Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): I rise to speak on a bill that is about our future, a future we take seriously on this side of the house. And the clues to that future are in the name of the bill itself—renewable energy, jobs and investment. This bill of course builds on Labor’s landmark commitments on renewable energy. It legislates for 50 per cent of all electricity generated in Victoria to be sourced from renewable energy by 2030. It delivers certainty for industry, it delivers opportunity for investment, it delivers jobs and it cements Victoria as a leader in renewable energy and action on climate change. For my community in Northcote, this bill is important. I know this because moving towards sustainable, renewable ways of living is part of the fabric of who we are. But do not take my word for it: often the most powerful message we get from our constituents is not what they say but what they do, and in the communities of Alphington, Fairfield, Northcote, Westgarth, Thornbury and Preston they have spoken with their feet. In the Northcote electorate almost 14 per cent of dwellings have solar systems installed, and that number is only getting bigger. Renters in my community have also welcomed the announcement to extend the Solar Homes program to renters and landlords. But as I said, this bill increases our legislated renewable energy target to 50 per cent by 2030. The target will create jobs, develop new technologies and drive down power prices for families, but most importantly, it will directly address the threat to our climate. Only Labor governments understand the need to deliver renewable energy, to deliver a smarter energy mix in a way that brings all Victorians along on the journey. Only Labor governments lead in this space and only Labor governments actually deliver outcomes. I look around the chamber and I see the stark differences. Those opposite—well, they see renewable energy and climate change as something of a nuisance, something of an inconvenience. Here in Victoria they are the party that brought the wind industry to a grinding halt in just a single term of government, creating exclusion zones so large that no turbines could be built. Before that, back in 2006, there was Bald Hills. There will be some in this chamber who were around at the time of the infamous intervention by the then federal minister for environment, Ian Campbell. I refer to the occasion where the approval of a wind farm at Bald Hills was blocked by Minister Campbell on 'environmental grounds’. What possible environmental grounds could have halted such a project? Well, listen closely. These statistics are a little hard to grasp, so I will say them slowly. Senator Campbell blocked the wind farm at Bald Hills on the basis of modelling that showed that the turbines would result in one orange-bellied parrot being killed every 667 years in the worst case and 1097 years in the best case. One parrot killed every thousand years—need I say more? But I need to go on because now I look across the chamber and I see the Greens. Now, when it comes to renewable energy, they do see opportunity, and you may think that opportunity is a good thing—and normally it is. The only problem is that the Greens political party see opportunity, but only for themselves, because what we know of the Greens is that they see an opportunity for a campaign, an opportunity for a protest, and it is protest they seek, not progress—because the dirty little secret that they do not want people to know is that when we make progress, they lose relevance. Senator Campbell is not the only one who does not like wind farms. Only recently the Greens godfather, Bob Brown, got his wings in a flap over birds and wind farms. And what was the outcome? Protest, not progress. And let us not forget that when it came to projects like Bald Hills the Greens were completely split by those who wanted renewable energy and those who took the 'not in my backyard’ view. I look further and I see our Independent friends, and I think they get renewable energy, jobs and investment. I know that the member for Mildura in particular gets it because in her electorate she sees real progress. As she makes her way home to Mildura at the end of the sitting week, she only has to look out the window from the Calder Highway to observe the construction of the beautiful solar farm being built at Kiamal, a farm that when completed will provide enough energy to power more than 133 000 homes. Renewable energy is the right direction to take, and it is Labor that has led the way. It is Labor that has been able to lead the way because we choose not to leave people behind. That is why jobs are such an important aspect of this bill. The bill will drive investment in local industry and increase employment in Victoria by an average of 4000 full-time jobs a year. There is no doubt that we should be moving away from coal, but we also know that we cannot just pull the rug out from underneath people and communities, and we know that people should never be made to feel guilty or, worse, morally inferior just for wanting a job. In 2010 Labor Premier John Brumby announced the intention to shut down Hazelwood through a phased approach and boost the solar energy sector if re-elected. In 2016 Hazelwood’s owners confirmed that the coal-fired plant would be phased down. In the intervening period we saw the destruction of the wind energy sector and we saw the demonising of Latrobe Valley workers by the Greens. In contrast the Andrews Labor government got to work supporting the Latrobe Valley, creating the Latrobe Valley Authority to work with the community. And one of the most powerful indicators of the authority’s focus is something quite small: when you go onto the Latrobe Valley Authority’s website, the first item in the menu says 'For workers’, because it is one thing to take the view that renewable energy is the way forward, but it is another to make it a reality, and that can only be done when we take the community with us. As I said in my inaugural speech, Labor recognises that with the right policy mix we can put sustainability at the very heart of thriving economies. Heavy-handed idealism and moral posturing gets us nowhere and is ultimately a recipe for conservative back-stepping. That is what sets Labor apart and what sets the Andrews Labor government apart—real action, real progress, not just protest. The Victorian renewable energy target is not just an aspiration; it is law across our state. Increasing it to 50 per cent by 2030 is vital as we transition to a clean energy future. I commend this bill to the house.
