POWER POLICY WARS

VICTORIA’S power struggle has landed in Geelong, with a State Opposition plan to legislate for conventional gas exploration both welcomed and slammed across the region.

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy yesterday announced his party, if elected, would allow onshore conventional gas exploration and production on a case-by-case basis.

Under the plan, landowners would be able to share in profits from gas produced from beneath their land and have a right to veto gas exploration.

The plan also supports a continued ban on fracking and coal seam gas exploration, as well as a policy to ensure that gas produced is supplied to Victorians.

“This policy will help put the brakes on soaring gas prices that are currently hurting Victorian households and businesses,” Mr Guy said.

“Our policy will provide cheaper gas and create more jobs, while protecting our environment and farmland.”

Mr Guy’s plan was met with some resistance, with one Paraparap farmer saying landowners wouldn’t be fooled into allowing gas exploration on their properties.

“You can’t bribe us to put our groundwater at risk — it’s just not going to work,” sheep and grain farmer Ian Clarke said.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews challenged Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday, calling on him to travel to the Corangamite electorate to speak with locals about gas exploration, during an interview on ABC’s Insiders.

“I’d encourage the Prime Minister to go down to Sarah Henderson’s electorate and have a chat to a few locals — farmers, workers, environmentalists, mums and dads,” Mr Andrews said.

“We are not going to smash up our prime agricultural land because we understand when it comes to the economy and the environment in regional Victoria, they are the same thing.”

Mr Andrews said there was no issue with gas supply in Victoria, the problem was with gas being sold offshore for a cheaper price than it could be purchased in the state.

“Last year, 402 petajoules of gas, that’s what was produced in Victoria. How much was used? 206 petajoules. Put it another way, enough supply for seven million houses, we used 3.5 million houses worth,” he said.

“There is not a problem with supply, there is sufficient supply, what there is not though is sufficient political leadership from the Commonwealth and the Prime Minister, because he’s the only one that can get this done, to reserve our gas for our households and our businesses first.”

Victorian Acting Resources Minister Jacinta Allan said Mr Guy’s plan to explore gas reserves would put Victoria “on a slippery slope back to the introduction of fracking”.

“Their announcement is about opening the door for this sort of activity to be once again considered here in Victoria — something we know that landowners right across country Victoria are deeply concerned about,” she said.

South Barwon state Liberal MP Andrew Katos said something needed to be done to increase the supply of gas in Victoria.

“I was recently doorknocking in Waurn Ponds and I had a constituent, a self-funded retiree, who at the moment is choosing between food on the table and heating the house for the whole night,” Mr Katos said.

“They told me they’re popping the heater on for an hour to break the cold, then they sit there under blankets.”

Western Victorian Liberal MP Simon Ramsay also welcomed the plan, which he described as an “increasingly vital” change in policy to ensure gas remained viable for Victorian houses and businesses.

“Without reliable sources of energy, Victoria is going to be left critically short of power when it most needs it. Electricity prices have tripled and this policy will help keep prices down,” Mr Ramsay said.

Conventional gas exploration is currently not permitted in Victoria. A moratorium is in place until 2020.