Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:33): I rise today to speak in opposition to Dr Ratnam’s motion. This motion is not about preserving the Twelve Apostles; it is really just a lot of blah, blah, blah. The Greens have disgracefully weaponised the much-loved iconic site of the Twelve Apostles to push their anti-gas agenda. The 11 000 people that have signed the Greens petition on this issue have been completely deceived. The Greens have mobilised to disturb the significant, productive and safe operations conducted by Beach Energy in western Victoria simply over their decision to change the classification of an exploration well to a production well. This does not involve more drilling. The well is already drilled.

They want to ban drilling beneath the Port Campbell National Park to prevent imminent, supposedly dangerous, drilling. There has already been safe drilling occurring there for some time, Dr Ratnam. But let us not allow the truth to get in the way of winning back the seat of Northcote from the Labor Party, because that is what this is really about. This campaign is driven by an ideological opposition to gas that emanates from inside the inner-city, tram-track suburbs of Melbourne but affects a business more than 150 kilometres away and will further cripple the state’s gas supply.

The great fallacy propagated by the Greens and their allies in this radical left is that advocacy for gas exploration is motivated by an aversion to renewable energy. Unbeknown to the Greens, only a small fraction of the state’s gas supply is used in gas-powered energy generation. The vast majority is used for residential and industrial purposes. The domestic gas market is comprised of 45 per cent being used for industrial purposes, such as fertiliser manufacture, milk processing, glassmaking and many other industries; 36 per cent is being used for residential and commercial purposes, for households and small businesses; and only 19 per cent is used for gas-powered energy generation.

So when we are talking about gas exploration, what we are really talking about is minimising costs for thousands of regional businesses across this state. We are talking about dairy processing, abattoirs, kiln-drying timber and a huge variety of other businesses that crucially depend on the use of gas in their production lines. Electricity does not cut it. Producers like Fonterra in Cobden cannot simply switch to electricity to dry milk. AKD Softwoods in Colac need gas to kiln-dry timber. Reduced gas supply will result in more expensive gas, which means less production, fewer jobs and reduced economic benefits to rural and regional areas. But when have the Greens cared about that?

It is not just domestic energy customers who will suffer. Given the significance of increased energy costs to Australian manufacturing, the jobs lost and the inflationary pressure on the prices we all pay for goods will be significant. This motion really could not be worse timed. The Greens may not have noticed, but the world is entering an energy crisis potentially as significant as that of the 1970s. European and Asian gas prices are at an all-time high, and the knock-on effect across other parts of the energy market is causing fuel shortages across major economies, including China, India and the EU. Kevin Gallagher, chief executive of Santos, told the Australian Financial Review yesterday that:

You can see LNG prices that I didn’t think I’d ever see in my life in the international market today …

Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) CEO Daniel Westerman, quoted in the same article, noted that:

… higher energy prices in Europe from the global energy crisis will inevitably make it through to Australia.

Thankfully our domestic gas production should insulate us to some degree from the worst of the crisis. Senex Energy chief executive Ian Davies said yesterday, referring to the world energy crunch:

… Australia is in a very, very different place … We have an abundance of gas supply. We have a very material gas export market.

But we cannot take this for granted. Knee-jerk opportunism of the kind we see in the Greens’ motion is incredibly costly at the best of times, even when energy costs are at normal levels, but it is when we hit the market highs that a truly catastrophic potential would be revealed. If I can do nothing else today, I would hope to impress on all listening how truly irresponsible the sentiments behind this motion are. In the name of unjustified environmental scaremongering, the Greens are pushing us toward a less secure, more costly energy future. The consequences would be regrettable. In a benign world energy environment, they would be catastrophic when cyclical crises occur. AEMO have forecast a gas shortfall in Australia by 2023. Now more than ever, Victoria should be increasing our gas supply to keep our economy going, not demonising it.

When Dr Ratnam raised the project in question time last month, she cited the analysis conducted by Northmore Gordon as a solution for how to:

… prevent any so-called gas shortfall by stopping all new gas connections and supporting households to replace gas heating and gas hot water with efficient electric appliances.

Putting aside the significant flaws in this report, such as the assumption that the Victorian gas market is a closed market, its findings are terrifying. Firstly, the proposal supported by the Greens would mean that gas cooling and heating units would be replaced by ones that are electricity powered. Natural gas is delivered to the home at a quarter of the emissions, compared to grid electricity. The Greens want to increase household emissions from their cooling and heating systems by fourfold. What utter hypocrisy. Imagine that—the Greens were opposing gas on the basis of supposedly fighting climate change and essentially arguing that it should be replaced by appliances that emit more emissions. This is comical. They even want to ban wood-burning heaters, so your only option left is electrical appliances that are sourced from more carbon-emitting sources.

The Greens are also advocating for 600 000-plus ducted gas-based heating units in Victorian homes to be replaced with reverse-cycle air conditioners. How does Dr Ratnam propose we should enforce these bans on gas appliances? Is Dr Ratnam proposing that we have more authorised officers marching through homes to arrest old ladies heating themselves with gas heaters? Do not boil your kettle on a gas stove or the Greens would have the police kick your door down.

Further, the cost of implementing the aforementioned proposal ranges between $6380 for a working family and $8270 for a large house. In essence, the Greens’ solution to the gas crisis facing Victoria is to tax working families $6000 to $8000. This is unconscionable, but perhaps unsurprising. In all their virtue signalling about environmentalism, the end result is always the same: higher prices for families, higher taxes for individuals, more regulation for wealth-creating businesses. When have you ever heard the Greens commend a private corporation for their impressive efforts in research and development or innovation to create new low-emission technologies? Never. It always comes back to an apparent need for more government and more wealth redistribution and more crippling of free enterprise.

Businesses like Beach Energy do not want to destroy the environment or the treasured Twelve Apostles, as the Greens would suggest. Nothing could be worse for them as a company that relies on government permission for their projects, underpinned by public support. The deranged caricature that the Greens make companies like Beach Energy to be could not be further from the truth. As I noticed when I raised the Beach Energy development near Port Campbell with the Minister for Resources last month, extended reach drilling is a proven safe technology with minimal environmental impact, contrary to the misinformation spread by the Greens—which is ironic, given that Dr Ratnam’s other motion on the notice paper is in opposition to the proliferation of misinformation.

The project will not damage aquifers or impact the cliffs. The scaremongering about this exemplary project is truly unhinged. I implore all members of this house to vote this motion down, in support of regional businesses, Victoria’s economy, thousands of jobs, lower gas and energy prices, and common sense.