Wednesday, 21 June 2023

Bills

Energy and Resources Legislation Amendment (Transition Away from Coal) Bill 2023

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Sarah Mansfield:

That the bill be now read a second time.

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (09:51): I am energised to stand here and speak to this today. I am energised, much like the electricity grid of Victoria is. Whether you look at northern Victoria, western Victoria or eastern Victoria, we are generating clean energy – renewable energy. I am going to relate to the metro seats here as well for our metro colleagues: when you look across our metropolitan regions, we have rooftop solar contributing renewable energy into our grid – the highest concentration in the world of solar rooftops contributing to our renewable energy. There is no doubt that the previous target we had set – which was not a ceiling; none of our targets are ceilings, they are floors – smashed our renewable 2022 target, which was 25 per cent. Last year we generated 36 per cent renewable energy. I am absolutely proud we have achieved this, and I am proud this government has led the way.

It is still a massive task – what we are trying to do. None of this will happen by accident. It is going to take planning, it is going to take delivery and it is going to take things like what this government has led with, renewable energy auctions. We had our second renewable energy auction last year, which delivered another 600 megawatts into the system, and six major projects which are going to ensure that government infrastructure such as our schools, our hospitals, our trains and our police stations are all powered by renewable electricity. I am proud that this government has over the years kickstarted and continued to grow our renewable generation capacity.

I want to highlight – and I will come back to this later – that nothing happens without workers. There is a huge amount of work to make all this happen. It does not just pop up out of nowhere. There are workers that are, particularly in our remote areas, working 8-, 10- and 12-hour days. They are away on long shifts, long swings away from family and friends. The time it takes to not just identify these projects and plan for them but get the workers in place, get the materials in place and build these projects – it does take considerable time. I will come back to workers and skills, but I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the incredible work in difficult conditions. Quite often they are up at the crack of dawn – at this time of year it is dark in the morning and night – exposed to all sorts of elements. We thank them for what they deliver for us.

It has not been an easy two decades in this space. Climate – and particularly energy, which we are here to talk about today – has been used as a political football. I for one think this issue is too important to be used as a political football. It is crucial for our species, it is crucial for animals, it is crucial for plants and it is crucial for our oceans that we address climate change. That is why I am so proud of the Victorian government, despite what has been happening around the nation and in various nations around the world, where we have seen delays in action and we have seen various political characters or political parties, for one reason or another – whether targets were too much and could not be done or too little and were not quick enough – delay our political process in taking action on renewable energy generation and reducing our energy emissions.

It is absolutely incumbent on us all to deliver the renewable energy we need, the electricity we need, for our grid. It is probably a bit ironic I stand here saying this now, but the time for speeches is over. The community understands where we need to get to. Now is the time for action, for delivering, for getting us from where we were last year – 36 per cent – to 100 per cent renewable energy. That is what we want to achieve, and that is what we will achieve: net zero emissions by 2045.

We are leading the world with these targets. We are definitely leading the nation. I come back to the word ‘proud’ – the fact that against all the headwinds, all the opposition, all the challenges, this government here in Victoria has led the nation. We have put the policies in place. We have put the targets in place. We have planned how to achieve those objectives. We have brought industry with us, we have brought community with us, we have brought everybody with us to put us in the position where we are smashing our targets, and we will continue to do so.

I want to talk about energy generation. Energy generation in Victoria for 100 years has come from coal. We need to acknowledge the workers who have done that work and delivered Victoria much of its prosperity. Much of our prosperity has come from coal, from centralised energy generation – the electricity provided to our homes, to our businesses, to our industry – and we need to acknowledge that. We need to be thankful to those workers and we need to be mindful of those workers as we transition from thermal generation into renewable generation.

Solar and wind farms have emerged over particularly the last decade in this state. We are seeing the technology improve, we are seeing the skills and the capacity to build these facilities improve. Much like the work we are doing on the level crossing removals around Melbourne, the skills, the know-how and the technology get better and better. Wind turbines that were 1 megawatt are now 5 megawatts and heading towards 10 megawatts. We are getting better efficiencies out of the work we do. We are getting better cost efficiencies out of what we do. That is why renewable electricity is the cheapest form of electricity generation. The work that this government has done will ensure there are clear signs for industry and for the community to understand where it is we are heading, what it is we want to achieve. We are seeing the investment, we are seeing the upskilling, we are seeing the technology here and available that is seeing these costs reduce more and more and more.

In our generation system we have our large-scale solar and our large-scale wind. As I discussed earlier, we have got our rooftop solar behind people’s meters. It is generating energy they need where they need it. In addition to this, we have huge, huge generation capacity that the state government is planning and preparing to deliver. It was unfortunately held up nationally. The regulation for the offshore wind industry was held up for years while it sat in a top drawer in a national office, but we have the regulatory framework for an offshore wind industry now. We have a clear understanding of where these offshore wind farms are going to go. We have a plan for where the wind turbines are going to be assembled. The Port of Hastings has been identified; the Port of Hastings facility is being planned. It will be developed. It will be built. In 2028, when we are ready to start constructing these wind turbines in preparation for when various generation capacities in the Latrobe Valley are closing, we will have more capacity coming online. We have other capacity to go alongside offshore wind, which I will talk about later when I talk about the SEC – I have not even got to that yet – but the capacity of our offshore wind is massive. We have identified 13 gigawatts of capacity along Victoria’s coastline already, and the state government has committed to ensuring that 9 gigawatts are up and going and feeding into our system by around 2040.

But all of this, as I said, takes time. It takes planning. From the regulatory framework and the feasibility studies to the licensing – the granting of feasibility licences and licensing permits, which is occurring now – and the environmental assessments, everything we do needs to go through proper process to ensure that while we are doing the incredibly important work of protecting our climate, the climate that we all depend on to thrive, our environment is being considered and we are doing the right thing by our broader environment and our local environment. Again, planning, time, delivery – this all has to be considered.

I come back again to the construction elements. The offshore wind industry is going to be absolutely massive. We are talking about billions and billions of dollars of investment. The key is ensuring that we have the skilled workforce to complete this work. The skilled workforce is being planned for. Minister Tierney, with her work, is ensuring that we have investment – investment out of this budget already for a centre of excellence in Morwell. I am only just touching the surface. You can see how much detail and how much planning is involved in shifting an entire generation capacity from thermal power to renewables. It is absolutely massive. We talk about the industrial revolution; we are in the middle of an energy revolution. That is generation.

Transmission is not like plugging in a hose and watching a bit more water come out. We have to harmonise the system we are using. It has to be balanced. And unlike the old days when there were centralised thermal generators which were relatively, comparatively easy to feed into the system and there was a minimal amount of them and transmission lines were very simple to run from point A to point B of the majority of the population, we now have to consider a variety of loads that are feeding into the system.

