sector and doing work to help drive down emissions; the work in our transport sector of having our public transport network, our tram network, powered by renewable energy; or bringing back the SEC of course, which is about bringing more renewable energy.
Members interjecting.
Jacinta ALLAN: They find their voice now, don’t they? The Liberals and Nationals find their voice now, when there is an opportunity to talk down investment in renewable energy, to talk down the SEC. We know where they stand and where we stand, and Victorians know where my government stands on this. We acknowledge that action is needed on bringing more renewable energy and on driving down emissions, and the work we have done has delivered just that: a 31.4 per cent reduction in emissions.
Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (14:27): When Australians learned about the dangers of asbestos killing people, governments took action. They banned its use, its sale and its import. If politicians got up in Parliament back then and spoke about, say, subsidising ventilators or handing out free meals to people dying of asbestosis while actively giving government support to the product and the companies that caused it, we would think that was morally wrong. Similarly, we have known about the danger caused by burning fossil fuels for a very long time, and now our community is feeling the impacts and people are dying. So how is it at all justified that the Labor government in Victoria is actively encouraging the expansion of oil and gas drilling across Victoria?
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:27): I am almost tempted to yield the floor to the Minister for Climate Action, as she has been making very clear what I mentioned before: a 31.4 per cent reduction in emissions. The member for Melbourne may want to keep talking about this, but we are taking real action on this, cutting our emissions by 50 per cent more than the national average over the past decade. That is what you get when you take these issues seriously and when you believe in the science and the evidence, unlike those opposite.
Tim Read: On a point of order, Speaker, the question was about coal and gas, on relevance.
The SPEAKER: The Premier is being relevant to the question that was asked. She is able to be relevant because the first question, the substantive question, referred to climate change.
Jacinta ALLAN: When it comes to taking action, the Victorian community can see what we have delivered and know that we believe in the science, and we will keep driving more investment in renewable energy and keep tackling emissions. They also know that we do the work – we do not just talk about it, like the Greens do – and at least we believe in it, unlike the Liberal and National parties. And we will keep this work up.