Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): It gives me great pleasure to speak on this bill to amend the National Electricity (Victoria) Act 2005. It is a bill that enables Victoria to continue delivering and indeed ramp-up our delivery of reliable, affordable and clean energy for our state. I have been very amused listening to the debate in the house so far at the sheer existential fright displayed by those opposite in relation to renewable energy.
That aside, what we know is that when it comes to energy and Victoria’s energy mix only Labor governments do the hard work to get the mix right. Labor governments drive investment, drive infrastructure, drive vital policy reform and drive an energy sector for the future—not one stuck in the past. Before Labor was elected, investment in renewable energy sources had ground to a standstill. Companies had vacated the space, because without the policy will and the political will, and without the investment to back it up, it was virtually impossible to build a new wind farm or solar farm in Victoria.
Today we have renewables generating more clean energy for Victorians than ever before. Renewable energy now runs our entire tram network. Major investments in grid-scale batteries are building up our capacity, and household solar is growing and growing, giving families more control over their power bills. The transition to a cleaner energy future is driving jobs in new economies right across the state. From the furthest reaches of the state the evidence is visible across our landscape. There is evidence of a transition to a sustainable energy future—a transition backed up by our legislated commitment to draw 50 per cent of Victoria’s electricity from renewable energy by 2030.
When it comes to the impact being made at a household level, there is one very obvious program that tens of thousands of Victorians have accessed, and indeed hundreds of residents from my electorate have accessed—and what an incredible success the Solar Homes program has been. I look across the chamber and it occurs to me that I cannot think of a single example of a policy that those opposite have put forward—certainly not in my lifetime, certainly not from anyone who still sits in this or the other place—not a single example of a program like the Solar Homes program.
The best the opposition and the Greens can do is accuse the government of creating a program that is too popular—so popular that Victorians wanted to take it up too rapidly. Imagine that. Imagine being that bereft of ideas that all you can do is complain that something is too good. Imagine being in that much of a struggle against relevance deprivation.
But the Solar Homes program is not just about our energy mix. I spoke last week about the transition that my electorate has undergone and how important it has been to transition the skills and jobs from the tanneries and textiles industries. What better example of this is there than the amazing work of EnviroGroup in Thornbury. Founded in 2004, EnviroGroup is a leading authority in sustainable technology, with a team of expert engineers and installers delivering solar projects Australia-wide. EnviroGroup is working in renewable energy, large battery storage, sustainability consulting and the delivery of major renewable projects. It knows how important the Solar Homes program is, and I know that when the Premier visited the home of EnviroGroup in June last year with the Minister for Solar Homes you could not have had more excitement in the room about the program.
But we know that solar panels on household rooftops is not the only form of renewable energy. It may get the most attention around the kitchen table, but there is so much more going on in renewable energy. I have mentioned before the Kiamal solar farm on the Calder Highway that is under construction near Mildura, one of many solar farms operating or under construction in the state’s north. We know that wind turbines dot the landscape across the state, from Portland on the south-west coast to Toora in the east—and I have raised in the past the lost opportunity at Bald Hills.
What we know is that we are getting it done. Since the Andrews Labor government was elected in 2014, 18 different projects providing over 1000 megawatts of new renewable energy capacity have become operational. Right now there are 14 renewable energy projects currently under construction or undergoing commissioning, which will total more than 2700 megawatts of renewable energy once they are complete. And on top of this there are 4000 megawatts of new projects receiving planning approval under this government. We have this strong pipeline of projects because unlike those opposite we recognise the impact of climate change on our environment, our economy and our communities, and unlike the Greens we are willing to go beyond slogans to do something about it. As the member for Essendon rightly noted in his contribution to this bill, we have a global responsibility to act to reduce our carbon emissions. The federal coalition might want to bury its head in the sand, but we will not.
Over the last 20 years here in Victoria we have seen successive Labor governments create the policy and regulatory framework, as well as making strategic investments, to support the establishment of a flourishing renewable energy sector. These investments saw the opening of the Vestas wind turbine facility at Portland in 2005 and of course the Keppel Prince factory, which manufactures the towers to fit these turbines. These companies did not set up shop down in that area on a whim, nor did they set up because they liked the ocean views, and nor did they set up because of likes on a Facebook page or a cut-paste email campaign from the Greens political party. They are there because of Labor government action—and I will say it again, Labor government action—that delivered renewable energy infrastructure, engineering jobs and manufacturing work that brought skills to the area and a genuine boost for that part of Victoria and a genuine boost for the Victorian economy.
I want to emphasise that the transition to renewables is not a new thing; we have been doing it for many, many years. Imagine where we would be now if not for the four dark years from 2010 to 2014. The work to develop these industries had Victoria ahead of the curve. We were leading the nation. We had a flourishing wind and solar industry, and we even had hybrid vehicles being built right here in Australia. When those opposite took the Treasury bench, just like their party room, they took the Victorian economy and the energy sector back in time, back into the dark. Fortunately for Victoria we have switched the lights back on, and we will not slow our roll.
So what we need now is for the transmission network to keep pace with the electricity being generated, and that is what this bill is aimed at. The national regulatory framework for transmission upgrades is not fit for purpose. It is complex and outdated and it has put a handbrake on our transition to renewables. It is a handbrake on our action to reduce emissions. The failure of the national regime to keep up with changing circumstances is also adding to the cost of energy and greater reliability risks. It can cause excessive delays in delivering transmission projects, and it is too clunky to see us through the next phase as we ramp up our vital shift to renewables. Right now the application process—just the application process—for new transmission projects can take more than two years. It has been two years since the Council of Australian Governments tasked the Energy Security Board with developing a package of amendments to the National Electricity Rules, and it has been three years since the COAG energy council first tasked the market operator to develop a whole-of-system plan for development of the national electricity market. How is that going? We need to be able to keep building renewable infrastructure and we need to be able to get the full benefits of our generators, and that cannot happen unless the transmission network is improved.
We know that we are not the only state that is fed up with this approach. Even the Liberal-Nationals government in New South Wales are having to rewrite their legislation to be able to get on with the job. We know that initially the Victorian energy network was largely created to push energy in one direction—generate it in the Latrobe Valley and the Snowy and push it across the state from there. We know that Labor governments over the last 20 years have been acting to change our energy mix, and that means facilitating and investing in projects right across Victoria and changing the way the network operates. We know that in certain parts of Victoria we are now seeing the grid reach capacity. In recent months we have seen the Australian Energy Market Operator constrain the output of five large-scale solar generators by 50 per cent, and we know that waiting for the federal coalition government to deliver anything relating to energy policy is an exercise in futility.
What we also know is what the Greens will do. We know that they will not support what the government is doing to deliver more renewable energy for Victoria. The Greens will obstruct and rail against it with classic hits like, ‘It’s too late’, ‘You should have done it years ago’ and my personal favourite, ‘Transition now!’, which, let us be clear, is not a coherent statement.
This bill provides reasonable powers for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change to fast-track urgent transmission investments and ensures we can continue to act to change our energy mix, create more jobs, drive down power prices and protect our environment. For that reason I commend the bill to the house.
