Second Reading
Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (15:16): ‘Respect’ was a word I saw a lot on signs on the front steps of Parliament yesterday, and what we are seeing from this government in this piece of legislation is a lack of respect – an absolutely disrespectful approach to rural and regional Victoria – and now, added to it, a lack of respect for this Parliament. Having debated one bill for three days this week, we now get an hour and a half, virtually, to debate this very, very important legislation, and it is disrespectful to regional Victoria. Indeed it is the disrespect of regional Victoria so far in the development of transmission lines and the renewable energy policies of this government that have got us to this point that we are at with this piece of draconian legislation. In my 10 or 11 years in this place I have never seen a bill 160 pages long with a shorter second-reading speech. It is just a disgrace. The government does not even know how to argue its own case on this. That is why we are concertinaing this debate this afternoon, because the government is embarrassed about it, and it should be.
We just heard it from the member for Albert Park, who of course has left – the government wants all the green credibility it can possibly get from the renewable energy policies it has and the transmission policies that come as a result, but it wants country people to carry all of the costs, all of the issues with visual amenity, all of the issues with noise, all of the issues with impacts on agricultural land and, most particularly, all of the impacts of transmission lines. The member for Albert Park does not have to worry about transmission lines. The member for Albert Park does not have to worry about solar farms or wind turbines in her electorate; they are all in our electorates in the regional areas of this state. So far the government has specifically precluded the development of wind farms in all of Melbourne and all the places that the government holds, with the exception perhaps of the seats of Ripon and Eureka. In the Bellarine – in your own electorate, Acting Speaker Marchant – the Yarra Valley, the Dandenong Ranges, the Mornington Peninsula, the Great Ocean Road and the Macedon and McHarg ranges, you cannot even apply to put a wind turbine there, but if you want to put wind farms in rural Victoria, go your hardest. ‘Not only that’ – this is the government – ‘but we’ll make sure you can sign up to the transmission lines because we’ll force our way onto people’s lands to make sure it happens.’
The member for Albert Park said, and the Minister for Climate Action has said across the table, that there are already provisions, so what is our concern with this. There are already provisions for access to private land for these sorts of facilities. If that is the case, what is this legislation needed for? Why do we need to introduce new $12,000 fines for individuals and $48,000 fines for body corporates if they have the temerity to refuse this government in terms of access to their private farms? This legislation is draconian and out of step with democratic ideals. We have seen this already with the government taking away the right of regional Victorians to appeal to VCAT in the case of renewable energy and transmission projects. The Nationals and Liberals will give that back. If we are elected next year, we will give regional Victorians their voice back and allow them to take these matters to VCAT.
I know in my own electorate there was a wind farm that was approved – approved by the department, approved by the minister – and the locals took it to VCAT. They found that both the department and the proponent had messed up, and that permit got withdrawn, so it is not a hypothetical situation. This is a situation in which the government’s policy to take away regional Victorians’ rights has a specific impact on whether these projects go ahead or not, and the government stands condemned for that. It stands condemned for the approach that it is taking. It has released a draft community benefits plan, but it has not released a final community benefits plan. Its preference is to start with the big stick of this legislation, with the threat of fines, with the threat of breaking locks and smashing open gates to get access to people’s land, instead of actually putting the carrot in front. That is why we are at this spot, because the government has manifestly failed to do the right thing by rural and regional people.
Do not take it from me, take it from Bruce Mountain, who is an energy expert. He is not a particularly hard right-winger or anything. He said in the Financial Review this week:
Drastic changes to private property rights, as the Victorian government is proposing to enforce a poorly founded transmission plan, are unlikely to achieve its objectives and will poison the water for other renewables and transmission developments …
And that is exactly spot on. That is what this government is doing. It has messed up its renewable energy rollout, and it is now making it worse with this approach. This is bad legislation. This bill is draconian. It is overreach and it is undemocratic. The Nationals and Liberals will oppose it, and if elected next year, we will repeal it.