We can do all this. There are those that will say, ‘It’s too hard and we can’t do it.’ Well, they are wrong. We are going to do it. There are many ways to do it, and I will talk through some of those. But there are those that say, ‘It has to happen yesterday.’ Well, it is actually incredibly difficult. I have already talked about workforce and skills. Getting the amount of workers to do what we are talking about to just be ready overnight is, quite simply, impossible. It takes a pipeline of training and engagement, then we can deliver the work. There is existing maintenance and upgrades on our current transmission lines, our switchgear and our substations, let alone our new transmission lines.

The transmission lines take community consultation and, again, as I said before, environmental assessments, and that is why I will keep coming back to the word ‘proud’. I am so proud that the Victorian government has established VicGrid to make sure that not only can we do everything that needs to be done but we can do it efficiently and effectively where people are heard, people are consulted and we get the best possible outcomes with landowners, with our First Nations people, with industry and with our workers so that we make sure that when something like the offshore wind zone that is off East Gippsland is powered up, is first connected, as those first turbines start turning and the generation is connected into the grid, that power is making its way into the main grid that exists.

Following on from transmission, we have to make sure that we have our storage. I am absolutely delighted that last week we opened our 150-megawatt battery at Hazelwood, where the transmission lines are, where the substations are, where the switchgear is and where the expertise is, leveraging what we have to ensure that we are able to smooth out the system and deliver reliable energy for all Victorians. That takes working with other governments, and I am delighted to say that it is Labor governments around the mainland – a federal Labor government, Western Australia, South Australia, right around – so we can get on with delivering what Australia needs: an interconnected grid that works together. Whether it is Snowy Hydro, whether it is the hydro coming out of Tasmania, whether it is large-scale PV installations, whether it is offshore wind, whether it is wind farms, whatever it is, that energy can feed into a system that not only communicates with various states and various areas but feeds each other, supplies each other, depends on each other, works together, because when we work together we get the absolute best outcomes.

Hydro is growing. Batteries are rapidly growing, and we are very proud here in Victoria to be the home of batteries. We have got the biggest battery in the Southern Hemisphere. As I said, Hazelwood just switched on last week. I have got the app on my phone. It is probably a bit sad, but of a night I love to look and see: what has the wind input been for the day? What has the solar input been for the day? What has the battery input been for the day? You can see it ticking up. As these batteries come on line we store more and more and more electricity that feeds into our system.

Ryan Batchelor: It’s amazing stuff.

Tom McINTOSH: It is amazing stuff. This system ensures that we all have dependable energy but, not only that, cheap energy. Energy is not just some sort of idea that we have in our heads. Every single Victorian depends on affordable electricity, and it is our responsibility to ensure that that electricity is provided to their homes – hence, again, the SEC, which I still have not even had time to get to yet but will come back to later.

Ryan Batchelor: Please do.

Tom McINTOSH: I will get back to it later. For our consumers, particularly our vulnerable consumers, where energy is so vitally important to them to heat their homes, to cool their homes, for their cooking and for their fridges, we have got to make sure that it is there for them. Our businesses need energy, and absolutely important is our large-scale industry. We need industry in Victoria. Industry to a large extent was built off the back of the energy supply we had thanks to the Latrobe Valley – the affordable, dependable energy we had. Again, we need to make sure the energy supplies continue to be that – affordable, dependable – and that is why this government has a plan to deliver that.

Additionally, on the storage front, I want to talk about neighbourhood batteries, because this government is committed to delivering 100 neighbourhood batteries. I talked about rooftop solar before, ensuring there is generation where people need it, on their roofs – when they need it, where they need it. It is the same with neighbourhood batteries. We can store locally. We can dispatch locally. Everything about electricity is about efficiencies. We want to be getting the maximum efficiencies we can so we get the most electricity into people’s homes. Later I will talk about energy efficiency from a reduction point of view, of consumption within the home and businesses, but it is also important to think about efficiencies in transmission, because you do not want to be wasting generated electricity in transmission, just like you do not want to be wasting it in consumption. It is a precious resource. We should view it as a precious resource. It is going to set us up to lead the world with this incredible bounty of clean energy that we have here in Australia and in Victoria.

I have talked in this place before about the tariffs that are being put in place in the EU and in other nations. We see the acknowledgement of manufacturing, of steel, of all of these types of products – where did the source energy come from? Was it clean? This is going to become more and more important, and if we are not manufacturing with clean energy, we will be penalised. All those countries, all those states around the world that are penalised – you know what? We will be taking their market because we are going to have the clean energy to manufacture and deliver what they need and what they want. The world is heading in one direction, and I am going to say it again: I am proud that we are leading the move in that direction.

For households and businesses we have done an incredible amount of work to ensure that, as I said before, they are able to be efficient with their energy. In ensuring that we have the maximum amount of electricity that we need for Victoria and indeed Australia, we have started with the lowest hanging fruit. That is what makes sense. We have done a lot of work on energy efficiency. The state government has invested $1.3 billion to not only assist 770,000 homes to work on energy efficiency, as is crucially important, but also assist 200,000 homes to have generators on their roofs.

I said before we have got the highest per capita solar installation rate in the world in this nation, something we should be very, very, very proud of. That is work that has been done by this government over a long period of time as we have led the charge on this issue, as we have ensured we have brought on community, we have brought on business and we have trained installers how to safely install solar panels on roofs. When this industry started very, very few people knew how to put solar on roofs. When this industry started solar panels were $100 a watt. Now we are talking cents per watt. The price has come down. The skills have come up. The efficiency of installation has improved year on year on year, and therefore it has made more and more economic sense for people to install solar and for businesses to install solar. It is no longer a conversation of philosophy or a conversation of values around doing something to better the environment or better the climate – which we should do, which we must do – but it is actually a conversation around good-quality, cheap, dependable electricity, and that is why people have moved in droves to install it. This government backed it, set very clear policy frameworks and set very clear community understanding and expectations of what we have wanted to do in Victoria. And this is just the start for households in one way, because electrification is the next massive step. It is already underway with solar hot water, but it is a massive next piece of work which this government has identified and is acting on. Cooktops, heating, EVs – electric vehicles – I cannot wait. I hope I am in this place for a long time, because I know it is a bit of fun for people to now snigger about electric vehicles. We are already seeing the prices coming down. We are seeing the prices coming down and individuals are buying them and taking them up.

Evan Mulholland interjected.

Tom McINTOSH: Mr Mulholland, please, put your thoughts on the record, because I cannot wait to come back in time, comrade Mulholland. We will come back in time and we will look at this and we will say, ‘EVs were coming.’ It too takes a lot of work. It does take a lot of work, but we are up to that. We are up to that as a state, we are up to it as a nation and I truly hope we are up to it as a world community, because we are all in this together.

