Wednesday, 13 August 2025

Motions

Energy policy

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (11:01): I am pleased – or perhaps ‘pleased’ is not the right word; I am saddened that I have the need to move motion 1025. I move:

That this house:

(1) expresses its concern at the rising energy bills faced by Victorian households and businesses;

(2) notes that supply and usage charges were increased further on 1 August 2025;

(3) further notes that households and businesses will see significant increases in their energy bills in the months and years ahead under Labor’s energy arrangements; and

(4) holds the Minister for Energy and Resources responsible for the increased energy costs being paid by Victorian households and businesses in Labor’s 11th year of government.

This is a tired government. It is a government that has run out of ideas, and it is a government that has taken the view that Victorian families, Victorian households and Victorian businesses can cop it in the neck – that they can suck it up – as the prices go up and up and up. Let us be clear here: we heard one of the Labor backbenchers talking before about the programs that are in place. Well, there are programs that help pensioners and concession card holders, but there is no overall energy program that relieves the bills of everyone else. That is the better off, the middling off and those who are really, truly struggling – families who are struggling. There is no federal program. One of the backbenchers mentioned the federal programs. They have ceased. They have finished. They are dead. They are over. They have stopped, and there is no state program to replace them. There is help for concession card holders, and we in no way believe that that is unimportant – we believe that is important. But those everyday families in the suburbs who are struggling with the cost of living know that their energy bills are going up and up and up.

We know that the infrastructure costs are being fed through. We heard the other day about the VNI West cost blowout going from $3.2 billion to $7.6 billion, with an outer limit in the estimate of $11.4 billion, and every single cent of that will be sheeted home to Victorian households and Victorian businesses on their energy bills. They are all going to pay. They are going to pay and they are going to pay and they are going to pay even more. We know about the changes that occurred on 1 August; every company has announced significant increases in payments. I had communication from Mike in Kew, who pays his mum’s electricity bill. He pays his own electricity bill, and he pays his mum’s bill, which is a GloBird Energy bill. He made it clear that the new rates go up. The daily charge for Mike’s mum’s GloBird Energy bill in Kew goes from $1.03400 to $1.15500. That is the daily charge – dollars per day. The base anytime usage charge goes from 0.17050 to 0.25740. I reckon that is a big increase that is going to feed through into the costs that Mike must pay, because he generously picks up his mum’s electricity bill. The anytime usage balance payment goes from 0.20790 up to 0.27. That is a pretty big increase – 0.0610. That is just one example; I can go on. I can go on and on and on with some of these examples.

Tom McIntosh interjected.

David DAVIS: You may think that these cases are unimportant. In fact they are important. I have a retiree in Box Hill South whose supplier is Lumo. Their existing supply charge is 93.5 cents per day and it is going to 103.95 cents per day. That is a 10.45 cent increase – an 11.17 per cent increase per day. That is for a retiree in Box Hill South with Lumo. That is their supply charge. There are similar charges elsewhere too. Peter, who operates a small supermarket and cafe, says his supply charge is increasing by 32.5 per cent. He said:

This becomes impossible when managing refrigerators and freezers. This is the single greatest cost for our small supermarket and cafe …

… We have a minister –

Lily D’Ambrosio –

who is only too happy to attend a ribbon cutting ceremony but is missing when addressing the real cost issues.

These are very significant increases that are being talked about here.

Phillip and his family in Kew, who are with provider Powershop, have an estimated annual increase of $260. The supply charge goes from 78.85 cents per day to 90.28 cents a day. That is an increase of 11.43 cents in one leap from 1 August – a 14.49 per cent increase. It is almost a 15 per cent increase. That is Phillip in Kew, with Powershop as his provider. That is a big increase for any family in my humble view. I could give another example here. There are plenty of these that come through. The supply charge for a house on the peninsula goes from 91.047 cents to 100.892; that is a 10.81 per cent increase. The general usage bands go from the existing 22.671 cents per kilowatt hour to a new 24.86 cents per kilowatt hour. That is an increase of 2.189 cents, a 9.65 per cent increase.

These are whopping increases – 10, 12, 14 in some cases and almost 15 per cent in one leap on 1 August – for families and small businesses, all getting it in the neck because of Lily D’Ambrosio and this government’s failure to deal with things properly. But we are not seeing cheaper power. They are the costs that people are going to pay.

