Wednesday, 4 February 2026

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (10:21): I move:

That this house:

(1)   notes the Allan Labor government’s decision announced in August 2025 to strip compressed natural gas (CNG) currently delivered by Solstice Energy from 10 regional Victorian towns, including Robinvale, Swan Hill, Kerang, Nathalia, Marong, Maldon, Heathcote, Terang, Lakes Entrance and Orbost;

(2)   further notes that the 20-year contract to deliver CNG to the 10 towns with Solstice Energy has been allowed to not be enforced after just 10 years;

(3)   in accordance with standing order 10.01, requires the Leader of the Government to table in the Council, within three weeks of the house agreeing to this resolution, the following documents relating to this decision:

(a) briefs to the Minister for Regional Development;

(b) communications to Solstice Energy and from Solstice Energy to the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions (DJSIR) concerning the decision;

(c) details of any consultation undertaken by DJSIR;

(d) any consultancy or internal advice received or created by the relevant section of DJSIR to the minister or to senior officials in the department; and

(e) any assessment of the impact on country towns and communications to and from the Essential Services Commission regarding the decision.

Motion 1230 states:

That this house:

(1)    notes the Allan Labor government’s decision announced in August 2025 to strip compressed natural gas (CNG) currently delivered by Solstice Energy from 10 regional Victorian towns, including Robinvale, Swan Hill, Kerang, Nathalia, Marong, Maldon, Heathcote, Terang, Lakes Entrance and Orbost –

Jaclyn Symes interjected.

David DAVIS: Well, I am going to ask you for a bit more than that departmental stuff. Also:

(2)   further notes that the 20-year contract to deliver CNG to the 10 towns with Solstice Energy has been allowed to not be enforced after just 10 years;

(3)   in accordance with standing order 10.01, requires the Leader of the Government to table in the Council, within three weeks of the house agreeing to this resolution, the following documents relating to this decision:

(b) briefs to the Minister for Regional Development –

Jaclyn Symes: They are compelling – embarrassing for your side.

David DAVIS: Well, let us see them. I will tell you who they are embarrassing to – to the poor people in the towns who are not getting their gas and should be getting their gas. Your government signed the arrangements actually. Also:

communications to Solstice Energy and from Solstice Energy to the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions … concerning the decision;

details of any consultation undertaken by DJSIR …

Ryan Batchelor interjected.

David DAVIS: There was, as far as I can see, no consultation with the towns or the users. They just got chopped – ‘The boom is coming down’. Also:

any consultancy or internal advice received or created by the relevant section of DJSIR to the minister or to senior officials in the department; and

any assessment of the impact on country towns and communications to and from the Essential Services Commission regarding the decision.

This is an important motion, because these 10 towns have been left high and dry by the government’s decision – an outrageous decision to truncate the contract by 10 years, to strip compressed natural gas out of those towns and to deny choice to people. They have talked about it. I mean, I have had quite a number in my office, and others who have got regions that overlap with these towns, and some are in the Eastern –

Jaclyn Symes interjected.

David DAVIS: Yours is one of them, but it is also Eastern Victoria and so forth. They are very significant impacts. The people are unhappy. They are quite furious about what your government is doing and the decision to truncate the contract. It was a 20-year contract. Why have you let them off? The community deserves to see on what assessment, on what basis, on what advice you just let Solstice Energy out – ‘Oh, you can get the 10 years off early.’ Well, I do not agree with that decision, and I think that the decision has been the wrong decision by –

John Berger interjected.

David DAVIS: Well, yes, you might live near one of those regions. But you do not – you live in the city even though you represent Eastern Victoria. Yes, that is right. You do not have to struggle with the compressed natural gas, because you have got natural gas in the city.

Tom McIntosh: Are you actually using your 5 minutes, or are you talking to me sitting over here on my side?

David DAVIS: Well, you made a couple of comments, and I responded to those interjections.

Tom McIntosh: I never said a word.

David DAVIS: You did; you muttered. You both did, actually. Neither of you live in your electorates. Sorry, there you are.

Tom McIntosh interjected.

David DAVIS: Well, you may think it is funny that you live in the city. This case shows exactly why you should live in your electorates, or near to them at least.

John Berger interjected.

David DAVIS: I do. I do quite a lot. I am always at –

John Berger: No, you’re not.

David DAVIS: I am. On Australia Day I was at Port Phillip and all of that. Anyway, I think we are diverting. I am coming back to the point of the motion. This is important for the community to see. It is in the public interest that these documents are available. And I have to say, those who have met with me, Ms Lovell and others are very angry that the government has left these towns without the support that they need, and they are confronted with very difficult decisions. People who have spent significant money to put in appliances are now to be told they are going to have to turn off the gas and they have to put electric appliances in there, often at tens and tens of thousands of dollars in cost.

Jaclyn Symes: Because that is the option you left them with.

