Hansard debates

Dr RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (11:08:51) — I rise to speak on this motion allowing for the sale of Victoria's share in Snowy Hydro to the commonwealth. The Snowy Hydro scheme is iconic in Australian history, and in this day and age of climate change it continues its significance as a key source of renewable energy for the nation. It is also a dividend-producing asset for the Victorian government. The Greens will not be opposing this motion allowing the sale. However, we do have a number of concerns.

Giving the commonwealth 100 per cent control over the hydro is setting the scene for privatisation. While we appreciate that the Victorian government has secured a commitment from the commonwealth that it will not sell the hydro, that is not a commitment that can necessarily be relied upon, particularly into the future. If a future government sells Snowy Hydro to private interests, it will be a travesty. Let us face it: we cannot trust the Turnbull government on renewable energy. They have no commitment to addressing climate change and they fail to understand the need for a rapid transition away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy. Having proponents of coal as the sole owners of Australia's largest renewable energy project does not bode well for the future of renewable energy policy.

It is also always important to provide scrutiny when a government seeks to capitalise a dividend-producing asset. Snowy Hydro provides the Victorian government an annual dividend of over $100 million while delivering renewable energy to thousands of Victorian homes. Will the benefits of this sale outweigh selling our share? What the sale does provide to Victoria is $2 billion. Unsurprisingly, we have some thoughts on what sorts of productive infrastructure that $2 billion should be invested in to maximise the benefit for our community now and into the future. The obvious place to start is to invest the funds from selling a renewable energy asset into more renewable energy assets — invest in the transition to a clean economy and in bringing down energy costs.

For example, the government could invest in solar and battery infrastructure for all schools. When schools let out for the day in the afternoon their solar panels could be charging batteries and could be plugged into the grid to provide clean energy to the surrounding communities. We could fund energy efficiency programs for our homes, particularly for low-income people and people in rental properties, who have difficulty accessing such cost-saving measures. We could provide access to solar panels and batteries for a wide swathe of the community, allowing for heating and cooling that does not hurt the planet. Imagine a renewable energy hub in the Latrobe Valley. We should dedicate the necessary funds to transition away from harmful fossil fuels and into a clean, jobs-rich future for the valley.

My colleague in the other place Ms Sandell has noted that with renewables becoming cheaper and cheaper the government can get ahead and be the ones who are actually taking advantage of this by announcing an auction for renewable energy for 1500 megawatts rather than the existing 650 megawatts. While we welcome and support the government's renewable energy target, something we have campaigned on for years, we can now be more ambitious because we know the demand is there. The government has received more applications than it expected, and it is cheaper. The sale of Snowy Hydro provides an enormous opportunity to accelerate Victoria's transition to a clean energy economy and bring down power prices.

There are also other ways in which the funds from the sale could be used for the benefit of Victorians. We are in the midst of a housing crisis, yet the government can only find $185 million over four years to invest in new public housing. This is not even a drop in the bucket of what is needed to reverse the decline in public housing. Let us not forget it is called public housing because it is provided by the state as an essential part of the social safety net, yet instead of investing in public housing Labor is selling off public housing to private developers. Let us use this windfall to seriously address the crisis in housing. Let us seriously invest in public housing. Let us seriously deliver on reducing the 35 000-long waiting list for public housing. Let us give people who need shelter safe homes to live in.

Public transport is another example of productive infrastructure that could do with more government investment. Public transport commuters could be relieved of the pain of trains that do not show up, overcrowded trams and slow buses or no buses. We could commit to Metro 2 and high-capacity signalling on our busiest lines, relieving congestion and getting people where they need to go faster.

Let us not waste the proceeds of the sale. The Greens are ready to work with the government to ensure investment in projects that will benefit Victoria now and into the future, such as renewable energy, public housing and public transport.