Tuesday, 13 August 2024

Energy policy

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (18:45): (1043) The action I am seeking from the Minister for Planning is to rule out approving any gas import terminals in Victoria, support households to make the switch to electric appliances, establish schemes for renters to participate in remote solar projects and reap some rewards, work with the regions to develop place-based renewable energy projects with meaningful community benefit, invest in green hydrogen technologies and properly fund the SEC so it can support our path to 100 per cent renewables by 2034. These are the types of actions we should be taking in order to safeguard our climate for the future. Locking Victoria into climate catastrophe by approving new fossil gas projects is not one of them. The science is clear: governments must end our reliance on fossil fuels if we are to have any hope of limiting warming to a level compatible with a habitable earth.

In 2022, after years of campaigning by environmental advocates, community groups and many Geelong residents, a proposal by Viva Energy to establish a floating gas import terminal in Corio Bay was sent back to the drawing board. But over the coming days Viva will release the details of a new environment effects statement for the same import terminal. If the advice of our climate scientists does not already make it clear why this project must be stopped, the immediate impacts of this project on the surrounding community alone should be enough to put a halt to it. The risk to the environment from marine dredging, percussive noise and air pollutants would have significant implications for human, animal and plant life, not to mention the very real risks to residents of the northern suburbs of Geelong posed by a catastrophic explosion or vapour leak.

When it comes to community calls to end coal and gas in Victoria, the Greens have come to expect the same old, tired lines from the Labor government about shortfalls. Over 80 per cent of the gas we produce is for export purposes, with more gas being used to turn it into LNG for export than is used in all of Victoria’s households combined. The business case for gas exports does not stack up. In reality we sell our gas off so cheaply that countries such as Japan go on to sell imported gas from Australia on the international market at a much higher price. Victorians and the environment are being ripped off, and it is about time that these large export contracts were scrapped.

If this Labor government is going to allow a gas import terminal to cast its shadow over Geelong, I have a warning for them: the community knows how to mobilise; they are ready to fight tooth and nail against this project. With a new environment effects statement from Viva looming, this government have a choice, and I would ask that the government listen carefully to the community before making theirs.