Tuesday, 12 May 2026

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (18:03): (2508) My matter is for the attention of the Minister for Energy and Resources, and it concerns the CO2CRC, Australia’s leading, independent, not-for-profit research organisation in carbon capture and storage. It is based here in Melbourne. It has a very important premises down in the west of the state, the Otway International Test Centre. The test centre is the only field-scale geological CO₂ storage facility of its kind anywhere in the world. It is a kilometre-deep underground laboratory where researchers can inject controlled volumes of CO₂ and observe in real time how this is able to be managed. The data field sets for geological CO₂ are very important.

The CRC is funded by the federal government, but there has traditionally been some measure of state support and encouragement. If this is not funded in tonight’s budget, the CRC will slowly wind down. We are at a point where we have got environmental targets at a state and federal level, and carbon capture use and storage are an important and very valuable step in providing part of the solution to meeting those various targets.

Now, all around the world carbon capture and storage is a normal part of the system. I notice Keir Starmer, whatever his current difficulties, has allocated £22 billion to carbon capture and storage in Britain. He sees it as very important. And it is a great opportunity for Victoria. We have old gas storage reservoirs that are now empty and actually could carry significant amounts of CO₂ and could enable some of our hard-to-abate industries to put the CO₂ down those old storage areas. So there are a raft of different opportunities, and the CRC is a very important part of that. We obviously have CarbonNet funded by the federal government and the state government traditionally, but my understanding is the state government money has run out. What I am asking the minister for energy to do is to get a grip on this, to actually advocate to the federal minister and say, ‘Make sure you re-fund the CRC.’ It does valuable research work. It is an important part of the infrastructure. The state energy minister is well able to advocate to the federal minister, and perhaps the federal Treasurer too, to say, ‘You put that money in to make sure the CRC on CO₂ storage and capture is actually protected.’ It is a bad thing for Victoria if this is lost. It is a bad thing for the Victorian community, for Australia. It is a bad thing for the world more generally if you hold the views that many of the people in the current state and federal governments do. The minister needs to advocate, and she needs to do it urgently.