I just want to touch a little bit more on the consumer side of things. I have worked in consumer protection, and in consumer protection in the energy space, and it is something I am very passionate about. This government has done a lot of work with retailers and with distributors over time to ensure that consumers have the best information possible and they have the best access to hardship policy possible. The government backs people in with energy concessions where needed, and of course on this side we are very proud and I believe members all across the place have been very proud to be out selling it: the power saving bonus. That is backing –

Ryan Batchelor: It’s very popular.

Tom McINTOSH: It is very, very popular, Mr Batchelor.

Michael Galea interjected.

Tom McINTOSH: Indeed, Mr Galea, because it is not only giving people a discount on their energy bills, it is ensuring they are on the best price. It is keeping the market accountable. It is keeping the market accountable to be delivering Victorians with an essential service they need at the cheapest possible prices.

Now I can finally get onto the SEC, probably the biggest announcement to come out of the election campaign. We are talking tens of thousands of jobs. We are talking government-owned investment in renewable energy. We are talking about the government leaning in and saying, ‘You know what? We’re taking responsibility.’ This is a massive, massive undertaking, and we are leaning in and we are taking responsibility to ensure that we have the generation capacity; that we have the transmission lines in place; that the system will work together from one end of the state to the other and indeed, as I mentioned before, with other states; and that consumers are getting electricity to their homes and they are not being gouged to do so. It is electricity being supplied to the home dependably and cheaper. That is why I, all on this side and, I believe, the majority of Victorians are proud of and absolutely support the SEC. God, I have still got so many pages of notes, President. I beg your pardon. I do not even know how I am going to get through this in the allotted time.

David Davis: At least you wrote them yourself.

Tom McINTOSH: Indeed, I did, Mr Davis. I am so passionate. Can we ask for an extension of time? Can the chamber vote for an extension of time?

On transport and zero-emissions buses, I do not know if anyone could have missed it – literally the size of a bus, I think the expression goes.

Ryan Batchelor: Bus sized.

Tom McINTOSH: A bus-sized bus out the front of Parliament yesterday. And do you know what was written across the top? ‘Zero Emissions’. That is because this government is rolling out zero-emissions buses. We have got trial sites – in fact we have got one in Eastern Victoria, in Traralgon – and by 2025 all new buses will be zero emissions. We have got 4000 diesel buses in this state, and we have to transition to zero-emission buses. I love it. I think it is great. Perhaps it is not the sexiest thing to talk about, but it is important, because the thing about climate change is you cannot just pick one or two things that are shiny and say, ‘Oh, look, we’re taking action on climate change.’ You have to look at everything: you have got to look at energy, you have got to look at transport, you have got to look at agriculture and you have got to look at waste. That is what this government is doing. We are looking at everything. It does not mean we get a headline every day, but it means we are taking action every day. We are delivering every single day, because net zero emissions by 2045 are not just going to happen. It is not about writing a target on a bit of paper. It is about having a plan to deliver meaningful targets – deliver them – and Victorians know that we are delivering on them.

I just talked about agriculture. I visited places – it must have been – late last year with Minister Tierney. The work this government is doing around reducing agricultural emissions is sensational – if you look at breeding and you look at supplementary feeding. It is important we are doing this work now. We do not want to turn around in years to come and be like, ‘Oh, God, how are we going to get our agricultural industry emissions down?’ Again, it is coming back to thinking about the incremental steps so that when we put them together we achieve the plan to deliver what it is we say we are going to do and to deliver what we want to do.

I am going to talk about Dutson Downs farm, again in Eastern Victoria. It is in Minister Shing’s relevant area. The work the water board is doing there is incredible. For starters – I will not even get to water first – I am going to talk about waste. Waste mitigation perhaps is the word. 180,000 tonnes of green waste are coming out of the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne and being composted. That results in 60,000 tonnes of agricultural compost leaving that site that otherwise would have been buried. Additionally on this site, thousands of hectares of marginal land, just off the back of sand dunes, is being treated with the compost as wastewater, which once was just flowing down a canal. Treated water from Morwell, both industrial and residential, is now being treated to a quality where it can be used to ensure thriving agricultural conditions on this farm.

I have talked about this in here before: it is about that circular economy. It is about looking at things sustainably. I think sustainability is a really important word. Some feel that sustainability has been hijacked and it has been made a bit niche or a bit owned by some. Sustainability is absolutely key. It does not matter whether you are looking at the economy, whether you are looking at public health or whether you are looking at our agricultural industries, sustainability is absolutely vital. We all need to be sustainable. We need to be sustainable in our lives and we need to be sustainable as a society. This farm is an absolute living example of not only the variety of ag farming that is going on but of various other treatments of waste products which are seeing that circular economy come to life.

I also visited the Drouin wastewater plant, a $50 million new wastewater plant – I actually did get a plaque that day, which I am still very proud of, which I think you have heard me talk about in this chamber before – with floating pontoons of solar panels on the wastewater. It is these ideas and it is this investment that are ensuring every step of the way that we are reducing our need for energy that is not generated by renewables and that is ensuring we are delivering on what it is we have set out to achieve.

On the other side of this, we do have to be mindful that we have new industries, and of course there are going to be waste products that come from those. I am delighted that the Kilmany solar recycling plant – late last year I visited Kilmany – is taking solar panels from all across Australia and what would be waste products from industry, from councils and from homes, in combination with a number of universities, to ensure that we are recycling and reusing what would have been waste products from our solar panels and solar-related technology.

I think I have given a brief outline of the work that this state government is doing. Against all the political headwinds of the last two decades this government has stood strong, has shown leadership, has identified where the state of Victoria is headed, has communicated with the public, has communicated with industry, has talked to workers, has planned for the skills and has planned the technology. We are exceeding our goals. We are setting ambitious world-leading goals, and we are going to deliver on those goals to ensure that by 2045 we have net zero emissions.

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (10:21): I am rising to make a contribution to the Energy and Resources Legislation Amendment (Transition Away from Coal) Bill 2023. I say at the outset there is much that the Greens are seeking to achieve here that is common ground but some significant areas are not. Just listening to the government’s lead speaker, there is of course much that is common ground in terms of climate change abatement, managing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the impact of our industrial and other activity on our planet. That is common ground, and I make it very clear that there is a lot of common ground. However, there are again also differences.

On this bill, I want to be very clear that the coalition went to the election with a very clear climate change target and an agreement to legislate that target – unlike the government at the time – to be very clear about the 2030 target. But there are a number of problems with this bill. Essentially we see that the role of coal now is a phasing-down role. We understand that completely. We do see that there is a significant role for gas as a transition fuel, as an interim fuel, that will play a very important role in providing stability in the electrical system. We see that there is a very significant role that has got to be played there because inherently at the moment many of the renewables are less reliable. The truth is that industry and households need very clear and reliable energy sources in aggregate. None of that is to diminish the significance of the growth in renewables over the last several decades, and that is a set of steps that we have supported on many occasions in this chamber and elsewhere and that we will continue to support.

