Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (12:19): I am delighted to have the opportunity to discuss, make a contribution to and support the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target Amendment (Energy Upgrades for the Future) Bill 2025.

This is an important bill, and I have been listening very, very closely to the outstanding contributions on this side and also the contributions of those on the other side. I am very interested in debunking some of the ideas put forward by those opposite, particularly the member for Narracan and the member for Hawthorn. Let us be very, very clear about this: much to your disappointment, emissions have gone down. They have gone down dramatically and consistently, and the Victorian energy upgrades (VEU) program is an important contributor to that. I am glad that the member for Hawthorn – he was here for a moment – talked about ‘confused and dysfunctional’ because he might have a PhD in ‘confused and dysfunctional’ in terms of his leadership of his party. To tell us that we are confused and dysfunctional is somewhat of a joke.

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member for Wendouree is clearly not sticking to the bill. She may very well be edging in the direction of being in contravention of standing order 118, which I am sure you will be familiar with, regarding imputations and personal reflections on members. I would ask you to bring her back to the bill.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): There is no point of order, but the member is to return to the bill.

Juliana ADDISON: I want to talk about this bill because this is an excellent bill and an important bill, but there are also some other things that I need to address in the contributions of others that have come before me, including the contribution of the member for Narracan.

I listened very intently to both the member for Narracan’s contribution as well as the member for Gippsland East with much interest. We know that there are some issues within the Liberal–National parties. They do not want to talk about renewables and they do not want to talk about reductions in emissions, because we know they want nuclear. They have made it very clear. I am not being hypothetical, as per the Chair’s discussion yesterday. They believe that nuclear is the answer. I would just put on record my support for what our Premier has said about nuclear energy: that it is risky, that it is expensive and that it is toxic. But we are not going to talk about nuclear today, because we have so many good things to talk about: renewable energy and reducing energy emissions in our area. The other thing I did want to talk about, though, is with regard to the review that the member for Gippsland spent much of his contribution focused on. I really want to take up this opportunity to respond in this debate and be really, really clear.

Peter Walsh: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, could you ask the member to refer to the member she has mentioned by his correct title? He is not the member for Gippsland; he is the member for Gippsland East.

Juliana ADDISON: The member for Gippsland East said he was very concerned about the review.

Peter Walsh: Darren Chester might take offence.

Juliana ADDISON: That says more about the member for Gippsland East than what I have said about the member for Gippsland East. Let me be really clear and explicit: the review is looking at improvements to the scheme, not at whether the scheme should exist. It clearly already is highly effective and beneficial, and the member for Gippsland East said that he would like a commonsense approach to that. What I want to say is that this review will ensure that if there are improvements that could be made, they should be made. It could not be more common sense than: ‘We’ve got a fantastic program. Let’s review it to see if it can be better.’ That is common sense, and that is something that I want to talk about as well.

The other matter that I want to talk about is just this idea that we are going to be getting consumers to pay more for the VEU. I want to debunk that as well, because the VEU program is actually reducing the cost of Victorian power bills, and this is supported by the fact that there is a net reduction for all households, including households that have not even signed up. Households that have not even accessed the VEU are getting benefits from lower power bills. I can see the member for Murray Plains is very confused by that, so I am going to walk him through it. It is important to be helpful, and I want to be helpful here. The VEU is driving down demand for energy, which reduces the wholesale price of energy. It is supply and demand; if you reduce demand, costs go down, so that is all good.

This idea that is being peddled, that we need to pause this, we need to not do this, I disagree with wholeheartedly. A pause is a waste of time. If we can improve it through the review, we definitely should. We should look for efficiencies. We should look for ways that we can do things better. But pausing it is certainly not the answer.

What is the answer? Our strong record of commitment to delivering real progress on climate change. That is what we do. That is what we have done in government, because we know that climate change is real. Whether it is the dreadful bushfires that we have had in the Grampians, the floods that we are seeing in Queensland and New South Wales, heatwaves, tropical cyclones or floods in the electorate of the member for Murray Plains, all are because of climate change. That is why we have ambitious targets for renewable energy generation, energy storage and offshore wind energy.

I am also proud that this government, the Allan Labor government, has truly world-leading emissions reduction targets. That is what Victorians want and that is what they are embracing. We are well on the way to achieving these goals, with 39 per cent of Victoria’s power now generated from renewables, which is triple that of 2014. Since the member for Murray Plains was a minister in 2014, way back then, we have tripled the amount of energy that is generated by renewables, and that is something that I am incredibly proud of. I am proud to be a part of this government.

We are also doing the work to reduce emissions, making our state better off. Victorians’ wholesale power prices are consistently lower than those in other Australian states, and this is down to our record investment in renewables, which can shield our market from fossil fuel price increases.

We are also putting in place the necessary arrangements for a transition away from gas, and I know that there is certainly not agreement across this place on that. Victoria’s supplies are dwindling, and we need to act to ensure a measured and methodical transition. That is why we are enacting policies to support households to electrify and move away from gas. I have already done that in my house. We have got our solar panels up and we are no longer using the gas central heating. We have got two split systems, and we are doing that rather than using our gas central heating. That is something that we do, and we love our solar panels. We were able to support a local company to install our solar panels, and whilst there is a lot of conjecture about Ballarat weather, our solar panels do very well for us during the summer months.

I also just want to talk about biogas. Biogas can also play a crucial part in accelerating our transition away from fossil gas. That is why we are capitalising on the potential of Victoria’s industry by investing millions in targeted bioenergy, which I think is a really important part of the market that we need to be looking at, talking to and engaging with.

A major component of our emissions reduction agenda is the Victorian energy upgrades program, which lowers household energy bills and incentivises a range of energy-efficient products. Through the VEU program, Victorians can access subsidies to replace major appliances including cooktops, heating and hot-water systems, in addition to low-cost and no-energy energy-saving upgrades such as energy monitors and weather sealing.

The weather sealing is particularly popular in my community in Ballarat. We have had over 25,968 homes in Ballarat take advantage of weather sealing. I live in a weatherboard house that was built about 100 years ago, which very much feels the cold. We have got heritage windows, and we have got a heritage property. To have weather sealing on a range of heritage weatherboard homes across Ballarat, when we do have very icy cold mornings and under-zero temperatures, is really, really important. We know that being able to keep the cold out in winter and keep the heat in reduces costs for my community, and that is a great win.

You can take a look at more of my contributions to Parliament here.