Wednesday, 31 July 2024

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Energy policy

David LIMBRICK, Ingrid STITT
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Energy policy

 David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:22): (593) My question is for the minister representing the Minister for Energy and Resources. Many statements about the Victorian government’s Gas Substitution Roadmap repeat the line that it will be an orderly transition, with frequent statements about consultation with industry. I have consulted with industry representatives myself, and they are telling me that it is anything but orderly and has been rushed with very limited consultation. Heat pumps have been talked about a lot recently, but the list of industry concerns raised with me include that there is no energy star rating system for heat pumps, there is a shortage of service and maintenance workers, product quality is highly variable, high-efficiency alternatives are being ignored and cost and efficiency modelling are not transparent, with government information not including whole-of-system costs and giving the best case scenario for savings. Minister, why is the energy transition being rushed rather than the orderly transition that was promised?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:23): I thank Mr Limbrick for his question, and I will refer that to Minister D’Ambrosio in the other place for a written response in accordance with the standing orders.

 David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:23): I thank the minister for doing that. I did not have time to get through all of the full list of concerns, as there are very many that have been expressed to me by the industry, but an additional significant concern is around consumer protection. As has occurred with other products involved in energy efficiency – we only have to think about pink batts, for example – when a government throws all of its support behind a product there are a range of new suppliers that will pop up; not all of them will deliver quality products and not all of them will be around later if there are problems. The lack of transparency around modelling and costings can have an impact on both industry workers and consumers as the products do not always deliver on the promised savings. Whilst I believe that consumers should simply be allowed maximum choice without government intervention, my question for the minister is this: what is being done to ensure consumers are not left out of pocket, particularly from government-subsidised heat pumps?

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