Tuesday, 12 May 2026

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (14:06): I want to draw the chamber’s attention to the transmission use of system increases that have been loaded onto Victorian energy bills for households and businesses, a massive 28 per cent increase in the charges being applied to fund VicGrid – a massive increase across one year. All of that will be sheeted home on the family bills for electricity right across Victoria. VicGrid is a large and growing bureaucracy, a bureaucracy that is charging Victorians massively for the privilege and a bureaucracy that has declared war on country Victoria. They are brutalising country Victoria again and again with the additional powers they have taken and the decisions that they have taken to force through wires and transmission lines without community engagement, without proper community consent, and they are doing that whilst imposing these massive charges. The incredible charges are going to land on so many Victorians. It is an increase from the $798 million that they took last year to $1.018 billion, an increase of 28 per cent in one year – a huge surge in charges being sheeted home to Victorians. Every household bill is going to cop these costs at a time when we have got a cost-of-living crisis and families are doing it tough. This is VicGrid. It is what it is up to, its charges – (Time expired)