Bill Debate - Constitution Amendment (Sec) Bill 2023: Council Amendment

BILL DEBATE

CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT (SEC) BILL 2023: COUNCIL AMENDMENTS.

Tuesday, 15 October 2024.

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (13:30):

I will start where the Minister left off in relation to the Amendments to the Constitution Amendment (SEC) Bill 2023.

The Minister said a number of times that there would be more to say when it comes to the SEC, and that is the story of the SEC. We saw a press release before the last election – a one-sheet press release, as the former Premier was so accustomed to doing – with no detail, and from that date to now, to today, we have still seen no detail.

What this Bill does is set up effectively a shell, but it does not deliver what Victorians need, and that is reliable, affordable and secure energy. What we hear from that side of the Chamber is ideology, not just in the speech on the Amendments today. Follow the Minister on Twitter and you can see not just ideological wars in Victoria but fights with the Federal Government on energy
ideology – fights over ideology with the Federal Government in relation to energy supply.

What we have seen from the Federal Government is the Federal Government calling out that there is a problem with this state providing reliable, affordable and secure energy to Victorians. You would think that this Government would put those goals at the heart of what they do – they should be a core function of what they do, ensuring that the community has that – but we know that they do not. We know that in this state, which is so reliant on things like gas – 2 million homes are reliant on gas – we are seeing an ideological ban on gas.

This Bill is nothing more than a shell. The Minister spoke in her speech about the SEC providing consumer-facing solutions. Do you know what consumer-facing solutions are? Four hundred thousand dollars on promotional junk. That is what the Government means when they talk about consumer-facing solutions. They mean the yo-yos, they mean the coffee mugs and they mean the jelly beans. That is what the SEC has produced thus far – oh, and tote bags; I forgot the tote bags: $400,000 of junk. That is what this Government has done: spent taxpayer money on junk. What they have not done is provide energy solutions to Victorians.

We are two years effectively since the last election – two years – and when it comes to the SEC nothing meaningful has happened. We have seen broken promises and we have seen a waste of money. We have seen this Bill sit upstairs for months and months and months and months because the Government was not able to convince the crossbench to work it through – more delays, more delays. That speaks to the Government, frankly, and their lack of capacity to deal with, in most cases, Independent Members who lean their way. They could not even convince people who lean their way.

We are dealing with Amendments today which the Coalition did not support in the Upper House, because we know that in the two years after their media release announcement the Government has not done anything meaningful – two years, and there has been no outcome. Victorians now know that when it comes to energy, they do not have energy security. They know that energy is not affordable, and they know that there is chaos in the Government over which position to take on energy policy, not only in their own team in relation to policy positions but also with the Federal Government, which has called out the ideological approach of this Government, which ended up in a Twitter war from the Minister.

I mean, a Twitter war between the Minister and the Federal Minister – it was very, very unedifying to see when it came to that fight over energy security. What I would say about the Federal Government is they have sided with the need for Victoria to do better when it comes to energy policy. That is what they have said. They have said they want the Victorian Government to do better when it comes to energy policy.

This week we are seeing Bills move before this House which are entirely contradictory. One says we want to have a structural dealing with supply of gas and the capacity to store gas for times of need, effectively, and at the same time a Bill moves forward that bans gas. It bans gas at the same time as the Premier says we are not banning gas. Is there any wonder why Victorians do not understand what the Government is doing and have lost trust in what the Government is doing?

But this Bill is about the SEC. This Bill creates a shell that enables the SEC, but what it does not do is provide detail and what it does not do is do meaningful things. What Victorians deserve is reliable, affordable and secure energy. What they do not need is the Government wasting money on SEC yo-yos and coffee cups. I do not know what happened to those yo-yos. They perhaps were provided to the Members of the Caucus. They might have just been provided to Members of the Caucus for all we know, but what we do know is that $400,000 was wasted on junk and that did not reduce the Bill of a single Victorian when it comes to energy. So, the Coalition opposed these measures in the Upper House, and we will do so shortly.