Andrews promises fall flat: regional roads, Comm games and SEC revival

Regional Victorians can be forgiven for growing tired of Premier Daniel Andrews’ pre-election promises that turn out to be all spin and no substance, writes Peter Hunt.

In 2018 the Andrews’ team promised to establish Regional Roads Victoria “to uplift the safety and quality of regional roads”. PICTURE: Zoe Phillips

Regional Victorians can be forgiven for growing tired of Premier Daniel Andrews’ pre-election promises that turn out to be all spin and no substance.

In 2018 the Andrews’ team promised to establish Regional Roads Victoria corporation to create “a co-ordinated statewide approach to uplift the safety and quality of regional roads”.

But RRV turned out to be nothing more than a branding exercise — an offshoot of VicRoads.

After it was elected Labor then went about systematically paving over details of its regional road spend by no longer publishing VicRoads annual reports, changing key maintenance measures and blurring its budget numbers.

And who could forget the most recent backflip from the Premier and his deputy Jacinta Allan on their 2022 pre-election promise to host the Commonwealth Games, showcasing regional Victoria to the world?

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews makes the announcement to bring back the SEC during a visit to Yallourn. Picture: David Crosling

They even promised to “bring back the SEC”, by investing $1 billion in renewable energy, cutting households power bills and reviving the Latrobe Valley as an energy hub.

“We’ll bring power back into the hands of Victorians by creating government-owned energy – keeping bills down and the lights on” and create 59,000 jobs as we transition from coal to clean renewables, Mr Andrews told media at the Yallourn Powerhouse Hotel last November.

Part of that SEC deal was a promise to “invest $20 million to prepare the SEC for its new role in our energy market, including setting up a base in Morwell.

“The Latrobe Valley has always been the centre of Victorian energy generation – and we’ll make sure it’s part of our clean energy future.”

Yet less than 12 months on we discover most of that $20m is being spent on departmental staff in Melbourne.

The SEC’s interim chief executive Chris Miller has already told Parliament’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee that all his 29 staff are working in Melbourne.

Mr Miller also confirmed no SEC office would be purpose built in the Latrobe Valley, with staff simply using Morwell’s existing GovHub.

As for bill relief, Victorians were hit with a 25 per cent electricity price hike on July 1.

Questions have also been raised on the logic of the SEC investing $1 billion of taxpayers’ funds in a renewables sector that is already awash with wind and solar projects.

The private sector already has 21GW of renewable projects on the books in Victoria, of which 5.8GW has already been built, another 1GW are under construction, 11GW have gained planning approval and another 3.1GW have been lodged.

International corporations are also lining up to build even more offshore wind projects off Gippsland and Portland.

Victorian MP Lily D'Ambrosio addresses the SEC Jobs and Skills Forum. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

During June’s PAEC hearings Opposition Nationals MP Danny O’Brien questioned Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio on what processes she has put in place to ensure “that you are not just investing in projects that (a) would have happened anyway or (b) are not commercial enough to happen without the taxpayer taking a risk on them?”

Ms D’Ambrosio said it was about “bringing forward projects that may otherwise be later in their delivery or indeed not happen at all”.

The government has already released what it calls a pioneer mandate, calling for expressions of interest from renewables developers wishing to tap into $600m of SEC funds to co-invest in renewable projects.

“We’ve received a very positive response for SEC’s Pioneer Investment with more than 100 registrations of interest and look forward to announcing the first project later this year,” Ms D’Ambrosio said.