General News
15 May, 2026
We’ll halt the lines: Hosking
CONTROVERSIAL renewable energy transmission line project VNI West will be stopped dead in its tracks if the Coalition wins government in Victoria at November’s election.
CONTROVERSIAL renewable energy transmission line project VNI West will be stopped dead in its tracks if the Coalition wins government in Victoria at November’s election.
The policy confirmation came as Ausnet applied for State Government approval to compulsorily acquite farmland for easements to build the connecting WRL transmission line.
Nationals candidate for Murray Plains Brett Hosking said an energy policy driven by ideological fanaticism rather than scientific reality had seen Labor bludgeon legislation through the Victorian Parliament – including massive fines for landholders refusing access to their own land.
“We will repeal all those laws because they are wrong, and we cannot risk having these kinds of attacks on the basic rights of individuals enshrined by Labor’s out-of-control energy policy which is delivering nothing except soaring prices and genuine risks of power shortfalls,” Brett says.
“We will give all landholders their rights back and then we will all be able to sit down together and undertake a rigorous assessment process for all major transmission projects to ensure they meet community and cost expectations and protect vital agricultural prime land,” he says.
“At the same time, we will also pause the Western Renewables Link (WRL) because its future will also be part of the desperately needed review of the Victorian transmission plan.”
Mr Hosking said the Policy Institute of Australia estimated VNI West and other proposed transmission lines could add another $600 per year to each Victorian’s power bill.
VNI West was originally to cost $2 billion, is now headed towards $8 billion and is expected to blow out to as much as $11 billion.
Mr Hosking said there werebetter ways to power the state, and there were already validated plans for urban solar parks to generate renewable power closer to where it is needed which have been ignored by Labor’s climate zealots. “They are plans which will minimise land use conflicts and save Victorians significant costs on their energy bills at a time when cost of living is already biting hard,” he said.
“Farmers and landholders in Murray Plains and all regional Victoria have been denied a voice in Victoria’s energy transition for far too long.
“They have been silenced by Labor’s harsh laws designed to bulldoze through our community and put up costly transmission lines our region does not want for an energy transition Victorians cannot afford,” he said.
Victorian Farmers Federation acting president Peter Star backed the Coalition’s plan.
“The reckless VNI West and WRL transmission lines are failed projects that threaten to tear generational farming families apart and destroy the best farmland in the country.”
“This pause is a well-overdue acknowledgment that these projects are deeply flawed, but a pause alone is not enough. They should be scrapped entirely and we will keep fighting until that happens,” he said.
And he said the Government should rejects Ausnet’s plan for compulsory acquisition of land for WRL.
“This project has an appalling track record of bullying and harassing landholders. Handing them a bigger stick would be an endorsement of that behavior and smacks of arrogance and a total disregard towards the mental health of these people,”he said.
“Communities are still engaged in the environmental assessment process in good faith, yet they are now being told that compulsory acquisition could be triggered before that process is even finished. That would be a huge mistake and to be honest, an absolute disgrace.”
A VicGrid spokesperson said: VicGrid spokesperson: “Compulsory acquisition powers have not been sought for VNI West and a timeframe for their use has not yet been considered. VicGrid’s focus is on carrying out surveys and technical work to support the preparation of an Environment Effects Statement.”
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