I agree with the advice to shop around. That is important. It does keep some pressure on the system. Shop around by all means. But the truth is that every one of these suppliers are going up significantly – by different amounts, but all are going up significantly. Shopping around will not deal with the deeper problem – that is, the increase that is being put on every household and every small business by every single supplier, and they are big, big increases from 1 August this year. They are actually hitting hard, and as I said before, unlike what we heard from over there, there are no programs. There is a program for concession card holders, and that is welcome – it is modest assistance – but there is nothing at all for small businesses and there is nothing at all for directly helping those families that are doing it tough in the suburbs at the moment.

I think it is important that these are seen not as nebulous things, not as distant matters, but actual increases that are being foisted and pushed onto families and small businesses now. And this is the fault of Lily D’Ambrosio. She has been minister now for almost 11 years. She needs to take responsibility for these increases. She needs to front up and explain why those prices have gone up since 1 August and why families are paying so much more.

It is not as though this government has not got a kind of a mode; we know what we feel from this long-term government, this tired government. I am in possession of a brief from 2022 from the then Treasurer Mr Pallas entitled ‘Energy affordability and the cost of living’, and in the brief the recommendation was:

That you note that most households are well-placed to absorb some energy bill increases in the short-term …

That you note that … medium and industrial … users are likely to experience the greatest impact …

That you note that most Victorians are well-placed to manage cost of living pressures in the short term …

I do not think that is what most Victorians think. We call this the Marie Antoinette ‘Let them eat cake’ brief. At a further point in this it says that the biggest impact of energy costs is likely to be on small businesses. Then it goes on to say:

Living cost increases have been hard to avoid, particularly with non-discretionary expenses such as rent, food and fuel growing faster than wages.

Mr Pallas was told this, and he endorsed and signed this brief. He circled the agreements and the conclusion:

Most Victorian households have enough income, savings and wealth to manage price rises without major sacrifices.

I think this is a very, very out-of-touch brief. This shows the government at its worst. It shows Mr Pallas and those long-term ministers with an arrogant attitude that says, ‘Let them eat cake. They can all live with it.’ We heard this over here with some of these backbenchers talking just a few minutes ago. They appeared deeply unconcerned about what was happening to people in their own electorates.

Jacinta Ermacora: You have no idea.

David DAVIS: I sure do. I have an 87-year-old father who lives alone, and energy costs are hitting him quite hard, I can tell you. He is on the peninsula, and he is being hit quite hard. I could go on and on with examples, and some of the ones I brought to the table today are people who have come into my office. They have come into my office with their actual bills. They have come in with their bills from last year and their bills from this year, and you can see the increases. They have come in with a note from their provider that says the money is going up. The pensioners are paying more. The older people are paying more. Those families that are struggling are paying more. The small businesses are paying more. They are all paying more, and you do not care – Labor does not care. They do not care about these families. They do not care about these small businesses. They do not care about the pensioners. They are nasty, they are mean, they are shocking.

Jacinta Ermacora: On a point of order, Acting President, Mr Davis is pointing.

David DAVIS: I am pointing generically to the whole of the other side.

Jacinta Ermacora: I don’t think so. It was to me.

David DAVIS: I will avoid pointing.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Michael Galea): I will admit that the pointing was not directed at anyone in particular. I ask Mr Davis to continue, through the Chair.

Bev McArthur: It is kind of a vacant space over there anyway.

David DAVIS: It is vacant in many ways. The point I am making here is that these costs are very significant. Families are being hit, pensioners are being hit and small businesses are being hit. Lily D’Ambrosio said that the prices are going down, down, down. But actually they are not going down, down, down; they are going up, up, up, up, up. They are hitting families, they are hitting businesses and they are hitting those small supermarkets, as we just heard a moment ago, with the business example. He was saying this was their biggest cost. The refrigeration costs had gone up because the energy costs were going up and up. These families are struggling very, very seriously. It does not appear that there is a moment of compassion on the other side of the chamber. They seem to dismiss this. As I say, the brief I read out from Mr Pallas – I accept he is gone – was the ‘let them eat cake’ brief. He said it was all fine – they can suck it up; they can cope. That is what Mr Pallas said. It was a cruel and heartless attitude in that brief, an attitude that was dismissive of what families are feeling and an attitude that was cruel and mean in its understanding of what these prices are doing to everyday families. Lily D’Ambrosio needs to get out more. She needs to understand –

Jacinta Ermacora: On a point of order, Acting President, I think that Mr Davis has been a colleague of Ms D’Ambrosio for almost the same amount of time that he has been in Parliament here in Victoria. I think pronouncing her name correctly is respectful. It is just a repetitive mispronunciation of Minister D’Ambrosio’s name.

