Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (10:34): There is no end to my largesse this day, as I commend Mr Melhem for his diligent, fair and collaborative chairmanship of the inquiry. I would of course also like to thank Michael Baker and his staff who managed, virtually, to give us witnesses from all over Australia and overseas. The fact of the matter is Victoria is facing an energy crisis, and this is extraordinary in an energy-rich state. Household electricity prices have increased annually by more than 12 per cent under this government—seven times the inflation rate—devastating families and businesses across Victoria. What this shows is that, as we decarbonise, clean energy must also be reliable, affordable and accessible. To achieve these goals we must have an innovative and open approach to new energy technologies that provide dispatchable baseload power generation complementing intermittent renewables. Energy policy has to be technology agnostic—not ideologically driven. This is why my colleagues Dr Bach and Mr Limbrick and I were compelled to produce a minority report to allow nuclear energy to be considered as part of Victoria’s energy mix, especially if emission-free is a goal.

Commonwealth and New South Wales inquiries have recommended lifting the moratorium on nuclear energy, and the committee heard that for a business case to progress and public goodwill to be embraced it is important that bans on particular energy types be abandoned. Government needs to lead, not ban, if Victoria is not to be left behind and is to once again become the energy-rich state that it can be. So this ban has to be lifted, and I am pleased to support the minority report.