Wednesday, 12 August 2026

 Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (10:49): I am delighted to rise to make a contribution about the inquiry into renewable and affordable energy for apartments. Late last year this place tasked the Environment and Planning Committee with an inquiry into renewable and affordable energy for apartments, townhouses and units. I was pleased to table our report just this morning, including 52 ‍findings and 25 recommendations. Our inquiry focused on examining the barriers and inequities to more renewable and affordable energy for Victorians living in these types of housing. Importantly, we examined options to increase the uptake of renewable technologies, including rooftop solar, balcony and facade solar and community batteries. We also explored how complementary measures such as virtual power plants can expand access and increase grid resilience. Our two days of public hearings helped us consider the differing experiences of owner-occupiers, renters and social housing tenants in accessing renewable and affordable energy. Strong engagement from the renewable energy and strata sectors also helped shape our findings and our recommendations.

On behalf of the committee I wish to thank the individuals and the renewable energy, strata, housing, legal, academic and community groups, who made over 90 submissions to the inquiry, for sharing their expertise and observations, and a special shout-out to people that I have known long term, who are great people, Raoul Wainwright and Matt Torney, who both made contributions to our committee. I would also like to thank my fellow committee members: the greatest deputy chair of all time, who is in the chamber at the moment, the magnificent member for Morwell – thank you for being so amazing; and the marvellous members for Bass, for Croydon, for Monbulk, for Narracan and for Ripon for their cooperation and collaboration and their bipartisan approach throughout the inquiry; it has been integral to our success. But most of all I want to thank you for your friendship, your good humour and, most importantly, being excellent people over the last four years. We have had a ridiculous amount of fun whilst we have done our inquiries. I would also like to acknowledge the member for Warrandyte, who was a terrific member in our early years and disappointingly left us, but we warmly welcomed the sub-in of the member for Narracan – a fantastic contribution. To have Marianna in the house at the moment, our incredible secretariat – thank you to you and the secretariat for your professionalism and, most importantly, your patience, your intelligence, your diligence, your expertise and your excellence. I really did strike gold on this committee. Once again the behind-the-scenes work made sure that the committee could deliver this meaningful report to the Parliament today.

What did our report say, after I have done all of my Oscar-winning thanks? Solar is skewed to freestanding homes and barriers are complex. Solar uptake in Victoria has been strong but remains concentrated in freestanding owner-occupier homes. Shared ownership arrangements, limited roof space, ageing electrical infrastructure and electricity network constraints can make apartment energy projects more complex and of course costly. As more Victorians take up apartment living, ensuring that they can access renewable energy is a matter of sustainability and fairness. Our report is about closing the renewable energy gap between Victorians living in freestanding homes and those who live in apartments, social housing and multiunit dwellings. Increasing access to renewable and affordable energy in apartment buildings will help reduce energy bills, improve energy equity and accelerate Victoria’s transition to net zero emissions. Our recommendations are designed to make renewable energy more affordable and more accessible, to strengthen owners corporation governance and to promote complementary measures such as apartment electrification. One of the strongest themes from our inquiry was the need to make it easier for apartment communities to take collective action, and this can only happen through stronger governance focused on sustainability. We found that building governance matters: well-managed owners corporations are better placed to plan, approve and deliver sustainable upgrades. Owners corporation committees are made up of volunteers and they need more support. In closing, I will talk a lot more about the great things of our report. We are going to do a range of different things. I commend the report to the house.