Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio wastes $30,000 to spruik doomed windpower terminal overseas

Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio spent more than $30,000 of taxpayers’ money on a trip to the UK and Europe to spruik the state’s doomed Port of Hastings offshore wind terminal.

Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio spent more than $30,000 of taxpayers’ money on a trip to the UK and Europe to spruik the state’s doomed Port of Hastings offshore wind terminal and its capacity to “provide certainty to developers and investors”.

The “outcomes report” for the trip to the UK, Spain and Denmark last March indicates Ms D’Ambrosio was proceeding on the basis that the building of the terminal was a foregone conclusion, months before the federal Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, blocked the project on environmental grounds.

The report, which was published by the government last July, as per the legislative requirement, has recently re-emerged as part of a cache of documents released to the state opposition under Freedom of Information. Airfares for Ms D’Ambrosio, her chief of staff Tim Sonnreich and Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action secretary John Bradley cost almost $21,600, according to the documents, with another $8400 for accommodation, and almost $1000 on other expenses.

“I provided personal briefings at senior levels with developers and supply chain participants on our government’s next steps towards developing the offshore wind sector, including … the establishment of the Victorian Renewable Energy Terminal at the Port of Hastings,” Ms D’Ambrosio states in her report.

She says she engaged with “global players across all three countries” and provided them with “direct briefings on the Victorian Renewable Energy Terminal proposed for the Port of Hastings”, including plans for it to support generation of 13GW of electricity by 2040.

Ms D’Ambrosio said key themes discussed with the sector, port executives and government representatives had included “optimisation of port development”, as well as “port development planning to support timely establishment of port infrastructure to provide certainty to developers and investors”.

Opposition energy spokesman David Davis said despite the ­minister’s “boasting” in her report, offshore wind projects in Victoria remained as distant a prospect now as they had before she “jetted off to Europe”.

“Surely a quick chat with Tanya Plibersek about Labor’s proposed Victorian Renewable Energy Terminal adjoining the internationally recognised Ramsar wetlands at the Port of Hastings could have saved Victorian taxpayers’ dollars and the embarrassment of Labor’s apparently now unachievable targets of 95 per cent renewable energy by 2035,” Mr Davis said.

A spokeswoman for Ms D’Ambrosio said Victoria was developing Australia’s first offshore wind generation industry and “engaging with experts from across the globe to make sure we get it right – to drive down power bills and cut emissions”.

“Developers are ready to invest in Victoria because of the work we’ve done.”