Wednesday, 4 October 2023

Department of Treasury and Finance

Budget papers 2023–24

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (17:37): Today in the reports section I want – as you would expect of someone with a new portfolio – to reflect on the budget papers, what they show and what they do not show with respect to the energy portfolio. It is interesting to look at the objectives in the energy portfolio – reliable, sustainable, affordable energy services and so forth, and a long list of items. But when we look the actual output measures, this is not actually what they report. They are all mainly input measures, and some of them are worthy points. I do not diminish the fact that they should be there, and they can actually make a contribution. But there is nothing about the actual price paid by consumers, nothing about the price paid by businesses and nothing about the quality and reliability of supply and the lack of interruption: 100 per cent reliable supply would be a reasonable target, I would have thought – or a very high number – and a reduction in energy costs would be a reasonable target. That is actually not what is occurring.

There are some programs that the government has got which are perfectly reasonable programs which provide some assistance, you would presume, but the government has not laid out for itself to be measured on the actual outcomes, the actual energy costs paid by households and the actual reliability of supply. I note also in the public accounts and estimates document that we got this week, the 2023–‍24 budget estimates, a similar set of points is made in a more obtuse way. I do not in any way criticise the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, and this is a bipartisan report. It does make some recommendations, for instance, about the establishment of the SEC, the so-called re-establishment of the State Electricity Commission: $44.5 million in the 2023–24 budget to the establishment of the SEC includes staffing, accommodation and other points, and these are obviously inputs. But it does go to key issues at 9.6:

The State Electricity Commission (SEC) portfolio is a newly created portfolio in 2023–24.

It has no reported responsibilities in the budget papers. Now, let us give some reasonable latitude here, but we would expect some actual reported outcome measures in the next budget. The recommendation says:

The Department … clearly outline the responsibilities, related initiatives, outputs, objectives, objective indicators and performance measures of the State Electricity Commission portfolio in the 2024–25 Budget.

I do not think they are unreasonable requests by the committee. You have got this new body being established, there is $1 billion supposedly available here and the community will want to see that their prices come down, they will want to see that their supply is secure and they will want to see that there is a better actual outcome for the community. It is important I think to look at this principal claim that:

According to the budget papers, the new SEC will ‘accelerate investment in renewable energy in partnership with industry, deliver benefits to households through lower energy bills, and assist in meeting Victoria’s renewable energy targets’.

These have got to be measured. These have got to be reported, they have got to be reported annually and they have got to be seen in the budget. And we want to see that there is an outcome there for the community. If the government is going to expend this public money, this taxpayers money, we want to see energy prices falling, not increasing the way they have been. The truth of matter is – and I will not lay out the full detail today – we all know that energy costs have been going up. Yes, we might have a website we can go to and get $250 back, and that is great when you get the cheque from the taxpayer. But the point is that it does not actually lower the cost of energy. In fact energy costs have been going up, and there is a plug that comes in for $250.

But energy costs have gone up far more than that for most families. I would ask people in this chamber to ask families about this, because families are doing it tough. They are really feeling it. Businesses are doing it tough. All of these changes have got to be measured. You have got to have outcomes, and they have got to be cheaper power for people as a critical step and indeed more reliable power. We have seen recent reports from the Australian Energy Market Operator and so forth which have pointed to the issues of reliability we will be facing in the summer. They are things that should be measured and reported on in the budget too. Reliable, safe, cheap power; renewable power; and power that does not actually pollute – all of those are objectives, but they are not being reported on sufficiently in this budget.