David DAVIS: I am happy to call her the minister for energy. The minister for energy has no understanding of the impact on families, communities, pensioners, migrant groups and businesspeople – that whole spread being clobbered by the minister for energy’s own policies. It is she that has jacked the prices up and up and up. The minister for energy is the minister for higher and higher and higher electricity and gas prices. That is what she has delivered for Victorians. She tries to say that it is the cheapest of all the states. One of the points here is we still have significant brown coal in the system. That is an asset that has been there for many years, and it does produce energy at a low cost. That is one of the reasons Victoria’s overall costs appear good on the surface. But the point here is that it is going up and up and up and up. There does not appear to be a recognition by the minister for energy or her colleagues, as we heard from Mr Pallas, that this is hurting families, that these costs are cutting in quite hard. There does not appear to be that recognition. For those reasons we say it is time this government dealt with these matters. It is time the government looked at ways to bring down the cost of electricity and gas for everyday families and everyday businesses.

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (11:19): It will come as no surprise to my colleagues in this chamber that the Greens will not be supporting the motion before us this morning. I guess the subtext of this motion, which we are concerned about, is the ongoing fight against the rollout of the renewable energy transition that we continue to see from the coalition. This is despite the fact that science, politics and common sense are against this position that they hold. It amazes me that the opposition does not seem to realise that their campaign against renewable energy and the complete shambles regarding net zero on a federal level is alienating a huge proportion of the Australian population. Politics aside, the time to act on climate change is now; it was actually decades ago. We absolutely have to take urgent action on climate change, and time spent being distracted by these sorts of energy debates, such as nuclear energy or the opening of new coalmines, is precious time that is wasted while we are delaying important climate action. I have to admit I was really tempted to get up today and basically say something along the lines of ‘Renewables are the cheapest form of energy – the end’. But instead I guess this motion provides the opportunity to raise a number of issues regarding the energy transition in this state.

Recently we heard reports from Solstice Energy that they will be shutting down their gas pipelines to 10 Victorian towns. It is important to note that many households in regional townships are not connected to gas mains, instead relying on LPG cylinders, while others do not use gas in their homes at all. This announcement will impact just over 1000 customers, a sizeable consumer group but small enough for the government to have it within its means to offer genuine financial support to help them electrify – support for these households to make the switch to electric appliances in their homes and cease their reliance on fossil fuels altogether. That is something the government could do, rather than forcing them to have to continue to look at ways they can stay on gas. The gas industry is already withdrawing from previously safe markets. They know that the energy transition is coming and it is no longer financially viable to keep these gas pipelines open, but currently we are not seeing the Labor government leading an orderly shutdown of gas in communities like this. Households need more notice, and many will need financial assistance to ensure the up-front costs of electrification are not beyond their reach.

On that point, Labor should be doing more to help all households access the benefits of cheap renewable power. It was disappointing to see the government quietly axe their successful no-interest solar battery loan for households earlier this year. The new federal rebate of $4500 is welcome, but with good-quality battery systems now costing over $13,000, Victorian Labor’s decision makes it harder for lower income households to transition to cheaper renewable power. There was no good reason to cancel this largely cost-neutral scheme, and it is not too late to bring it back and to expand it so that people who face additional barriers, like renters, apartment dwellers or social housing residents, can access cheap renewables in their homes as well.

It is simple: energy efficiency and electrification will save households money in the long term. Estimates from the Clean Energy Council place Melbourne households as saving just over $2000 a year through combined measures such as insulation, sealing windows and doors, switching to electric heat pumps and installing induction cooktops. Victoria is actually one of Australia’s states with the most to gain because of the impact of climate on our homes, and whilst households have plenty to gain from the energy transition, the flip side of this is that there is also plenty to lose if we do not take action. Households stuck with inefficient gas appliances are looking down the barrel of rising energy bills as the fossil fuel industry scrambles to make money out of a defunct market. Meanwhile households can expect insurance premiums to increase as the severity of extreme weather events grows. Recent reports from climate valuation analysts estimate that within the decade one in 10 homes will either be uninsurable or simply unaffordable to insure.

In the meantime we have to acknowledge that climate change is much more than simple economics. The collapse of ecosystems, decreasing biodiversity, more frequent disasters – that goes beyond the human experience, let alone our hip pockets. This is all about saving thousands of species, saving rivers and saving oceans from the consequences of our own actions and then grossly negligent inaction. With climate disasters like heatwaves, fires, droughts and floods already devastating communities and global heating locked in to get us well over 1.5 degrees, meaning there is worse to come, the Greens want to see a swifter and fairer energy transition, and I only hope that those opposite can come along as partners in these changes.

