Chapter 5 I Independence and Power: the 2010s
As the 2018 state election neared, energy again emerged as a key issue. Over the previous four years, Environment Victoria had reached out to the state Liberal-National Coalition for bipartisan agreement on key policies to cut pollution and support clean energy, but had mixed success. The Coalition ultimately adopted a platform to repeal almost every Victorian climate change policy. If they won, they would scrap the VRET, Climate Change Act and pollution targets; they even floated the idea of government support for a new gas or coal power station. Everything was on the line. Labor was initially reluctant to talk about energy at all, fearing an opposition scare campaign on blackouts and power prices. Through persistent lobbying and community campaigns in key electorates aimed at demonstrating support for renewable energy, Environment Victoria and others convinced Labor that it had an opportunity to show leadership by going big on clean energy. In 2018, the campaign for the key sand-belt seats was even bigger than in 2014. Environment Victoria supporters made 80,000 phone calls to undecided voters, booked billboards and radio and TV adverts, and enrolled 1300 young people in those seats. This time around, there was little nuance in the pre-election messaging. CEO Mark Wakeham and the Environment Victoria board were prepared to take the risk of calling out the Liberal Party’s plan to destroy Victoria’s clean energy industry. The Liberals wanted to stall action on climate change, which would cost
thousands of jobs in renewable energy, and the public needed to know what was at stake. Over the course of the campaign, Labor found its voice, and eventually put renewable energy at the centre of its election campaign. Its flagship plan to put solar panels on 700,000 homes was strongly influenced by Environment Victoria’s policy agenda. The media publicised Environment Victoria’s analysis that wind and solar could generate sufficient energy to power every home in Victoria, and two weeks
later Premier Andrews made the same claim on Twitter. Labor’s solar panel pledge featured on the campaign bus and every Labor how-to-vote card. Disciplined and relentless campaigning had shifted the politics of the issue. On election night, Labor won 57.3 per cent of the two-party preferred vote and a big majority in the lower house. A Channel Nine exit poll showed that renewable energy was a pivotal issue for 23 per cent of voters, and Roy Morgan research suggested the Liberals’ poor position on climate change was a key concern among those who voted Labor. In the post-election hangover, Liberals who had nearly lost their seats spoke publicly about climate costing them votes, forcing the party to come back to environmental policy formation at last. For CEO Mark Wakeham, the election was his swansong. Over a decade at Environment Victoria he had accomplished a significant pivot towards building political power and achieved historic campaign victories such as replacing Hazelwood. At the end of 2018, he left the organisation. Early in the new year, Jono La Nauze, a socialjustice campaigner from Albury-Wodonga, took over as CEO. Off the back of the Victorian state election result in November and drought and heatwaves over summer, concern about climate change had risen to a top concern among voters. “It’s an existential threat for people and for the diversity of life on our planet,” says La Nauze. “And it’s the biggest threat to everything that has brought our members together over the past 50 years. We have to campaign on it as if there were no tomorrow, because our lives depend on it.”
Left: The One Million Homes report advocated for home efficiency upgrades for the million Victorians classified as low-income or disadvantaged.
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