Elections

2014 Victorian election

In the lead-up to the 2014 state election, ordinary people around Victoria stepped up to make our environment a key issue for voters.

Over 1000 committed volunteers knocked on doors, made phone calls, sent emails, handed out flyers and held stalls. They talked to people in their communities about cutting pollution, growing clean energy and protecting the places we love. And the impact was huge.

Check out our wrap-up video below.

Since the 2014 election, we’ve seen a great response to the community’s call for change, with some pretty big wins for our environment

1
Supporting clean energy

The Coalition’s damaging policy to restrict wind farm investment was scrapped.

2
Cutting pollution

Victoria’s Energy Efficiency Target (which was to be scrapped by the previous state government) was increased and extended for another five years, saving around 6 million tonnes of greenhouse pollution every year and creating thousands of jobs.

3
Stopping destructive coal export plans

The Andrews government has scrapped a $25 million grant for a proposed coal export project.

4
Phasing out polluting coal

With a successful community campaign to close the Anglesea coal power station and mine, and clean up the mess left behind. Plus in the 2016 State Budget, the Andrews government committed to a transition plan to help the Latrobe Valley move beyond coal.

5
A plan for clean energy, energy efficiency, nature and water

The Andrews government committed to developing a climate change strategy for the state, a Renewable Energy Action Plan, an Energy Efficiency Strategy, a Victorian Water Plan and a new Biodiversity Strategy.

6
Restoring rivers

With a new $20 million per year action plan for river health.

7
Holding big polluters to account

With the reopening of the Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry looking at the fire’s impact upon the health of Latrobe Valley residents and mine rehabilitation. In 2016, the Andrews government accepted all the recommendations of this inquiry, raised coal mine rehabilitation bonds by hundreds of millions of dollars and tripled the royalties that brown coal mining companies pay.

8
Protecting our special places

The Andrews government scrapped grazing in the Alpine National Park and plans to open up national parks for development.

Towards the 2014 Victorian Election: Our Policy Blueprint

In the lead-up to the November 2014 Victorian election we released our outline of the policy actions that must be taken by the next state government to safeguard our environment and communities, and deliver a clean and sustainable economy.