David DAVIS: That is the option you left them with. You left them with your option – it is your option. It is your decision that has happened here. It is the Allan Labor government’s decision here, the minister’s decision to close off gas in these 10 towns. And let it just be seen: you have been in power now since 2014 and you are in your 12th year now and you want to blame others. But actually the truth is it is your fault, your responsibility. It was Labor’s decision to take these people’s gas and not find another solution, and the community are very angry about this. Ms Lovell and I met with a number of people just recently in her office, and it is clear that there is developing fury.

Jaclyn Symes interjected.

David DAVIS: President, through you I am saying to the minister and the government: you have failed with this policy. You have failed those communities, failed those towns. The decision is your decision to let Solstice Energy off 10 years early, to let Solstice go free when they should have had the contract enforced and in fact people should still have gas in their towns.

 Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (10:27): Well, if Victorians want a window into the chaos that Victoria would find itself in if the Liberals were in charge of this state, they only have to listen to the last 5 minutes. That was an absolute rabble of chaos. There was nothing put on the table for Victorians to look at, to comprehend. And I thank the Liberals for highlighting to this place and to Victorians another failed Liberal project. The fact that you are coming here and raising this for us to talk about – I mean, talk about a half-volley. It is just incredible. So, thank you.

The private sector cannot make this work. I quote the Solstice CEO, who said that this is not about gas networks, energy policy or the energy transition; it is about shutting down a very expensive network. Shutting it down is the best option. But you cannot seem to get your head around that, Mr Davis, and nor can the Liberals, because you are obsessed with ideology in so many areas of politics, and energy is just an absolute case in point. You have spent the last two to three years talking about nuclear power plants. You have not been worried about what Victorians want. You have not been acknowledging the fact that one in three Victorians have solar on their roof and that Victorians are taking up batteries at an incredible rate. When we had one of the hottest days on record only about a week ago and we had surplus electricity in the grid, about 12 gigawatts, and we had a peak demand of over 10 gigawatts, where was Mr Davis? Where were the Liberals saying congratulations to everybody who has worked on our electricity grid over the last decade to ensure that the supply is there, to everyone who has put solar on their homes, to everyone who has put batteries in, to everyone who is working in the valley, to those that are generating power at all the touchpoints along our electricity network to supply power? You cannot, because you are ideologically driven and you are so incredibly lazy.

Do you know who you want to pay for your laziness and your reaction and your lack of policies? You want taxpayers to pay. When there are new homes and new towns going in, you would rather run out a network that is far more expensive and does not give Victorian consumers energy security and energy independence. Mr Davis, in the 1800s whale oil was the number one form of energy in Victoria. If you had your way, you would be out there harpooning whales and dragging them in and pulling the oil out, because that is what we used to do. You are a conservative – you love looking in the rear-view mirror, you do not like looking forward. But Victorians are leading the way.

David Davis interjected.

Tom McINTOSH: You may laugh, Mr Davis, but Victorians are very, very happy to be able to provide themselves with their own electricity. I have got a newsflash for you: it is going to keep coming and it is going to keep happening. The uptake of energy independence continues because people want cheap energy they can produce for themselves, and it is the same with the consumers that have been on these networks. They are making the move across and they are being supported to do so.

Members interjecting.

Tom McINTOSH: You are an absolute rabble. You know you have got One Nation coming after you. The Liberals and the Nationals are completely torn apart. All this probably would not have happened if you had spent the last 10 years thinking about a few policies, having something you can actually take to punters rather than just saying no and coming in here and shrieking about a policy that you put forward that has left rural Victorians in a position where a private operator that you advocated for to provide energy into their homes is walking away, and you will not take any responsibility for it. You are trying to use it as a cheap political opportunity, but you bring absolutely nothing for Victorians. You laugh at every new form of electricity. I know you hate electric vehicles, but you know what? Vehicle-to-grid is going to be here next year and the year after, and it is just another opportunity for people to plug batteries in. There are going to be more solar panels on roofs, there is going to be more electricity generation in people’s own homes and they are going to be energy independent. We know you would love to be shipping fuel in from the other side of the world; we know you would love the $40 billion deficit it puts on the national budget. But we are supporting Victorians to get the electricity they want generated on their own roofs – energy independence and energy security.

 Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (10:33): I find extraordinary the debate that we are having in this chamber right now. What we are hearing from the government is, ‘It’s not our fault. It was your policy.’ Let me read to you from a media release put out under Daniel Andrews, the Wednesday 4 March 2015 statement on the Energy for the Regions program:

The Andrews Labor Government will proceed with the Energy for the Regions program.

A report in The Weekly Times today that the Labor Government is poised to axe the Energy for the Regions program is incorrect.

It goes on to say that:

… the program will go ahead under the Labor Government.