This bill I think, though, is a bridge too far, and in these circumstances we cannot support it. The transition that is required will need to occur, but we think 2030 is a very ambitious target to remove all of the impacts of coal and so forth. We think that is extremely ambitious indeed. In that circumstance we think it is unrealistic. One hundred per cent by 2030 is something that would cause significant economic dislocation in our community. It is a question of how the transition is managed. It is a question of the steps that are taken and the time lines. We understand those legitimate debates, but we think that this bill just goes too far, and in that sense we cannot support the bill. The need for the state to take the actions that are necessary – that we all understand are necessary – cannot be overstated, and the need to work where we can collaboratively is also something that we see as important. But on this occasion we will not be supporting the bill.

We are less enamoured than I think the Greens are with the Latrobe Valley Authority. I will just put on the record our concerns about that body. We think that it is very administratively top heavy. It has a very large administrative load and is delivering relatively little for the size of the spending. This is in one sense quite separate from the points about the objectives of the bill, but the Latrobe Valley Authority should have an important role in assisting people in the valley and assisting those who are impacted negatively by the transition. I accept that the Greens also indicate there are people who will be impacted negatively and will need assistance. The objective we have no difficulty with, but this authority we think is in practice not working well at all. We think it is administratively heavy and has huge costs, and we think that this is an opportunity that is actually being lost. If this authority was working better, it would be better for those who are impacted but would also thereby assist the transition. Those are just a couple of points that we would make, but on this occasion we will not support the bill.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:27): It is a pleasure today to rise to speak on the Energy and Resources Legislation Amendment (Transition Away from Coal) Bill 2023. We are navigating well into the 21st century now, and it is good to see broad support for the need – the urgency ‍– for us to transition away from coal to renewable energy sources. This transition is perhaps one of the most important environmental obligations that we as a Parliament and other parliaments around the world are grappling with, but it is also one that has an economic imperative. It is an opportunity to reshape our societies around clean, sustainable and technologically advanced energy systems.

Victoria is of course already among the global leaders spearheading this monumental shift. Under the leadership of the Andrews Labor government, Victoria has emerged as a beacon of change, embracing renewable energy like never before and setting a compelling example for others to follow, particularly across the nation. Achieving a sustainable future is a complex task, though. It comes with its own set of challenges. Whilst we work towards this goal, we must also always bear in mind the responsibility of protecting jobs and livelihoods and managing this transition from coal to renewable energy in a way which is done with careful planning, with foresight and with a deep understanding of our society’s socio-economic fabric. It is evident that the Andrews Labor government approaches this in a way that recognises the importance of the issue.

Whilst it is easy to advocate for a utopian, perfect world, sometimes these visions overlook realities on the ground. The Andrews Labor government recognises the need for a pragmatic, balanced approach that goes beyond such lofty ideals. They understand that any meaningful transition is a journey that involves careful planning, taking calculated steps and making tough choices where necessary. This government prioritises creating a sustainable future, without compromising the present, and ensuring the wellbeing of all Victorians in our cities, in our suburbs and in our regions. We are the party of climate action, progress, getting things done and doing what matters. The road to a clean energy future is a marathon, not a sprint, and it is essential that we do this in a considered way. It is about aiming high while keeping our feet firmly on the ground.

This government, recognising the pressing need to transition from coal to renewable energy, has already orchestrated a robust and transformative approach to this challenge. This transition is not perceived as a mere switch of energy sources. Rather it is a fundamental shift with far-reaching implications, akin to the transformative power of pivotal innovations like the dial-up modem or the printing press.

Of course, as my colleague Mr McIntosh has already mentioned, one of the centrepieces of our current approach to this is bringing back the SEC, the State Electricity Commission. Over the previous two terms of this government a number of initiatives took place, especially in the field of renewable energy, supporting our state’s further development and growth through these better, more advanced technologies. The SEC is a game changer. It is going to turbocharge these efforts, with an initial investment from government of $1 billion, which is laying the foundation to work in partnership with public operators and private consortiums to work hand in hand to deliver the energy outcomes that this state needs by delivering 4.5 gigawatts of power through our investment in building renewable energy and storage projects. This substantial investment does not simply stand as an affirmation of our commitment to renewable energy – though it does – it is a testament to the foresight and strategic planning that underline the government’s vision for a renewable energy powered Victoria. This is not limited merely to one set of challenges; this is a reshaping of what our state will look like well into the future. I also note that through the SEC and other initiatives this government now has the most ambitious energy storage targets anywhere in the country. These targets serve multiple purposes. Firstly, of course, they serve environmental benefits, aiding our transition, but they also contribute to driving down power bills and creating thousands of new job opportunities. By focusing on energy storage as one key critical component of this, the government is ushering in a new era of energy utilisation that maximises the benefits of renewable sources.

A pivotal aspect of a successful transition to renewable energy is a workforce that possesses the skills and expertise to navigate this new landscape. To this end, the Andrews government has also established the $50 million TAFE Clean Energy Fund. This initiative is more than an education fund; it is a visionary project that prepares the workforce for a future increasingly dominated by renewable energy. Along with my other colleagues from the chamber on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, last week we greatly enjoyed looking at the energy space, in particular the new initiatives powering up our workforce for the future SEC. The Andrews Labor government’s vision transcends the confines of just one sector and spills over into areas like job security and economic prosperity as well as other areas such as transport, which I will return to as well. The return of the State Electricity Commission is designed to not only transition the state towards renewable energy but also drive down power bills, providing significant economic relief to Victorians.

In the meantime, of course, there are many other initiatives. Again, as my colleague Mr McIntosh referred to, the power saving bonus has been a very, very popular initiative, and the fourth round, currently underway, has received well over a million applications already, which is fantastic to see. I particularly enjoyed getting out and about with my colleague Mr Edbrooke, the member for Frankston, at a very successful street stall at Karingal and then with my colleague Mr Tarlamis at some very successful street stalls in Berwick and Rowville. It was great to have such a strong turnout. People were desperate to not only get the $250 bonus of course but also find out if there is a better deal out there for them. Being able to help them with that has been a very, very rewarding part of the last few months in this job. There are people out there still who do struggle with technology, so having us there to help them has been a really valuable thing – a valuable thing that I note members opposite have taken up as well with gusto, encouraging their constituents to take up the power saving bonus, which is really terrific to see. It is terrific to see some bipartisanship too in acknowledging a good Labor government policy. That is one thing going on in the meantime.

Beyond that, though, another initiative that will contribute to our renewable energy transition and job creation is the waste-to-energy bioenergy fund. This fund will support farming and food production industries in Victoria to convert organic waste into renewable energy. By targeting agricultural and livestock waste, this initiative will serve multiple purposes, reducing waste, contributing to renewable energy generation and, most importantly, creating and stimulating new jobs and industries in regional areas.