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (11:24): I think I would echo the sentiment of Dr Mansfield there. One can only hope that the opposition will come along on this path that we are well on and that is well underway. It is a pity Mr Davis is not still here in the chamber. I was looking forward to picking up on a number of his points, which I will throughout my contribution. But I am very, very excited that Mrs McArthur is in the chamber, because outside of Mr Davis and his expansive knowledge of energy policy – he demonstrated the research he has done into energy in his 20-minute contribution – Mrs McArthur, I am sure we will hear some interesting things from you. Which side do we want to look at first? Let us look at the lived experience of consumers. Mr Davis was focusing on consumers in his contribution, which is unusual for the Liberal Party to do. It is usually very far from their consciousness. But when the Liberals were last in power, disconnections doubled to 58,000 people. I remember this at the time, and the Liberals did not care. They did not know what to do. When Labor got into power, we ensured that people could stay connected to power, that retailers were focused on consumers’ lived experience of staying connected to what is an essential service. We should also note that when the Liberals were last in power, electricity retail prices went up 34 per cent. It is all very well for Mr Davis to come in here and carry on with everything he is talking about, but under the Liberals’ watch, disconnections doubled and retail prices went up by 34 per cent.

To Dr Mansfield’s point about wanting to just ignore the Liberals because they have no policy, I am tempted to do the same but I will not. I am going to lean in, because we could all laugh and we do laugh, but the tragedy is that they are serious. The Liberals sat in here for much of the last 18 months prosecuting their belief in small modular nuclear reactors. They had no technological fact to back that up; they had no energy market evidence to back that up. Eventually they got to a point where they realised that small modular nuclear reactors are not actually a thing anywhere in the Western developed world, so they stood back from that policy. We all know the Liberals then went to the federal election with large-scale nuclear reactors as their policy. There are many on that side who still believe in nuclear. Mrs McArthur is not one to back away from a fight. She will put her beliefs on the record, in Hansard, and will not hide like so many of her colleagues do, because they hide – I will refrain from using the word ‘cowardly’ – from what their policy positions on energy are. I will come to energy generation shortly. But the Liberals, we all know, are absolutely welded to gas.

My criticism of the Greens is that their targets on transition are not connected to physics, to economics or to where our society is at. It is the Labor Party at the sensible centre that is getting on with taking action on climate change, generating renewable energy and everything else we have to do in our emission reduction targets. How are the Liberals going to generate electricity in this state? Every evening, we need about 6 gigs. We know that Yallourn, 1.2 gigawatts, just spent nearly half a billion dollars upgrading four of their generators. It is getting very, very close to end of life. How are the Liberals going to provide the power that Victoria needs? Brad Battin just made a tweet the other day that the Liberals will lift the moratorium, so the only conclusion that you can draw is that the Liberals will lift the moratorium on fracking. Mrs McArthur, I would be very interested in your views on this, because we know that farmers do not want fracking. That is why the moratorium was originally put in place. We have some of the most pristine, productive agricultural land in the world here in Victoria, and we should absolutely fight to protect it. The moment you want to start going into underground water aquifers to get gas out of farmers’ lands, it is a threat not only to their economic viability but also to the food basin of this state. Mrs McArthur, I hope in your contribution you will come clean on what the Liberal Party plan is to power this state.

The other thing is that Mr Davis obviously did not read the Financial Review this morning, because it has just come out that AGL had a 21.2 per cent profit downgrade. I am not here to celebrate that, but it was due to lower wholesale prices. Mr Davis, did you forget to acknowledge that? Week on week, month on month, year on year, Victoria has the lowest electricity spot price in Australia. As Mr Davis said about going on and on and on, I will go on here just for a moment. This week, as it is week on week, month on month, year on year, wholesale prices are $88.10 a megawatt hour here in Victoria. If you go to Tassie, it is in the mid-90s; Queensland, $97; New South Wales, $102; WA, $108 – it goes on. It is the same for gas prices by trading location. Victoria’s gas is at $12.45 a gigajoule. All the other states are up into $13 and more. So it is a false argument he brings around Victorian prices. Mr Davis, much like before the last election when he was Shadow Treasurer, forgot all his budget costings. As the Shadow Treasurer he could not bring his own party’s costings four days before the election. Much like that, we know he has not done his homework on the Liberal Party’s energy policy.

