just have to pause. I do not need to reflect. I have got a shocking headache, and I feel like I need a cup of tea. It is coming close to a break for lunch. What I will say is that what I took away from the member for Brighton’s contribution, a theatrical performance which always puts such a great smile on my face – what would we do without you, member for Brighton? You are so far from Labor’s worst nightmare it is not funny. But in good jest, what I took away from that is that the member for Brighton is the household cook in his family, and he is freaking out about not having gas on his stovetop. There are other options, member for Brighton. Just because there have been a few invitations from those opposite this week, I would love to have the member for Brighton over to my house and have a little bit of a cook-off. We could cook with many different appliances. I am someone who dabbles in a little bit of gas cooktop; I have got a gas cooktop, which is soon going to change, in the coming months, by the way.
[Interjection]
It could lock in my preselection doing that, if members get to meet the member for Brighton. What I will say is, as the member for Tarneit kindly pointed out yesterday: cook with a bloody air fryer. Come to my place, member for Brighton, whether it is in coming weeks when I will have a gas cooktop or in coming months when I will have induction. We can cook many things. We can cook your favourite meal.
There is a really funny story about me cooking with gas. You may not know, member for Brighton, that I grew up and spent many decades in New South Wales. I have even been known to live in the ACT. Let me tell you, when I arrived in Victoria and in our first rental in Melbourne’s west, we had a gas cooktop. I did not know how to use it. I did not know how to switch it on. I used to burn things all the time. It is a common New South Wales problem and a common thing in Queensland, where I have spent a lot of time. In Queensland we did not have heating, if we needed heating, by gas; we used air conditioners and reverse-cycle air conditioning, which was cheaper, and it kept you really cool in summer, which you needed up north.
My point in telling you about when I arrived here in this state and did not know how to use the cooktop is that I learned. The sky did not fall in. I learned how to cook with gas. I use many different appliances. My favourite appliance that I have had for 11 wonderful years is my Thermomix – my Thermie. I love my Thermie – and she ain’t working on gas, people. That is why I understood her perfectly when I brought her along with me in my move to Victoria. We have cooked together many times, many things, because I could not work out how to use gas here in this state. But like I said, I learned. You learn something new every day, and when you have to cook every day, you learn quickly. You make mistakes, but you learn how to use it.
That is what will happen with induction. It is not the end of the world for people that are moving into new builds that cannot cook with gas. They will cook with induction. In fact they are building here in this state now knowing they are going to cook with induction. And many of those people who are building their new homes do not live a couple of hundred metres from Brighton Village; they live out in my patch in the outer western suburbs, on the outer fringes of Melbourne. That is where they are moving. They are not moving into inner Melbourne. I do not think that they are having this huge debate or this massive meltdown about their cooktop.
[Interjection]
They are so excited – that is right – to move into their new home. How will they cook? They will deal with it. They might have cooked with gas their whole life, like many Victorians. And there are many people who have not spent their entire life here in Victoria moving to the outer burbs, do I have to say, and they too deserve a voice. They will cook with what they have got in their house, and it will probably be with induction. If there are people listening to this, I would also suggest you get yourself a Thermomix, because they are really good to cook with as well.
[Interjection]
Air fryer, as the member says. I do like a bit of air frying. But the hysteria that the member for Brighton has made in his contribution about gas and banning gas fails to recognise some pretty significant fundamentals when it comes to gas here in this state. In the past what Victorians all knew around the state is that Victoria had heaps of it, and they used a lot of it. But what we know now is that it is depleting and it is depleting fast, and it is one of the biggest contributing factors as to why people’s utility bills are skyrocketing through the roof. Those people, particularly out my way, know this down to a tee. I have gone and visited, and we have talked about gas and induction and all these kinds of things. They tell me they are saving so much money on their electricity and gas bills by being all electric, having participated in our Solar Homes program, having solar panels on their rooftop, having a battery in their garage that they are connecting their electric vehicle to and changing up their hot-water system. They are saving not hundreds but thousands.
When I had the Premier out a couple of months ago to a home in Williams Landing we had a great chat about their Tesla electric vehicle. I have never been inside one, let alone driven one, but I was watching it charge up connected to the battery in their garage. They talked to the Premier and also the minister about the amount of money they were saving, and it was quite detailed. They listed this all out, and I am really hoping they did not just do it for the Premier’s visit. But they checked their bills every time they came through, and they were saving thousands. The first thing that the Premier said to them is, ‘What are you going to do with the money? Are you going to go on a holiday?’ They had saved so much money they were considering going on a major family holiday.
This is the stuff that matters, and on this side of the house, when we go out and talk to folks in our community about cost of living, about the environment and about tackling climate change and taking real action, these are the sorts of conversations we are having with people. It is not this emotional, hysterical meltdown about ‘I can no longer cook with gas. Oh my God, how will I cook with induction?’ People will learn. They will learn, and they will adapt to the change. They will enjoy more money in their hip pocket at the end of every single week; we can guarantee them that. They will also be making a significant contribution to tackling climate change here in this state. These are the sorts of things that this bill – and it may to some seem like a small bill or a bill that gets them really riled up – is doing, and this is why it is before the house this week. It is something really important. It is another bill that is going towards having better building legislative regulation. It is also another bill that is coming through the house to then help us tackle things like climate change and getting to zero emissions by the dates that we have now set. This is the stuff that really matters.
The member for Brighton’s contribution – I really wish his community could hear him. I really wish that the young people at school in his community could hear him. The next generation, dare I say, of people standing there cooking meals for themselves and their family as they continue to grow – are they going to be having a meltdown and thinking about all of the things they have been ripped off by in life, gas being one of them? No, they are not. Those kinds of sentiments, those kinds of arguments are absolutely ridiculous. Many on this side would say it is scaremongering, it is false information, it is completely misleading. To me, it is completely out of touch with what the broad greater Victorian community is thinking and feeling – and indeed Australia – which is exactly why time and time again when they bring these sentiments to elections they continue to lose.
This bill has so many other things that form part of it, and I really congratulate the minister on bringing this bill to the house this week. Again, it is great legislative reform, reform that our government is now renowned for having done, and that is because we are continually introducing legislation into this place that is all about making Victoria a fairer, more equitable, more inclusive state. I am really excited to think that in decades to come we might be leading the nation, having taken to induction like ducks to water. I have no doubt that we will be. Victorians are smarter than that. I commend the bill to the house.