The Andrews Labor government stands out for taking an all-encompassing approach to the energy transition. This approach considers economic and societal impacts alongside those environmental considerations. We recognise that the shift from coal to renewables is not simply a change in energy source, it is a fundamental change in the way we operate our economy and our society. To ensure that this is done properly we are taking an all-encompassing approach to ensure that we are taking Victorians with us on this path as well.

Another topic which my colleague Mr McIntosh referred to is transport. Transport is the source of some of the largest and fastest growing carbon emissions in our state, as in many other Western jurisdictions around the world. We have done several initiatives over the past few years for the take-up of electric vehicles, which is good to see, but it is not the only answer. The answer cannot just be, ‘Everyone keep your cars, everyone switch to electric and the problem is solved.’ There are broader changes that we can make as well, and we recognise that. That is why this government has been investing so heavily in our public transport network, because you get far more benefits from a modal shift both to public transport and to active forms of course, the most sustainable forms of transport, walking and cycling, which are to be supported as well. Even with a conventional diesel bus, a bus carrying 40 people is far more environmentally friendly than 40 cars driving down the freeway.

Nevertheless we can and must do better, and that is why it was so good to see the zero-emissions bus outside on the steps of Parliament yesterday. I did not quite think you could fit a bus up there until we saw it, but from across the other side of Spring Street it was quite a sight to see. I am even happier to say that that bus is actually based at Kinetic’s Heatherton depot in my electorate of South-Eastern Metropolitan. Along with my colleague Meng Heang Tak, the member for Clarinda, I had the opportunity to visit that depot and see how that Melbourne-based company too are transforming their depots, including at Heatherton, to adapt to our renewable energy future by redesigning their sheds and providing charging stations. They are also looking at ways of adapting the network and looking at opportunities to put in quick-charge points at major bus terminals such as shopping centres and train stations. It is adapting the way that we do it. These buses have remarkable mileage on battery as well ‍– quite impressive – which I was not expecting to see. It was fantastic to see that zero-emissions bus here at Parliament yesterday, as well as a number of initiatives right across the state. I know there are a number of depots in the northern suburbs – and in the west at Sunshine West, I believe – that already have these buses, as well as of course the one at Traralgon that Mr McIntosh referred to before. Every step along this journey is one step closer to a more sustainable future in the transport space. We already have taken steps to ensure that our tram network is now fully solar powered, making it one of the greenest ways to travel across this city, which is fantastic and one more step taking us away from coal.

The advocacy for an even faster transition from coal to renewable energy is obviously admirable, but it does not take into account the fact that we are already nation leading – in fact in many cases world leading – on this approach. We have to do this in a way that supports Victorian workers, supports Victorian industry and does not cause risk, especially to regional communities such as those in the Latrobe Valley, and our approach is to support those workers and to be investing now in the SEC and in other projects. There is also of course the Star of the South, a major new offshore wind farm being developed in Gippsland, and right across the state the SEC centres for excellence and other training centres that we are putting into place to make sure that our workforce is ready and is prepared right away to get on with the job of building our new renewable energy future.

As we transition to renewable energy we must take the approaches of idealism and realism and consider those directly affected by the challenges. The shift will involve economic, labour and social issues, so policies must protect the livelihoods of Victorians. In addition to the TAFE Clean Energy Fund and the State Electricity Commission, we have taken the approach that recognises that renewable energy must reshape our society, whilst acknowledging the need for thoughtful and pragmatic navigation. This renewable energy revolution promises a profound change, but it requires a nuanced, realistic and inclusive approach to truly succeed. Achieving our renewable energy goals goes beyond simply displacing coal or achieving carbon neutrality. It is about pioneering a new era of energy production and consumption that benefits everyone, provides job security, fosters economic prosperity and protects our planet for future generations. This is at the heart of the Andrews Labor government’s renewable energy policy and the pathway to a sustainable and prosperous Victoria.

In closing I would just like to acknowledge that as much as I might admire the intentions of this bill put forward today, I think it really is important to focus on what is being achieved and what this government is achieving, because, as I say, we are not just nation leading but we are frankly world leading, and we are leading in the transition away from coal.

Samantha Ratnam interjected.

Michael GALEA: I did mention coal before, did I not?

Samantha Ratnam interjected.

Michael GALEA: That is exactly what we are doing. We are bringing in renewable energy. We are bringing in the SEC, Dr Ratnam. This is not about rebuilding the old SEC with coal at the centre of it. This is about a new era and about adapting ourselves away from coal. I would ask that Dr Ratnam support our government’s efforts to do this because it is –

Samantha Ratnam: We are. We are helping you.

Michael GALEA: Well, I am very grateful for that, Dr Ratnam, but what I would say is that this is a bill that whilst admirable is actually something that we are already doing; we are already working towards this process. So I encourage you to come on board and join us with that. I acknowledge that in some cases you already have, but this is something that is a major change to our state and a major change to our nation and to our energy network.

The transition away from coal is important, but it must be done in a way that takes into account working communities who do currently rely on those industries. Whilst we do have plans to transition that out, where we differ on that is that we will not be leaving those people behind, so that is why I cannot support this bill today.

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:42): I am very pleased today to be able to rise and speak in support of the Greens Energy and Resources Legislation Amendment (Transition Away from Coal) Bill 2023. I do note the contributions that have been made before me today, and while I absolutely welcome conversation around renewables, for example, it seems we have had quite sparing mention of coal – the mining and burning of coal being the substance of this bill – in the debate so far. Perhaps it is an elephant in the room. Perhaps the government is not wanting to talk about this, but nonetheless I will seek to return to the substance of the bill.

This bill seeks to ban new fossil fuels and to set an end date of 2030 for the burning of thermal coal. This legislation would block initiatives like the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain project, which would see hundreds of millions of public dollars being poured into the mining and burning of brown coal to be exported in the form of hydrogen – a project so absurd even the Minister for Energy and Resources is reportedly opposed to it. This bill would also increase Victoria’s renewable energy target, as we have been talking about, to 100 per cent by 2030. It would prohibit licences under the EPA being issued for thermal coal activity after 31 December 2030 and cancel any existing licences.

We are already in the thick of the climate crisis. We do not have the luxury of time to squeeze every last cent we can out of fossil fuels before taking this seriously. This legislation enshrines a ban on coal mining in the constitution, ensuring Victoria takes meaningful action against this existential threat while providing certainty and structure for this important economic transition.