I ask the Liberal Party: the 1.2 gigawatts at Yallourn and the 2.2 gigawatts at Loy Yang A – as they retire, as the businesses that you privatised and put into private hands determine that they are no longer going to operate, what is your alternative? The question really is for Victorians: why do the Liberals hate technology? When one in three Victorians have solar on their rooftop, which cuts their electricity bills and ensures that within their own home they can generate their own power, why are the Liberals so against technology? And now we are seeing battery take-up explode. People are putting batteries on their homes so they can have their own power. But why are the Liberals so against this? When we first started to set our renewable energy targets the Liberals said it could not be done: ‘Five per cent – can’t be done. Ten per cent – can’t be done.’ Fifteen per cent, 20 per cent, 25 per cent, 30 per cent – have I got 35, 40? Forty-five per cent of our energy annually is generated renewably, and the Liberals will still say, ‘It can’t be done, it can’t be done, it can’t be done,’ because that is their starting point on basically everything. They come to this place with no values, with no policies. If you take all of that in, it is no wonder, when Victorians look at the Liberal Party, they see no hope for a Victorian Liberal Party – let alone a Liberal party anywhere in this country, to be honest – having a meaningful policy to improve the quality of their lives or to reduce the cost of their power bills, to give Victorians the ability to generate their own power in their own home, to have reliable power.

The other thing Mr Davis did not touch on – and we taught him earlier this year that base load is not actually a thing. He could not quite get that through his head. He stopped talking about base load, so I am very happy Mr Davis has done that. I will be interested to see if a few of the others talk about base load, even if they do not know really what it is. It is the peak demand. It is the times once a month when we are paying huge, huge prices to fire up gas generators when we could be using batteries. When you go back to the record, Mr Davis said batteries would never amount to anything. We are well on our way to our battery targets. We are talking gigawatts of batteries either under construction or commissioned, feeding into the grid. Just this year we saw 60 per cent price drops in major battery storage capacity. That is why we see in New South Wales a project that was not going to go ahead 18 months ago has now doubled in size; 2 gigawatts they will get for the initial price.

We oppose this motion. The Liberals have no idea when it comes to energy, no idea when it comes to much at all in fact, and I cannot wait to hear from Mrs McArthur.

Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (11:34): As we have heard, the Minister for Energy and Resources has said that energy costs are going down, down, down. But the reality for families and for businesses as they open their energy bills is they know prices are going up, up and up. It is a huge cost to families. We are seeing, just in the recent quarter, prices going up by 16 per cent. I have spoken to businesses, and energy bills, electricity bills, are the biggest cost that they are facing. It is adding to our rising living costs, and it is really crushing business productivity. We know that supply and usage charges are going up further from 1 August, and the worst is yet to come when you look at things like VNI West and the cost of that. The Australian Energy Market Operator’s recent report reflects much higher costs. I remember asking questions about this back in 2023. At that time the reports were that the cost would be about $3.6 billion, shared with New South Wales. Now we have seen in the latest reports that it is looking more like $7.6 billion and at the upper end more like $11.4 billion. Who pays these costs? We do. It will end up on your power bills.

We have seen the impact of decisions and the anti-gas agenda of this government. Just recently we had Solstice announce gas supplies being cut off to 10 regional towns, and the majority of those are in the Northern Victoria electorate. I have spoken with people impacted, with businesses impacted and with families that have been impacted by that decision, and they are very fearful of what is to come as they are scrambling now to find out what to do because they have been forced to change back. Yet we heard the Premier in question time yesterday talk about that policy. She said it was a flawed policy because it was subsidies and subsidies that have been removed, and that causes the price to go up. Yet we do see this government subsidising solar and wind developments, and we see the power saving bonus as well, trying to help families with these soaring energy bills. But you have to ask why the prices continue to soar under Labor.

I know Peter Hunt in the Weekly Times talked about this issue. He said:

Households and businesses are already subsidising a third of every solar and wind developer’s revenue, through the hidden large-scale renewable energy scheme charge on electricity bills …

He went on to say:

Despite being one of the most energy-rich nations we face a future where large commercial and industrial users’ electricity bills will double or triple over the next five to seven years to cover soaring transmission costs.

Just consider the impact of that – consider the impact on businesses if they have to face that kind of escalation in costs. It certainly will cost jobs.

Currently we export coal and we export gas. We are one of the world’s top exporters so that other countries can use these resources to manufacture products. Some do call it emissions offshoring, where components are manufactured in countries like China that have lower environmental standards than we have. As I have mentioned before in this house, I have solar panels on my own home, but the first ones that we had ended up in landfill. I am concerned about what will happen in 25 years when we have thousands and thousands of solar panels. I know in Colbinabbin there are about over 700,000 solar panels going in. We also have hundreds and hundreds of massive wind turbines going up. At this point in time, when I have discussed this issue with others and during a recent inquiry, there does not seem to be any consideration about what is happening not too far away. There is a cost, a huge cost, and we are paying for that, but not just financially.

