Victoria registered SEC less than 24 hours before rollout
The Victorian government registered the State Electricity Commission as a company less than 24 hours before it unveiled a 10-year “strategic plan” at an energy conference with tech billionaire turned environmentalist Mike Cannon-Brookes.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan took to social media last week to announce the SEC had officially been registered with ASIC, more than a year after Labor announced the plan to “bring back the SEC” to help win the November 2022 election.
“It’s back,” Ms Allan posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, at 12.32pm on Thursday.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan with Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes on Thursday before announcing the SEC had been registered with ASIC. Eddie Jim
ASIC records show that documents to register SEC Victoria Pty Ltd were lodged by Corporate Express for the Victorian government just a day earlier, at 1.03pm on Wednesday.
The Sydney-based Corporate Express is able to prepare an express registration of a company with ASIC in just one hour for $730.
“This certificate is just the beginning,” Ms Allan said. “The SEC is going to deliver 2.6 gigawatts of renewable generation and storage by 2028, creating thousands of jobs for Victorians.”
Grattan Institute head of energy Tony Wood said while the last-minute registration was curious, he was more concerned the SEC was increasingly looking like a “complete waste of time”.
“You have to ask: what’s the point of it?” Mr Wood said.”It’s not doing anything the private sector couldn’t do with good policy.”
He also warned that the principle of competitive neutrality detailed in the plan – that the government-owned SEC will not get any advantage over the private sector – also made it pointless.
“It’s a bit like the AFL putting its own team
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