In this chamber I often talk about the importance of giving young people a voice in decisions that affect their future like this one and decisions made by this Parliament. As such, given the lack of young people present in this chamber today, I would like to share the words of a bright, young 19-year-old who was one of the organisers and driving forces behind the School Strike 4 Climate movement here in Australia that many of you will know of. These are her words:

As a young person, I’ve only ever known a world in the throes of a climate emergency. All ten hottest years on record have occurred during my lifetime – my norm is the unprecedented.

And when I was 14, the UN published a report sounding the alarm that we had just 12 years left to avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis. I learnt then that I couldn’t trust my so-called ‘leaders’ to ensure a liveable planet for all, and instead chose to dive headfirst into grassroots campaigning and activism.

That was almost 5 years ago now. And while action has been taken by this –

Labor –

government to increase renewable electricity –

as we mentioned –

in the state, Labor’s ongoing commitment to propping up our coal industry, especially through the HESC project, renders this effort functionally moot.

Of course, this crisis is already at our doorstep. Australia has spent the last several years lurching from one unprecedented climate disaster to the next. We’ve faced record-breaking drought and water scarcity, witnessed bushfires that ravaged our environment and polluted our air. We were battered by a seemingly endless onslaught of severe flood events along our east coast during the La Nina, and who’s to tell the scale of devastation to come in the likely event of an El Nino occurrence later this year.

We barely have time to process these tragedies, let alone to recover. I ask you – what more will it take for you to treat this like the emergency it is?

The International Energy Agency, the world’s leading energy organisation, announced back in 2021 that there could be no new investments in fossil fuel energy if we are to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

There is no middle-ground on the climate crisis. Every fraction of a degree of warming represents an exponential amplification of our already incalculable suffering. What the Greens are calling for isn’t drastic. It isn’t excessive. It’s the bare minimum.

But you know all of this already. As I write this speech, I’m finding myself struck by a sense of deja vu. I’ve written this exact speech more times than I can count over the last five years. Frankly, I’m sick of trying to justify why we deserve a safe and livable future to rooms of wealthy people three times my age.

Are we really still debating this?

Do you ever get tired of the empty words, the cop-outs, the corporate pandering?

I urge you to look beyond the myopic lens of the next election cycle, and recognise that your actions have consequences unforetold in scale. Your role here is to serve the public, who cast their ballot placing trust in you to represent them.

No matter how you slice it, failure to support all necessary measures to minimise the climate crisis is an abject failure of your duty to your constituents.

To put my message bluntly: Every member in this chamber that does not support this legislation should feel ashamed. The science is clear – as it has been for years.

With these words I commend this bill to the house.

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (10:48): I am pleased to rise to put on record the Nationals position in opposition to this private members bill put up by the Greens today, the Energy and Resources Legislation Amendment (Transition Away from Coal) Bill 2023.

I would like to first of all just respond to some of the comments by my colleague the Labor member for Eastern Victoria Region Mr Tom McIntosh. I appreciate his comments and passion, but I wanted to pick up one of the key points that he raised in his debate in relation to manufacturing. He said, ‘Labor is leading the move.’ Well, in Latrobe Valley Labor has been leading the move out of manufacturing for the past decade. They have been leading the move out of the closure of Hazelwood. They have been leading the move out of Carter Holt Harvey. They have been, as we now know, since the time of the budget on 23 May, leading the move out of a sustainable hardwood native timber industry that produces billions of dollars worth of product, including dressed timber. Indeed only recently I went to Collingwood, and in Collingwood I saw a 15-storey building that had columns and structural mass laminated timber that was manufactured and engineered by ASH timber in Heyfield, which has a 40 per cent reduction in embodied carbon compared to other construction materials. But that piece of beautiful timber that enriches people’s lives when they work under it, and there are clear studies around that, will no longer be occurring because we can no longer make locally sourced, sustainable hardwood timber. That is going to be a one-off. Go and look at it. It is magnificent.

The Andrews government has overseen the closure of Australia’s only paper production, in Reflex paper, and indeed also recently the M2 machine at Opal for specialty paper. I understand in talking to workers at Opal that we are going to see the loss of at least 30 per cent in production and 45 per cent in overall trades and white-collar jobs, leading to over 200 lost jobs – redundancies; these are jobs that cannot be transferred through Opal – under the Andrews government.

If we go to the SEC – and I know that both the Labor members were spruiking the SEC – just for the record again, the people of the Latrobe Valley in the seat of Morwell did not like it. When I stood on the polling booths, except if you were dyed-in-the-wool – and there are dyed-in-the-wools on all sides ‍– there were people who scoffed at it as a policy thought bubble on the run, and now the government is having to backtrack and put some framework around that policy. So 31 per cent of the people had a primary vote in support of the SEC. I will put on record too that my grandfather actually worked for the SEC many years ago.

Under the Andrews government we have had the following startling statistics – and these are not my statistics; these are from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. These are small area labour market statistics. The industry closures in the Latrobe Valley and broader Gippsland as well have increased as these so-called transitional arrangements promised by the Andrews government have failed to produce jobs. In Latrobe Valley we see that there has been an 8 per cent shrinkage of jobs in these small area labour markets over the last 11 years. By contrast, it is not all bad for the rest of regional Victoria, which saw 11 per cent to 37 per cent increases. Geelong had a 39 per cent increase in jobs, and Melbourne LGA had a 44 per cent increase over the last decade. I go to the point that the Andrews government is leading the move of jobs out of my electorate and from the people that I very much care for, have worked with and, I hope, have supported in this place.

I will go to the Greens bill. I note that the Greens genuinely care about the rental market, and I can see that. They have brought people in here saying that we have got a rental crisis and that we do not have enough houses or shelters for our people. But this is what they are going to do in the Latrobe Valley if their bill passes, and it will not pass today: Yallourn power station thermal generation will close by 2024, Loy Yang A by 2027 and Loy Yang B by 2030. You are going to smash families and make those people who work in those industries unemployed. Latrobe Valley unemployment rates are the highest in regional Victoria, period. You are only going to hurt these people. Now, I do not know if they have just gone, ‘That’s a basket case there. We kind of like everyone else, but we really don’t care that much for Latrobe Valley.’ You are going to smash people in these regions. Unfortunately we can see that the cost of electricity has absolutely skyrocketed in recent years. We know that the Essential Services Commission is talking, it feels like almost weekly or monthly, about household rates – of increases in the 30 per cent area every year. You see the pain that this is causing.

I will absolutely commit that the Nationals want to support and to have a vision for a responsible transition and a dynamic energy mix – a matrix of renewables as we transition. However, this bill is quite reckless. It is quite irresponsible to be shutting that grid down for the following reasons. We have seen this in other states and in other countries. Scotland, for example, in recent years has gone to 100 per cent renewable energy. Let us look at their costs of electricity. The Scottish regulator has put an increase cap on residential bills of 80 per cent – not 30 per cent or whatever, but 80 per cent. We have seen that businesses are looking at 200 to 500 per cent increases. That is unsustainable for any business to keep the doors open and the lights on. I point that out.

