Wednesday, 8 June 2022

 Mr FINN (Western Metropolitan) (18:03): (1972) I wish to raise a matter this evening for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. Can I express my very, very deep concern about the impending energy crisis that is about to hit us and say that I am very distressed by reports that I am receiving of elderly people who are hard up for dollars going to bed at lunchtime just to keep warm. I think it is deplorable that we have a situation where the best we can offer somebody who has worked all their life and has paid taxes all their life, the best we can do in their twilight years, is say to them, ‘You go to bed at lunchtime and stay in bed for the rest of the day just to keep warm’. That to my way of thinking is just not acceptable in a civilised society. This impending energy crisis is really going to hit the west of Melbourne very, very hard. There are a lot of battlers out in the west, people who work very hard. They pay their taxes, they raise their families, they live very close to the wind in terms of finances. They are good, honourable, decent people, and they are going to be hit by this thing.

The thing that really annoys me more than anything else is that this crisis that we are talking about is man made. You do not have to look too far to see that this can be avoided very, very simply, and I am asking the minister tonight to do just that. The fact that we do not have enough electricity and the fact that we do not have enough gas can be solved very quickly. You do not need a meeting of the great minds of Australia to come up with a solution to this particular situation. We have over 300 years worth of coal down in the Latrobe Valley. If we use that to make more electricity, then that obviously is going to help the situation. If we allow drilling for natural gas, then obviously that is going to help. So what I am asking the minister to do tonight is put aside this nonsense of a climate emergency, which does not exist and I doubt ever will, and take on board the very real concerns of average Victorians—Victorian families as well as Victorian workers—who are absolutely terrified of what is coming. Use the resources that we have, and this so-called crisis will go away. It is not a difficult proposition for the minister to understand—even she should be able to.