PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Dr HAINES (Indi) (11:00): I move: That this House: (1) recognises that: (a) regional Australia is playing a vital role in hosting the infrastructure needed to facilitate the energy transition; (b) there is a patchwork of community engagement and benefit obligations across and within states that makes it difficult for regional communities to know what to expect when dealing with renewable energy proponents; (c) regional communities have varying experiences engaging with renewable energy proponents, with some proponents undertaking best practice community engagement and others, poor or absent engagement; and (d) poor community engagement and benefit processes are bad for communities, and undermine the energy transition; (2) notes that: (a) the surge in artificial intelligence (AI) data centres has increased national awareness of the importance of community benefit for communities impacted by new largescale infrastructure developments; and (b) regional communities have been calling for a fair share of community benefits commensurate to their role in hosting Australia's energy transition, long before this conversation started about AI data centres; and (3) calls on the Government to: (a) establish a permanent, nationally consistent community benefit framework that sets out minimum mandatory community benefit contributions to be paid by renewable energy proponents to community benefit funds that: (i) deliver intergenerational community benefit to regional communities who host their infrastructure; and (ii) support local governments to navigate their increasing responsibilities in facilitating the energy transition; and (b) assign the implementation and oversight responsibility for this framework to the Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner.

Regional and rural Australia are playing a vital role in hosting the infrastructure that powers the energy transition, yet many rural communities feel overlooked. Too often, they feel the transitioning is happening to them, without seeing clear benefits flowing through as things like lower energy bills or investment in key local priorities. Regional Australia is not antirenewable.

Many people in the regions are embracing the opportunity. Farmers are increasingly hosting energy generation and storage projects to diversify their income and help them continue to farm. Local governments are working with proponents to create future funds and deliver infrastructure that would otherwise be out of reach.

Households are taking up batteries at record pace through the cheaper home battery scheme, a policy that we drove from the electorate of Indi. More than two in three regional Australians believe local communities can benefit from hosting renewable energy generation projects, if done right. That's where the disquiet is right now.

There's a patchwork of rules and requirements between and within states and territories, making it hard for communities to know the benefits that they can expect from renewable projects. In Victoria, there are community engagement and social value guidelines, renewable energy zones community benefit plans and payments in lieu of rates. These are all different schemes and guidelines that determine what proponents pay to local communities and councils.

But, in practice, two neighbours either side of a REZ border or state or territory border can face major differences in what proponents are expected to bring to the table when the system is this complicated. It's the communities, the regional communities, that lose out. I hear time and time again that communities are frustrated.

They can't see the long-term investment in their towns, and they're unsure how to secure lasting benefits from the energy transition. Right now, in my electorate of Indi, there's a proposal in Euroa that would power as many as 40,000 houses in Melbourne without addressing local reliability and brownouts. The council and the community are in discussions right now with the proponents to see if they can fix this.

That's what I'm talking about. My motion proposes a solution: it calls on the government to establish a permanent, nationally consistent community benefit framework with minimum mandatory contributions paid by renewable energy proponents to communities hosting their infrastructure. The details—including payment value, recipients and governance—should be developed with those regional communities, the Energy Infrastructure Commissioner, the proponents themselves of course, RDAs and all levels of government.

But two principles must be included if this framework is to work. First, funding must flow into the communities hosting renewable energy infrastructure. It should be flexible enough to support local priorities and deliver long-term intergenerational projects, projects that actually improve the quality of life for the people who live in that area.

We can still see the legacy of the gold rush and the wool boom in regional infrastructure today, and this new era of regional resources should also leave a lasting legacy for good for future generations. It should look like cheaper power or investment in childcare services, reliable telecommunications or key-worker housing. And some of these things are already happening in places like Dubbo and Armidale.

Second, the framework should support local governments to manage their growing role in delivering the energy transition on the ground, because councils are under increasing pressure to manage community concerns and engage with proponents, yet they lack the funding, the staff and the specialist expertise required. So a portion of community benefit funding should help councils access that expertise.

This will support better outcomes for those strapped councils, for the communities, for the proponents and, ultimately, for the nation in the energy transition. By and large, renewable proponents also support minimum community benefit expectations. Only this month, the Clean Energy Council called for a consistent, permanent, minimum renewable resources payment, similar to a royalty, to help rebuild trust.

When communities and proponents alike are calling for this solution, it's really time that the government listened. I welcome the growing recognition that communities should benefit when they host major infrastructure, and this conversation has become more prominent recently in relation to the proposed AI data centres. As that debate continues, we must recognise that regional communities have long called for a fair share of benefits for the important role they play in hosting renewable energy infrastructure.

We can't ignore reality: the energy transition is happening. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make sure we get it right, and we owe it to the regions to get it right. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Mascarenhas ): Is there a seconder for the motion?

Ms Spender: I second this motion and reserve my right to speak.