In relation to poles and wires – if this bill were to pass – and the capacity in the system, we all want electricity to flow and we need that transition to be responsible and measured, but if you have those closures of the thermal generation, you are going to see a lack of transmission lines by these dates. I have spoken with SP AusNet in the past in Eastern Victoria Region about their commitment to running the transmission lines that would attach to the source of that electricity from the offshore wind turbines right the way through and into the grid in the Latrobe Valley. They have been doing that work for a number of years, and they still say that it will be, if they get the tender, if they get the contract, up to 2030 before they are up and running. If you look at VicGrid, which was the next round of decisions by the government, if they have that tender – and it is the government looking after their own tender ‍– if they are looking at doing that, the poles and wires will not be ready. You will not have the capacity in the system. You will not have the wind turbines out to sea manufactured and installed by 2024, 2027 or even, if we are lucky, 2030. You are going to condemn Victorians to having to import electricity at huge, huge costs.

I note the Greens are very anti the hydrogen project, and I can understand that because it comes from coal and coal is just carte blanche non-grata for the Greens. My philosophy has always been that we should be technology agnostic but we should have a focus on carbon dioxide emissions. They talk about evil hydrogen, but in fact we have got the Japanese government and consortia looking at investing $1.6 billion into a supply chain to create that gasification from coal with carbon capture and storage. Again, they are going to say pooh-pooh, but if industry can manufacture it and if there is a will through private enterprise to create this energy and we end up with low to zero carbon emissions, then that should be the end point and the focus.

I was recently out at the Colac trial site, the CO₂ CarbonNet, and listened to and understood all the work that was going on there over decades about their safe carbon capture and storage. At the end of the day it has got to be economically feasible as well as environmentally feasible. Let that play out as it will – do not knock it on the head – because the other way that can happen is when there is totally green hydrogen produced from solar panels and wind turbines, when there is that excess, that is when we can merge, utilise and embrace that hydrogen economy from green sources.

Just finishing off in terms of some of the other points that the Greens were spruiking in the debate last month on this, the Latrobe Valley Authority is going to secure funding to 2035. We have seen in this budget the LVA have a $7.2 million budget. That is for trading costs. It is for wages and administration. There are no new projects there. Unfortunately we have also seen Regional Development Victoria funding cut. Where Regional Development Victoria was all about promoting the investment in our regions, we have seen that funding cut. The LVA certainly has no projects on the market. It does not actually have implementation of transition jobs, as it was set up to do post Hazelwood, so what is its relevance, and how is it actually going to choose workers?

Finally, when we think about the people who are losing their jobs, I have spoken to EnergyAustralia at Yallourn. They are really on the front foot, working very hard to provide an avenue for new skills, new training and new careers. They have been very proactive, from my having spoken with the unions and EnergyAustralia. But that is not going to happen if you are going to shut this down by next January. You are going to create pain, and unfortunately this is a reckless bill. As I have said, the Nationals and the Liberals support a managed and sensible transition that provides electricity, that continues to keep our lights on and allows families to be able to afford to keep the lights on, but it is unfortunate – is this a gimmick? Well, it is the Greens pandering to their sector. I think that we need to be responsible to all Victorians, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and to play a responsible climate action role, but we cannot do it by crippling certain Victorians and putting a huge burden on the rest of us.

Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (11:02): I rise to speak to the Energy and Resources Legislation Amendment (Transition Away from Coal) Bill 2023 on behalf of Legalise Cannabis Victoria. Let me start by complimenting the government on their progress in this area. Credit where credit is due – it is easy for someone like me, on the crossbench, to speak of 100 per cent renewable energy by 2023 without carrying the burden of implementation. So for this government to commit to a real-world 95 per cent renewable energy target by 2035 is significant and nation leading. However, does that mean we should not make every effort to do better? I say no. There is no more significant or important issue in our time than the threat of climate change. We must be ambitious in our target setting. The forecasts are devastating and the requirement to act urgent. We cannot forget for a second that restoring a safe climate now is the number-one priority of our generation. We must include a fast transition to zero emissions. We recognise that this bill takes that important step to addressing the urgent climate crisis we face and to encouraging further ambition in the government’s renewable energy transition. This bill does this through a plan to legislate a 100 per cent renewable energy target by 2030, prohibiting any licence to engage in thermal coal activity, prohibiting the exploration for, or mining of, coal and entrenching this prohibition in the state’s constitution. We support these concepts in principle and acknowledge the urgent need to transition to renewable energy, including the role that Victoria has to play nationally and internationally to support this transition.

It is also concerning to us that at a time when this government is championing its efforts to reduce reliance on non-renewable energy, it is still actively mining and burning brown coal for hydrogen and export. Carbon capture and storage is not foolproof technology. The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain may sound good on paper, but we believe it will only go to increasing Victoria’s emissions at a time when we should instead be doing all we can to decrease them. During a climate crisis we should not be actively expanding our brown coal industry domestically and internationally while also throwing taxpayer money at speculative hydrogen projects. Rather we should focus on the needs of a just transition and build a sustainable future for Victoria. We should lead by example and support our international partners as they also transition away from non-renewables. We owe it to future generations of Victorians. They deserve to be safe and enjoy their natural environment in the same way we are gifted the opportunity to do. Addressing the climate emergency is one of Legalise Cannabis Victoria’s six key policy areas, so anything that stands to improve our position we will support. As such, Legalise Cannabis Victoria will be lending its support to this bill.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (11:06): I am very pleased to make a further contribution from the government on the Energy and Resources Legislation Amendment (Transition Away from Coal) Bill 2023, which fundamentally gives us in the chamber a chance to reflect on efforts that have been made in the state of Victoria to transform our energy system from one that has historically been reliant on some of the most polluting forms of fossil fuels to one that is much more comprehensively supported by clean and renewable energy.

In the context of Victoria’s energy history, I do not think anyone who understands the way that Victoria’s energy systems have been developed historically and the sources that they have used to power them should underestimate absolutely the scale of the task to transition Victoria from being reliant on some of the dirtiest forms of coal that we can produce to being a nation leader in renewable energy. The scale of that task is exceptionally significant, and I think it is incumbent upon us to reflect upon that in making a determination as to whether we are doing enough fast enough. The scale of the task that is at hand in making Victoria a renewable energy superpower is significant.

