Legislative Assembly Hansard – 19 November 2025 – Energy Policy

Energy Policy

Mr JUSTIN CLANCY (Albury) (21:42): Considerable public debate regarding energy policy has occurred in recent months, both within the Federal Liberal Party and in New South Wales. These discussions matter because they go beyond politics. They go directly to the long-term prosperity of our State, the resilience of our regions and the wellbeing of the people we represent. Energy policy is not an abstract concept. It is not a debate confined to party rooms or press conferences. For families in Albury, for businesses in Thurgoona, for farmers around Gerogery and for vulnerable households across regional New South Wales, energy policy shows up in one place: the bill that arrives in the letterbox. Today far too many people are opening those bills with real fear. Energy costs are climbing sharply, and the burden is falling hardest on families and small businesses who can least absorb the shock.

That is why the Liberal Party, federally and in New South Wales, has made it clear that affordable energy and cost-of-living relief must sit at the centre of our economic future. In regional New South Wales, energy policy is lived and visible. Policy decisions shape our landscapes, affect our livelihoods and flow straight into the everyday cost‑of‑living pressures that regional families feel so acutely. In my own electorate, communities such as those at Gerogery have been gathering to discuss the proposed Yambla Range wind farm development.

These are genuine, grassroots conversations—farmers, business owners, young families and retirees all coming together because they care deeply about their community and the future being laid out before them. They are not people opposed to renewable energy. Nor are they opposed to the State moving towards a cleaner future. In fact, regional New South Wales has always been at the forefront of delivering the energy, food and industrial capacity that sustains the State. What they object to is the notion that change must be imposed on them without adequate consultation, without transparency and without a proper understanding of local impact.

If we are serious about an orderly, responsible and achievable transition to net zero, then regional people must not be treated as a collateral; they must be partners in it. Renewables need to be located in the right place, with communities restored to the centre of decision‑making. We on this side of the House believe in a cleaner future and opportunity. We believe in innovation and technological advancement. But we also believe—unequivocally—in energy abundance and market certainty. Those are the foundations upon which industry grows, upon which businesses invest and upon which families can rely. Industry must not be an afterthought in this debate. From manufacturing to mining, food processing to freight logistics, and health care to small business, reliable and affordable energy is the lifeblood of economic activity. If energy is too expensive, industry relocates. If energy is unreliable, industry contracts. If energy policy is unstable, industry simply stops investing. That is not a future any of us should accept for New South Wales.

We must ensure that our State remains a place where employers have the confidence to expand, where new industries see New South Wales as a competitive location and where regional centres like Albury have the infrastructure and certainty to attract long-term investment. That means an energy policy grounded in engineering, economics and reality, not ideology or political expedience. It means ensuring that communities like those around Yambla Range are properly heard. Their concerns about visual impact, turbine proximity, noise, land use conflict and cumulative impacts are legitimate. They deserve answers, not platitudes. They deserve planning processes that recognise the dignity of their homes and the significance of their landscapes.

At the heart of this debate is something simple: the best interests of the people of New South Wales. Those interests are not served by rushing headlong into poorly planned development. Nor are they served by ignoring the cost pressures currently crushing vulnerable households—pensioners, low-income families, single parents and people on fixed incomes who are watching power bills climb higher each quarter. Energy policy must improve their quality of life, not diminish it. We must build a future in which New South Wales is environmentally responsible and economically strong, where industry can thrive, where regional communities are respected and where affordable, abundant and reliable energy is not a privilege but an expectation. That is the future we should be working towards.