If you would like to take responsibility, please do, because that is what you committed to doing. It was a shared public–private partnership, a 20-year contract that has been cut short 10 years early. Mr McIntosh says, ‘You guys want the taxpayers to pay.’ Maybe you are not across the facts of this case, because what is happening here is the government is saying, ‘We’re washing our hands of this and we are putting the cost onto taxpayers.’ I have spoken to families and I have spoken to businesses who are absolutely shocked at what is happening in this situation. They have built brand new homes in these areas like Marong, believing that there was a service there, this compressed natural gas, with not a word that it would be cut off within 12 months. It is unbelievable that we have this situation now. What is more, the cost on consumers is not minor. We are talking about a resident that spent $30,000 out of their super fund to try and afford the appliances and the transition. It also requires things like switchboard upgrades. It is additional costs; it is not just the appliances.

Let me say this: the government say, ‘Oh well, we’re offering rebates.’ It is quite extraordinary, because the rebates vary. They are market-driven prices, so some of the rebates are actually lower now than what they were last year.

Just to read from an ad for one of the suppliers that is in the papers – this is what residents are having to look for for advice on this – it says, ‘With over dozens of rebates freely available to home owners and landlords, few are aware that the rebates available change in value on a weekly basis.’ This is something most customers are unaware of, and it explains the vast variation in the out-of-pocket expense that householders need to contribute to access their rebates. To further complicate the process, the rebates are shared with different government departments, which only the customer is allowed to access. There are people meeting at the local clubs, having chats with their neighbours: ‘You know what? Is it really being cut off? Are you sure?’ They have not found out much at all about it, and they are being left to navigate their own way. Some people find it a struggle, and this is not just anything: this is your heating, your hot water, your cooking. These are essential services that people are relying on, and yet under this government there were incentive payments for businesses to change. They were on the compressed natural gas, they changed to LPG, and now they are being told they have got to change back. Please take responsibility.

Why are residents being left out of pocket? It should be the government that is paying, not the consumers, because some of them do not have any capacity to afford these costs. Some of them are facing $10,000, some $12,000 bills. When you have a mortgage and you are just struggling to pay your bills right now, you cannot find the funds to do this. But Solstice have put out advice, and it is very clear: if a customer in Marong takes no action, their property will cease to have a natural gas supply after 2 August 2026. Here we are. This is what this government is doing to residents across northern Victoria. I have got communities, as I said – Robinvale, Swan Hill, Kerang, Nathalia, Marong, Maldon and Heathcote – this is not just a few houses; this is hundreds and hundreds of homes that are being impacted right now when they cannot afford it under this government, and you need to take responsibility and make sure that they are not out of pocket. We need these documents to show all the lack of communication and the lack of transparency under this government.

 Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (10:38): I might begin by saying that any chance to get up here and talk about energy and talk about our strong action in the transition to renewable energy in our state is something that I am very happy to take up, particularly when the motion demands ‘decisive action’ of this government to reduce our state’s reliance on gas. We are also doing a suite of measures to slash power bills and cut our state’s emissions. That is what I want to talk about today, because what I do know –

Members interjecting.

Tom McIntosh: On a point of order, Acting President, there are comments coming from the other side.

David Davis: Further to the point of order, Acting President, Ms Watt is heading into a broad energy discussion. This is a documents motion about documents that relate to energy in –

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Michael Galea): That is not further to the point of order. I have not ruled on the first point of order. I will ask members to allow Ms Watt to continue so that we can all hear what she is talking about.

Sheena WATT: Particularly when it comes to our wideranging action on energy, I want to talk about compressed natural gas –

David Davis interjected.

Sheena WATT: You returned to your seat? Thank you – which is directly related to motion before us. What we know is that in our communities affected by this decision – a decision that was made on a commercial basis by Solstice Energy – there are actions that are being taken by consumers. As Mr McIntosh said, 65 per cent of customers in these affected communities have already taken action. They have taken action and engaged with Solstice regarding suitable transition arrangements and what their options are. Many – in fact two-thirds – of customers have already taken steps to get off this very expensive energy provider.

Can I just say that further to that there are a suite of available options to support consumers, and one-third of customers have in fact received conversion payments and their transitions are well underway. Can I take the time to thank the office of the Minister for Regional Development, who I know have been very strong on this in the past, as well as with the support of the Minister for Energy and Resources. What we do know is that many communities are wanting to transition off CNG networks. They have said that it is an expensive form of energy. They are realising the benefits of the transition to renewable energy, whether that be uptakes of batteries, which in the communities is absolutely taking off –

David Davis: Have you visited one of these communities to talk about this?

Sheena WATT: Yes, I have.

David Davis: Which one?

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Michael Galea): Through the Chair, please, Mr Davis.

Sheena WATT: I have visited communities to talk about it. In fact I have a regional renewable energy network meeting scheduled in Gippsland next week. Let me just say that if Victorians in regional communities or indeed any Victorians want to make the switch to electrification, as so many do, there is support here from the Labor government to ensure that the help is available to slash energy bills, reduce your emissions and live in a much healthier home. There are millions of dollars available out there – $590 million worth of discounts went back into the pockets of Victorians in 2024 and 2025. There is so much that I could talk about. I could talk about Solar Homes. I have got 4 seconds to go, but I will just say that blatant misinformation about gas supply does not help Victorians with their needs.

Motion agreed to.