Hansard debates

Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (12:21): I rise today to talk on the Energy and Land Legislation Amendment (Energy Safety) Bill 2025, and it does give me great pleasure to be able to stand up and talk about our energy make-up into the future. I think as we talk to constituents right around the place, we are all in agreeance that renewables are going to play a major role moving forward. What we are being sold at the moment from the Labor government is the fact that these renewables, straightaway and then again in time, are going to be able to bring the price of our electricity and gas bills down. That is failing at the moment, so we need to ascertain when that will happen. Talking to people that are actually putting renewable infrastructure into production and getting it up and going off the ground, to get to about 32 to 35 per cent of renewables, which I think we are probably at now in Victoria, is the low-hanging fruit. It is the easiest way to get there and the cheapest way to get there – to get to that number around 35 per cent. Then it gets harder and more expensive as we roll on. So collectively in here we need to make sure that we can move through that and bring on some of these cost-saving effects for mums and dads that are in their homes for their cost of living and to bring their power prices down.

This particular part of the legislation I was very interested to see also brings in a bit of an attack on the poor old tradie and the poor old plumber that are going around trying to fix and create longevity in gas appliances at the moment. Into the future, they could be fined for doing this. And they are not small fines, they are large fines. It just does not seem right that as they are going about their daily business to help people in their homes to be able to cook and clean and shower they are going to be fined for actually fixing some gas appliances. It is as simple as that. That is what is going to be happening.

As we transition out, we are starting to close our coal-fired power stations. I just did a little number before. We are about 1200 days away from Yallourn power station closing. That is going to pull out about 22 per cent of Victoria’s energy content that goes into the grid. It is going to pull that out. So we need to be making sure that we have a diverse energy grid made up of renewables, and we seem to be getting further and further away from bringing on our wind turbines out at sea and also onshore and connecting them to our power grid.

This timeline for shutting the coal-fired power stations down and relying on whatever our mix is going to be into the future gets shorter and shorter daily. We need to make sure that the people of Victoria are informed and we need to make sure that they know exactly what is going on. I have heard in the chamber today about the take-up of rooftop solar and batteries and so forth and how there are subsidies from government, both federal and state, that can get these panels onto our roofs. But I want to know what happens in 20 years time at the end of life of these solar panels and the end of life of these batteries – who pays for them to be replaced? Is it then thrown on the home owner, who has to work out how we recycle these panels and how we recycle batteries? At the moment there is not a great industry, and that is something that really needs to be looked at moving forward – where we are going to recycle them – because for the mums and dads that have done the right thing and put the solar panels on the roof, why should it be left up to them to pay to get rid of them? And are they going to be subsidised to put better and newer panels onto the roof? Are they going to be able to afford that? These are questions that I get asked all the time. Take out what we are doing now, where are we going to be in those 15 to 20 years when that needs to happen? Who is going to pay for it, and how much of an impost is it going to be on the mums and dads in their homes at the moment?

We need jobs. We need jobs in the Latrobe Valley because our bread and butter is obviously creating power in coal-fired power stations, which are shutting. We have just had issues with our Opal manufacturers, who have gone back to work now. But that is an unintended consequence of shutting the timber industry, which was relied on heavily through the Latrobe Valley and East Gippsland. It made it harder for Opal to sustain what they want to do and obviously puts pressure on the people that live and breathe in the Latrobe Valley. We are finishing up all these jobs, and I ask Minister D’Ambrosio all the time where the new jobs are in the Latrobe Valley for the people that I represent who do a great job at the moment, and have for the last 100 years, making sure that Victoria’s power supply is strong and always there. Where are the jobs for these people to transition into now and also for the next generation into the future and the generation after that? For 100 years we have generated power – the power stations are there – and we will continue to do it for the next 100 years whatever that make-up is going to be.

I am not sure if people in here have driven past some of these solar farms and battery farms that are starting to litter the countryside around regional Victoria. People that live near them or drive past them are just shocked by the sheer size of them. We do need them to be this size, because the one thing that is not going to diminish is our appetite for a power supply into the future. It is not going to diminish at all; it is going to get more and more. At night-time when I drive around I look at sports, whether it be football or basketball, soccer or theatre. Are these people all going to need batteries at all of these locations through country Victoria to be able to train at night if they are playing football or to put on their shows if we are moving into renewables and relying on everything being electric and batteries powering us through the night? At the moment with our coal-fired power stations we have sustainable base load power 24/7. If you go and turn a light switch on, it is going to be there. And by the sound of it, hopefully with what the government is proposing here, it is still going to be there. But are these community batteries at, for argument’s sake, the Morwell football club going to be available for our community groups to access and use? How long are they going to last for? As I say, we are looking for a 20-year timeframe to replace all of this stuff.

There are ways and means that that can happen, which may not have been thought of yet, but we need to be able to recycle these batteries and we need to be able to recycle these solar panels. Where is that going to happen? The bigger question is: what cost is it going to be to the Victorian public? We have moved, as I said, along the track of going to renewables and we are all in agreeance that we need to have renewables in the mix, but it is time now for the government and Minister D’Ambrosio to give us a blueprint of when it is all going to be coming online. Give me a blueprint that I can take back to the people of the Latrobe Valley of what jobs are coming to the valley. We see solar farms and battery farms being let go and talked about in other parts of regional Victoria. We need to make sure that we get our fair share down in the Latrobe Valley – that we have the jobs and the security. There are a lot of questions that remain unanswered. We are ready to go, but what happens into the future? I think the government need to be able to talk to the people of Victoria about what costs they are going to incur. It is my job to stand in here and highlight that situation. I hope the member for Mordialloc may be able to answer some of my questions as he gets up.