Thursday, 4 June 2026

 Lily D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park – Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Energy and Resources, Minister for the State Electricity Commission) (14:27): On this side of the house, we care about just one kind of cut, and that is cutting the cost of living for Victorians. Last week I announced that we will be mandating lower energy prices for Victorians in embedded networks – in apartments, in caravan parks and in retirement homes. 174,000 households and 20,000 businesses are in these private energy networks. They were created in the 1990s when our energy system was privatised and have grown and grown since then. Those who did the privatisation told us that the embedded networks would provide cheaper energy, but that simply has not happened. Instead, private energy companies are making big monopoly profits at the expense of home owners and at the expense of renters who cannot change their retailer.

Whether you are a family in Prahran, Hawthorn, Albert Park, Footscray, Wangaratta or Euroa, in every part of the state Labor will back you, not big energy retailer profits. We will mandate, from 1 July next year, lower prices for all energy – electricity, gas and bundled services like hot water – to the cheapest market offers. Home owners and renters will be saving up to $250 a year and small businesses up to $600 a year for electricity alone. Plus we will deliver even more savings on their gas and bundled services like hot water. We will not be cutting $40 billion from services that Victorians rely on. We will not cut the Victorian energy upgrades program, we will not cut the SEC and we will not cut renewables and ban wind farms, because doing those things will hit Victorians hard on their energy bills.