I know Dr Mansfield talked about changing to electric so we cease reliance on fossil fuels and depend on renewables, but it is important to point out that with renewables and wind turbines, fossil fuels are used in their manufacture, in their transportation and also just in the installation and operation of these facilities. It is not easy to say you are moving away. We have even had an information session here at Parliament that talked about how with the increase in renewables there will be an increase in mining associated with that – particularly with batteries, as they do rely on mining. But some of these projects – and I am aware because I speak with residents; I live in the region – are tearing some communities apart. Some people want to host a wind turbine, for example, and receive the financial benefit, and others do not want to have a 300-metre-tall wind turbine forever on their landscape. I was speaking to a gentleman recently who is in business – he has a farm – and he talked about the impact of the buffer zone of the wind turbine that actually goes into his property. I have heard from other families concerned about some of the caveats that are being placed on properties, which are causing some challenges when they go to sell. They do not realise what was in the contract that they signed.

There is a serious energy crisis that we are facing here in Victoria. There is going to be the closure of the Yallourn power station by 2028 and Loy Yang A by 2035, so they will take considerable gigawatts – 1.2 gigawatts and 2.5 gigawatts – out of our energy system. At the moment those coal stations do run night and day and provide that firming and consistent power. But their departure will leave big holes in our energy supply, and we are energy-hungry. Our lifestyle is certainly energy-hungry and we have a rapidly growing population, so we do not just need to replace our current energy supplies, we need to expand our energy supply to meet demand. It is important to point out in a natural disaster we see the chaos that happens when people do not have access to power. Everything shuts down very quickly.

In the rushed rollout of these projects, we are seeing massive developments on prime agricultural land, like in Colbinabbin, which I have referred to previously. Under this government we have had the right of appeal through VCAT removed, and this government continues to use standover tactics. Just with the bill that we are seeing that is coming in, the National Electricity (Victoria) Amendment (VicGrid Stage 2 Reform) Bill 2025, if you try and prevent a transmission company coming onto your property, you could face a $12,000 fine. That is extraordinary. When you talk about batteries – I know Mr McIntosh talked about batteries and how they are so advanced now – at Hazelwood they announced the Big Battery: 150 megawatts, and it only powers 75,000 homes for 1 hour. We have 2 million homes in Melbourne and we have a growing population, so the demand for energy is only going to increase.

We still have a very long way to go. We need a balanced energy strategy, a pragmatic mixed-energy strategy that should be considered to ensure long-term affordability, reliability and environmental responsibility when it comes to our energy supply. Labor has created an energy crisis, and you wonder why your power bills are going up. Well, you can thank the Labor government.

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (11:43): I would also like to speak on Mr Davis’s motion about our energy costs. One of the issues here, which neither of the major parties is really talking about, is this idea that we have got in Australia of net zero carbon emissions. This is the driving force behind this push for renewables. But what does it really mean? Well, what it really means is that Australia – in the scheme of things our carbon emissions are almost negligible, so they do not really have any sort of measurable impact on global weather systems. But if you listened to the Labor Party and the Greens, you would think that Victoria alone controls what is happening around the world in global weather systems. What is really happening? If you push a bit further, you will hear people say, ‘Well, what we need to do is do our part,’ and everyone is talking about science. But all of a sudden when we are talking about doing our part, we are not talking about science anymore; we are talking about whether we are doing something for the UN or international organisations or whether we are doing something for Australia.

I think that we should abandon net zero. I think that Victorians should get the cheapest and most abundant energy available to them. I think in a different debate by Mr Batchelor the GenCost report was brought up earlier. The GenCost report is very interesting, and many of the headlines that Mr Batchelor quoted were very cherry-picked headlines and quite misleading of the report, because what the GenCost report is actually looking at are cost comparisons of new generation. What it does not look at is the infrastructure costs, and the infrastructure costs are significant – Snowy Hydro, transmission lines. All of these things that we require to put ourselves in perpetual dependence on imports from China are not included. If you actually include those costs and look at the cost in 2030, what you find is that the cheapest form of energy production is actually coal, which currently supplies the majority of Victoria’s energy still. The idea that we are going to just get rid of that easily and cheaply and somehow energy bills are going to go down – the GenCost report does not look at what consumers are paying, but they sure as hell pay for whatever infrastructure is required to get that energy to their homes.

Even though we are at fairly early stages in this transition to renewables, we are already seeing a loss of social licence in many cases. The people out the front of Parliament, the farmers that were upset about energy companies forcing their way onto their property and are upset about these draconian fines for refusing to let people come onto their own property – this is only the start of what is going to be required.

