Hansard debates

Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (12:00:18): One of the issues that this bill will address is actually safety, and I think everyone in the house would acknowledge that this is critical right now—with the fires that we are seeing interstate we know that the conditions of a long, hot, dry summer are about to be faced here in Victoria as well. This goes to a whole series of different pieces of reforms that we have had: 12 different acts have been put through this Parliament to reform our energy system since the Andrews Labor government came to power. On safety, if you think about what needs to be done and how we need to have better control over what is happening—as best we can, with the devastation of climate change as we have seen it play out—some of the reforms that we have introduced have looked at how we actually get better prevention, better predictive mapping of where fires will go, better communications and better ways of coordinating assistance. The Premier has spoken to the house today about how well received the Victorian firefighters have been in New South Wales and the job that they have done, and harking back to when we commemorated the 10th anniversary of Black Saturday in this house, that was a time when we actually addressed some of these issues as well and what has occurred. At that time I called for a life preservation accord, and we should actually do this with other countries. Previously, before I was in the Parliament, I called for this with California and Victoria—the two most wildfire-prone states in the world—and the Andrews Labor government made that happen. So that is a better international assessment of what should occur. Remember how bad Black Saturday was—you know, the flames fell from the sky. People had no chance. Some of the fires you could not fight. But one of the key things that the royal commission revealed was that there was no communication between those doing the predictive mapping on where the fires were supposed to go and those fighting the fires on the front line. So we have now introduced reforms to take care of those issues. Then there is the issue of how we actually look at other areas that are being affected by wildfire. Even with Greece, I put down the proposition in this house that we should look at—after what happened in Greece, with their wildfires—how we actually connect and have a life preservation accord with them. I know that there has been a very strong response formally from the Greek parliamentarians who represent the World Hellenic Inter-Parliamentary Association, which represents, right across the world, legislators of Greek history and heritage. This is an issue where we can see that it is really important that we try and get the best advice in advance, the best preparation: how do we do the predictive mapping and then how do we respond to these events, which we are told will become more frequent and more dangerous; then also how do we fight them at the time, and how do we actually look at what has to happen for the rebuild and the recovery, which of course is harrowing in a totally different way as well? These are the issues that come together and could not be more urgent right now. I want to commend the minister for bringing this piece of legislation to the house as part of this ongoing raft of reforms that the Victorian government is introducing. It is also clear that while the national electricity and gas markets deliver safe and reliable energy to consumers they need to adapt to changes in our environment and our energy network. This is why we are introducing the Energy Safety Legislation Amendment (Victorian Energy Safety Commission and Other Matters) Bill 2019. It has two key propositions. The first is to establish the Victorian Energy Safety Commission as a three-person commission through amendments, and the second is to establish an electrical line worker licensing scheme, which requires amendments as well. It is part of this raft of reforms to strengthen the energy safety watchdog, the Energy Safety Victoria (ESV) organisation. This plays the role of monitoring the energy sector and holding those who do the wrong thing to account. We need scrutiny, we need accountability and we need compliance. They are the three key propositions for the government to be watching and making sure they put into effect. So these vital reforms will strengthen the regulatory approach and decision-making and transform it into an effective, modern regulator for electricity, gas and pipeline safety. Through this bill the Andrews Labor government is strengthening the governance structures of Energy Safety Victoria by moving from a single-member agency to a three-person commission. The establishment of such a commission was recommended last year by the extensive Grimes review. I am sure a number of MPs on all sides will recall the detail of that. Transferring to a multimember, broadly skilled commission will improve the regulatory decision-making capability by ensuring consideration of a wider range of perspectives and experience. That is what you need on board. You need people who have that experience, the wide perspective. You do not end up then just having groupthink. That is a critical issue that they are looking to address there. The commission will provide a breadth of skills in the areas of law, regulation, economics and community safety as Energy Safety Victoria continues to develop towards best practice regulation. Thanks to these reforms the commission will also be supported by a technical advisory committee to ensure the commission has expertise available to guide its decision-making. That is the other proposition that you need as well: access to experts and world’s best practice. The safety of the Victorian community is the government’s highest priority. Recent coronial inquests, electricity network-caused fires and examples of non-compliant asset and vegetation management practices of regulated entities have reinforced this need to strengthen the regulatory effectiveness of the energy safety regulator in order to ensure community safety. This is why these reforms are giving ESV a mandate to put community safety at the forefront and to hold the duty holders to account, which is vital as the industry transforms. Just going back to the Grimes review, it has been more than a decade since the current safety framework was put in place, and that is why the government regarded it as timely for a review—to change the previous arrangements. In 2017 the Andrews government and the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change announced the independent review. The main objective was to look at the safety of our supply and reduce the risk of fires created by electrical assets. Of course that was part of the context of what happened during Black Saturday, and that is why we need to continue to look at what is world’s best practice and to look at how we can get more information from California and Europe as well, as these issues become more prevalent and fires become more dangerous. I think that is the context of this piece of legislation. To go back to those issues, we do not want to see any more of those haunting photos of rows of burnt-out cars and then have the backlash from the inadequacy of planning and preventative measures and the emergency response, or the cruel fate that many families have already confronted in Victoria of having to rebuild from the ashes. We have seen that in Victoria. We are seeing that in New South Wales on the news as we speak, and we have seen it in Europe as well. I commend the minister for the bill and the government for ongoing support in these issues. It is trying to do as much as it can because it is a difficult, complex issue for all of us to address. I think we are trying to get to what is a preventative approach: how do we try and work out where the fires are going when they occur, how do we minimise the fuel that is available and then how do we actually fight the fires and then rebuild after that? This is all part of this bigger picture. The key strategic organisation that the Andrews government brings has been a hallmark of this administration. I commend the bill to the house.