Thursday, 30 November 2023

State Electricity Commission

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (18:33): (648) My adjournment is directed towards the Minister for the State Electricity Commission, and the action I seek is for the minister to clarify the investment of a quarter of a billion dollars in a foreign-owned investment and advise of the criteria. We saw today that Equis Australia’s battery farm in Melbourne, also known as the hub, will be the first project funded under the SEC. The company itself stated last year it had already received project approval – interesting. This is basically, I think, another broken promise. We have an existing project which was already supported by the private market. The broken promise is that the government announced before the election that the SEC would be about government-owned, government-controlled power generation, making electricity prices cheaper for Victorians. Well, this is now only a 38 per cent funding investment in a private battery hub. That is a broken promise because, as far as I remember, Mr Andrews went out to the electorate saying it would be government owned and government controlled. While there might be a case for this kind of investment – I do not think there is when there is already a private market going on – this is not what Labor actually promised. They have been telling porkies. There is not any kind of business case regarding this project either, and given they have already stated that the private market was going to fund this project, why do Victorians need to stack up for a 38 per cent share in this project? A year since the SEC was announced, we have seen a 25 per cent rise in electricity prices, and the only investment they have made from the SEC is into a project the private sector was going to fund anyway.

I ask the minister to clarify also what the SEC actually is. Is it an investment fund? Is it a piggy bank? Is it a retailer? Because I know I have heard members on that side saying they cannot wait to sign up their electricity with the SEC. So will the minister actually clarify whether it is a retailer, a wholesaler, an investment fund or a merchandise outfit supplying bags, jelly beans, hats saying ‘SEC’ and jackets with the old SEC logo? Maybe they just want to put the SEC logo into the constitution. We know that the structure already existed, even though its assets were sold off, so putting it in the constitution absolutely will not make a difference. The government can still divest from any investments. They are an absolute joke.