The entire state is going to have to have networks running all over it, and every time that that happens there is going to be more and more and more resistance from people who do not want these things on their land. They do not want to give access to their land, and they are going to be upset about it. And ultimately they are going to pay for it. We are all going to pay for it because we are going to have to pay for all of this transmission infrastructure and all of the batteries that we have been talking about. It seems like madness when you realise that we already have really good transmission infrastructure from Gippsland, from where we generate coal-fired power at the moment.

I just think that we need to really rethink what we are doing here, because with this net zero thing, more and more people are waking up to the fact that it is really just about Australia bowing down before international forces. I think that we need to be looking at what is best for Victoria, not what is best for the UN.

John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (11:47): The government will be opposing this motion because the Liberals are the last people you would trust with household energy prices. We all know that the cost of energy is an important issue to every one of our constituents, and we also know, as much as people are worried about what their energy bills will look like next month, they worry about what they are going to look like next year, which is why it is so important that the Allan Labor government has policies to help people with their bills today. When the opposition were last in power they let their mates in big businesses run rampant at households’ expense. Power prices rose by 34 per cent, and the number of disconnections more than doubled. We do not need policy on the fly. We need a long-term plan for energy production, energy security and energy affordability for the years to come, because the choices that the government made in 2015 are affecting us today and the choices that the government makes today will affect people in 2035. This is one of the policy areas where the decisions we make today really do change the shape of what our state will look like for decades to come.

Of course, as the members of this side of the chamber know, bringing back the SEC was one of the biggest promises that the government made at the last election. It was an important pledge, and it is one that we have fulfilled. Today the SEC is powering Victorian government buildings with cheap 100 per cent renewable energy. That means our public schools, public hospitals, trains, trams, traffic lights, museums and even our zoos are well powered by the SEC. Not only that, but starting later this year the SEC will be filling in a market gap and providing retail energy to commercial and industrial businesses, offering 100 per cent renewable energy to medium and large businesses. When businesses benefit from cheap and reliable energy, everyone else will benefit too, because it will reduce their costs and allow them to invest more in staff, their products and keeping their prices down. If a business cannot keep on the lights, then it cannot keep its employees in a job. That is just one of the reasons why the SEC is so important.

But the SEC is not just about retailing energy, it is also about producing brand new government-owned energy production and storage. The two big projects currently underway are the Melbourne renewable energy hub and the SEC renewable energy park at Horsham. The Melbourne renewable energy hub is expected to come online later this year, bringing Victoria closer to achieving its renewable energy targets by 2035. This project will provide enough energy storage to power 200,000 homes during the evening peak. The SEC renewable energy hub in Horsham will be up and running in 2027 and will produce enough energy each year to power 51,000 homes. These are the sorts of projects which are going to give this state the energy production and storage we need to keep bills low in the long term.

One of the most exciting things about the SEC is going to be up and running next year, that being the SEC one-stop shop. This will be a free online service that will help Victorians to navigate the often confusing and difficult process of installing rooftop solar and energy-efficient electrical appliances in their home. By giving tailor-made advice specific to the circumstances of individuals, the one-stop shop is going to be one of the most effective tools that we have ever had for helping families to save on their energy bills. The idea here is simple: provide families with a cost-effective analysis of installing these systems specific to their household; provide them with a network of reliable, accredited, honest, SEC-endorsed installers; and let them weigh up the decision for themselves. My prediction is that we will see many more families making the choice to go solar next year, and we will have the chance to see whether or not history will bear me out on that one.

There are questions which many Victorians have about installing solar energy-efficient appliances, which can only be answered by advice that is expert and impartial and does not have a financial interest in the decisions you make. I think a lot of people appreciate having someone other than a salesperson to answer their questions on whether going solar might be appropriate for them, but it is not every location, because not every location is geographically suited to it. And not every household’s energy use habits would lead to solar being a good financial investment. So individualised, expert and impartial advice is something that people across the state can look forward to and benefit from. I might add as well how wonderful it is that the Allan Labor government has a partner in the federal government, which is providing families with subsidies to install home battery systems so that they can get the most efficient use and best possible value out of their rooftop solar.

Victorians like the idea of being able to generate energy for themselves, of not being captive to the energy market, of knowing that their energy that is being produced is an asset that they own themselves. Not only is it good in concept and popular in concept but helping families to install rooftop solar is one of the most effective ways that the government can help families with the cost of energy bills. These investments are not one-off bill relief; they keep bills down long term.