Energy systems are not things that you can turn around on a dime. They are large and complex, as my colleague Mr McIntosh so extensively outlined in his contribution earlier in this debate. The way our energy grid is established, the way it is governed and operated – everything from the infrastructure to the physics of this system – is complex. To see what we have been able to achieve in that context of complexity I think is quite remarkable and deserves this moment of reflection. We have had from the policy settings from this government over the last eight and a bit years, but also from the Labor government prior to that, a fundamentally demonstrated acknowledgement that climate change is real. That is the starting point of all of this – that our actions are contributing to our planet’s environment and climate changing. It is an acknowledgement that was not universally shared. If you go back 10 or 15 years, or even five, you have significant sections of the political debate and political parties in this country – probably some still today – who do not believe that climate change is real, who do not believe that there is an urgent need for us to take action. The Labor Party at a state level and at a federal level has always been on the side of both acknowledging that climate change is real and understanding and delivering on climate action. It is those two things that are fundamental to the debate. Those two things are fundamental to success as a state and a nation in making sure that we are transitioning from coal to renewables, because over that time you have got to have both an appreciation for the complexity of the task and a sustained policy commitment to the transition.

I think, and this is something I just want to remark upon, you have got to have the tenacity to get it done. I wanted to, in the context of a debate about Victoria’s energy transition, reflect upon and congratulate Minister D’Ambrosio for her contribution to this over the last 8½ years that she has been the responsible minister for climate action and associated portfolios here in Victoria. We would not be in the position we are today as a state without someone like Minister D’Ambrosio every single day doing everything she possibly could to ensure that our energy future was both secure and renewable and pulling all of the levers at her disposal to make sure we got there. It is a credit to her and to the rest of the government – leadership from the Premier and the rest of the cabinet. Minister D’Ambrosio has done an amazing job as the energy and climate action minister here in the state of Victoria, and I think I can say she is the best energy minister we have ever had. I think we can say that.

The content of the bill being proposed by those on the crossbench has as its essence that we have got to do more, that the efforts that we have made are not good enough, but I think it is important to step through exactly what we have said we wanted to do, put in place the policy measures required to achieve success and figure out how we are going, because there is no point saying we have got to do more if we do not know how much we have done already.

So it is important in the context of this debate just to remember what we have said about our renewable energy targets, because we have set some of the most ambitious targets for renewable energy in the nation. We want to get to 65 per cent renewable energy by 2030 and 95 per cent by 2035, and to measure our likelihood of achieving those goals, we should look at how we have performed in the past. We had a target in 2020 of having 25 per cent of our power generated here in Victoria by renewable energy. It was an ambitious target. People thought, ‘I don’t know if they’re ever going to do that; I don’t know if they’re going to make it.’ But what did we do? How did we go at meeting that first target?

A member: Smashed it.

Ryan BATCHELOR: We absolutely smashed it. Last year more than 30 per cent – 32 per cent, I think – of our power came from renewable energy. So we said we wanted to be at 25 per cent by 2020, and in 2022 we were already well over 30 per cent – on track to meet our ambitious but achievable renewable energy targets. And of course we want to get all the way to net zero by 2045. With these targets and our progress in actually achieving them, Victoria’s economy will be decarbonising at one of the fastest rates of anywhere in the world. So not only are we leading the nation in the scale of our ambition, not only are we achieving that scale of ambition, but we are also demonstrating to the rest of the world that if you follow the lead of a place like Victoria, you can achieve decarbonisation at one of the fastest rates anywhere. And that is all about both the leadership that is coming from the state government – and I have reflected on the energy minister’s contribution to that – and having the size of the industry, the necessary supports across that industry, both from the conditions for capital investment – the market frameworks to facilitate that – and the skilled workers to do the work. Because you cannot have ambitious goals of delivering new energy projects if you do not have the workers who can do it and if you do not have the supply chains to put in place to make sure that they can be built, as much as they can be, with local products.

It is the comprehensive commitment of the government across all sectors, all portfolios, to helping achieve our net zero energy task that means we are doing so well. That is why we are achieving these targets. That is why we are doing our bit in Victoria to align with the Paris agreement goals of limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees. We know we are doing it because all the independent expert advice confirms that we are. The way that we are doing it is by delivering the largest annual increase in renewable generation of any state ever.

Renewable energy in Victoria grew by 3.6 terawatt hours in 2021. That is a lot of renewable energy growth. With our second renewable energy auction, announced in October last year, there were six huge new projects around the state delivering 600 megawatts of renewable energy capacity. Not only have we done it once but we are coming back and doing it again and again. The effect that that has is both enabling us to deliver what the community wants us to be delivering and helping us meet our commitments. If there is one thing you can say about this government it is that we meet our commitments: we deliver on what we say we are going to do. We want to make government operations powered by renewable electricity: police stations, schools and hospitals. We want to make sure that that can occur here in Victoria, and that is exactly what the framework that we are establishing is doing.

One of the ways that we are leading the nation in our renewable energy agenda – and my colleague Mr McIntosh as a member for Eastern Victoria made good mention of our commitment to and support for the offshore wind industry – is through the support that this state government has given to offshore wind. Its success is demonstrated by the fact that unarguably Victoria is the home of the offshore wind industry here in Australia. Our targets are leading the nation. We want to bring online 2 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2032, 4 gigawatts by 2035 and 9 gigawatts by 2040, which is going to create thousands of jobs and drive a billion dollars of investment. We saw at the end of last year an Australian first: an offshore wind zone was declared off the coast of Gippsland. We know there is the potential for that. We know that it is going to deliver the sort of baseload-like power into our grid. Anyone who has walked along the beach in Gippsland will know how strong and how often that wind blows. It is going to be an exceptionally important part of our clean and renewable energy future, and it is being driven by the support of this state Labor government.

We know that the kind of government support that we need to be providing is not just about tinkering with market frameworks, it is not just about ensuring that different parts of policy settings are right. We know that to help achieve these targets government has got to step up to the plate and be an active participant, an active partner, in the delivery of renewable energy to this state. That is why it was really important that last year the Premier and the government announced our commitment to re-establishing a state electricity commission. It was our commitment to saying that once again we believe it is in our state’s interests for the public, through the government, to have a stake and have a say in our renewable energy future. That is what we are doing by bringing back the State Electricity Commission. So many years on from privatisation of our electricity sector this government is taking steps to bring back government ownership of electricity generation, of renewable energy generation, by bringing back the SEC.

As many of us are, I am someone in this chamber whose family – my grandfather – worked for the SEC, and my uncle was trained as an apprentice at the SEC and spent 55 years working on our transmission lines here in Victoria. Uncle Mick is exceptionally proud of his contribution and that of the thousands of people like him who gained their skills at this great state institution – and the generations, in the thousands, who will be able to do that into the future.

We are doing a lot more, and I just do not have the time to keep going on and on about the exceptional support the government is providing to households. But I think you can tell from my contribution today and other members’ contributions that there is no doubt that Victoria is leading when it comes to renewable energy. We are making great strides in transitioning away from coal. We are getting on and delivering real action on climate change.

Lee TARLAMIS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (11:21): I move:

That debate on this bill be adjourned until the next day of meeting.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned until next day of meeting.