General News
4 November, 2023
Opinion: licence cancelled by railroad tactics
By ANNE WEBSTER I AM very disappointed that a legal challenge by farmers and community members against the VNI-West electricity transmission project has been rejected. The Australian Energy Regulator’s refusal is yet another frustrating turn in...
By ANNE WEBSTER
I AM very disappointed that a legal challenge by farmers and community members against the VNI-West electricity transmission project has been rejected.
The Australian Energy Regulator’s refusal is yet another frustrating turn in a sordid process for farmers and their communities.
For months I have advocated for Mallee communities due to a shambolic consultation process by the Australian Energy Market Operator. AEMO failed to recognise all credible options, and then played the community for fools by staging tokenistic meetings.
If the AER can rule that AEMO followed correct process when developing the VNI-West route, the AER’s criteria needs re-writing.
This paper’s strong coverage of the issue has highlighted just how difficult it has been for stakeholders to get any clear information.
Landholders have lacked clarity since February when Victorian Labor Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio made a ministerial order altering the VNI-West route to Option 5 and effectively banned appeals.
What began as a project using existing infrastructure to Kerang via Bendigo has become a whole new beast, leaving confusion in its wake for those affected.
Minister D’Ambrosio made a second order in May creating Option 5A, which awaits a Supreme Court judgement on a community alliance challenge.
The annoyance and mystery over the project has only been exacerbated by the release of a narrowed route late on a Friday afternoon, potentially hiding it from media coverage.
AEMO and their shell company Transmission Company Victoria hosted further community meetings that seemed to be more box -ticking exercises than genuine response to concerns.
Protests in regional Victoria and down in Spring Street have given farming communities a voice – now they need the powers-that-be to listen.
I give all farmers and their communities credit for challenging the Victorian Government to prevent their prime agricultural land from being railroaded by transmission lines projects. Professor Bruce Mountain, director of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre, makes salient points when it comes to the VNI West Interconnector project he called a “monumental mistake”.
He has been a voice of reason right from the start. When AEMO abandoned their own St Arnaud community meeting, Professor Mountain spoke clearly with the community, later publishing a Plan B report proposing a more sensible solution.
Professor Mountain points out that transmission lines act like a bridge between two points transporting energy from one side to the other, so he asks – why, if ample renewable energy is being developed in all three states?
Victoria’s history as a long-time coal and gas electricity exporter will no longer justify interstate export interconnection under renewables. After all, the sun shines and the wind blows across the whole country.
The cost imperatives that once justified coal and gas based interconnection no longer stack up, Professor Mountain explains, as there is so little difference between states in the cost of generating wind and solar energy, meaning there is “inconsequential value in relation to the enormous cost of interconnection”.
The blind railroading of communities in the name of renewables will foist 10,000 kilometres of high voltage poles and wires across prime agricultural land before 2050, all in the name of the Albanese Labor Government’s push to net zero.
What price will energy customers, taxpayers and the nation pay to appease a supposedly green agenda?
Labor has no right to jettison social licence as they recklessly railroad regional communities to foist transmission lines, wind turbines and solar panels on them for inner city votes.
This whole saga is yet another example of country people being treated with contempt by city-based Labor Governments.
Mallee is not a dumping ground for bad policy.
* Anne Webster is the federal member for Mallee