One thing that the SEC one-stop shop reminds me of is the extremely successful existing service that the Victorian government provides, the Victorian Energy Compare website. Using this website is the easiest way that Victorians can get their monthly bills down and one of the most cost-effective and fair ways that the government can help families with the cost of living. The energy market can be confusing. Sometimes it can be confusing by design. Nearly a decade ago now, the energy minister in the other place, who today continues to hold that portfolio, introduced Victorian Energy Compare to give Victorians the facts and figures about what was best for them.

Another long-term, big-picture reform we have made is the creation of seven renewable energy zones in locations geographically most suited to hosting renewable energy. Landowners in these zones will be offered the chance to host renewable energy generation and storage on their land in exchange for significant compensation. This is what will enable us to build the energy generation infrastructure of the future: working with the private sector. Those of us on this side of the chamber in the Allan Labor government know that in the 21st century it is renewable energy that will keep the lights on, the living standards up and the energy costs down. When our existing local coal-fired power stations come to the end of their natural lives, something is going to have to replace them. Sadly for the great ideological devotees of coal, capital is not interested in investing in new coal-fired power stations and neither are the Victorian people. That is why we have our new renewable energy zones.

State governments have many important jobs, and keeping the lights on is one of them. By providing support at an individual level and reform and investment at a statewide level, the Allan Labor government has demonstrated its commitment to ensuring that energy will be cheap, dependable and clean for the decades to come. This state’s plans for energy in the coming decades are not just about production, they are also about consumption. The Labor government’s Victorian energy upgrades program is also helping families cut their power bills by upgrading their houses to more energy-efficient heating and cooling and appliances by providing easy access to power-saving products and services. The VEU encourages investment, employment and innovation in these industries for the future to support Victorians long term. In the last year alone the VEU program saved households almost $54 million on energy bills statewide. The program also supports insulation upgrades. The rollout, expected in early 2026, will halve the average cost of ceiling insulation. This will save households with limited insulation hundreds on their heating costs every year. The Allan Labor government continues to facilitate the switch to electricity by helping Victorians convert existing dual homes to all electric. And with that, I will leave my comments there.

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (11:56): I rise in strong support of Mr Davis’s motion, which rightly exposes the escalating energy crisis gripping Victoria. It is just the latest example of this government’s failure. Across every area of life in our state the consequence of Labor’s inability to manage budgets, projects, systems and markets is clear, and the pain it is causing is becoming even greater. It is particularly sickening in the area of energy, because after 11 years in power this government has taken a system that once was a competitive strength for our state and turned it into an expensive, unreliable liability. Victorian households and businesses are being hammered by soaring energy bills. I am so pleased Minister Tierney and Dr Mansfield are in the chamber, because they should know that one of the groups that are greatest affected by the soaring energy prices are the dairy farmers in our electorate of Western Victoria Region. Their costs have gone through the roof at a time when they are suffering exponentially from drought and the impact of extra taxes on their businesses. They ought to be ashamed to suggest that there are not high costs of energy in this state.

Victorian households and businesses are being hammered by soaring energy bills. From 1 August this year, supply and usage charges jumped again. We have seen it with gas tariffs, we have seen it with delayed electricity market adjustments, and I just looked at the market spot price of energy in this state, and guess what, it is the highest outside of Tasmania. I also looked at where the generation is occurring, and it is not being generated through wind and solar.

Tom McIntosh interjected.

Bev McARTHUR: The vast amount of energy in this state right now is being generated by coal. So, Mr McIntosh, you need to look at what is actually happening. Go to PocketNEM and you will find out exactly what the cost of energy is and where it is being generated from.

Tom McIntosh: And how will you do it in the future, Mrs McArthur?

Bev McARTHUR: Well, how will you do it? You have had 10 years, and you are a total failure. And the worst thing about all this is it was totally avoidable and easily predictable. There has been no catastrophic war or natural disaster. You cannot even blame the international markets, which is what you like to do. You cannot blame on the war in Ukraine the fact that you have stuffed up the energy system. What we are seeing now is a self-inflicted wound. It is what happens when a government surrenders policy to green ideology and feel-good rhetoric instead of sound economics or engineering. They have chased the loudest voices in the room – the activists, the lobbyists and the inner-suburban Greens voters – while ignoring the practical realities faced by households, by businesses and especially by regional Victoria. Shiny slogans like ‘Net zero by 2045’ and ‘90 per cent renewables by 2035’ make great media releases –

The PRESIDENT: Sorry, Mrs McArthur, I need to interrupt your contribution.

Business interrupted pursuant to sessional orders.