Wednesday, 16 October 2024

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2023–24 Budget Estimates

Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (10:39): I am delighted to make a contribution on the report on the 2023–24 budget estimates. Particularly I want to zone in on 9.5.3, ‘Renewable energy generation: transmission infrastructure and stakeholder engagement’, because it says that one of the ideals here is to ‘coordinate transmission planning and investment in Victoria via a fit-for-purpose framework’. I can tell you that people in Meadow Creek do not see their community as a fit-for-purpose place to have a solar factory. I say ‘factory’ because people call them solar farms, but a farm is where you nurture animals and grow crops. Where you put lithium solar panels, that is not a farm, that is a factory. The good people of Meadow Creek are saying no to this solar factory that is being proposed. We are now in the planning phase and the application has gone in. We had 28 days; we are now down to about 14 days to make sure that everybody has their input, and we are getting a lot of input from the community in and around Wangaratta and of course Meadow Creek.

When we talk about some of the reasons why we should be condemning a solar factory in this location, it is because it is prime agricultural land and the assessment report that has been handed down by the proponent or been done by consultants of the proponent is just wrong. It is false and it is misleading. I had Mr Bob Simpson come and see me recently about some soil tests on a farm not far away that has solar panels. On the land where the solar panels are there were 254 units of lead in the soil analysis, whereas on other land in the region there are only 22 units, so we are talking about a difference between 22 units and obviously 254 units where the solar panels are, which is quite disturbing.

The application is for determining authorities and recommending bodies. NECMA, the North East Catchment Management Authority, is one. They are contradicting the agricultural assessment provided by the proponent, and the regulations state that if a determining referral authority objects, the responsible authority must refuse to grant a permit, and if a determining referral authority specifies conditions, those conditions must be included in any permit granted. Another referral body is Goulburn–Murray Water. Note there are two determining referral authorities, being Goulburn–Murray Water and North East Water, because the Meadow Creek industrial facility is located – wait for it – in a declared special water catchment area, which is to ensure higher quality water for human consumption. The logical question that follows this is: how is placing 2.5 million kilograms of lithium iron on a declared special water catchment area appropriate for providing high-quality water for human consumption, particularly when it has been demonstrated that the lead levels in the ground have increased by massive amounts?

Recently I had the Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety the member for Gippsland South come to view the site as well. He was as astonished as I was on that combined agricultural assessment and agrisolar assessment because the gravel road that goes in and the gravel road that comes out suggest it is not the right infrastructure for this solar factory and yet the report states it is a major highway. As I say, this is false and misleading. If you do not come and look at this site, if you just take on face value what the reports are saying, I am really concerned that the Minister for Planning could make the wrong decision. I have the Shadow Minister for Planning making his way up the highway later this week to have a look, speak to the locals, listen and understand their situation, because that is what is really important. It is not about being bloody-minded about renewables, it is about having renewables in the right place at the right time, and Meadow Creek is not the right place nor is it the right time to do this. That is why I implore the Minister for Planning to still try to come up and visit us to get an understanding and speak to the locals, as the Shadow Minister for Planning will do this Friday.

I do hope that the minister makes the time to come and do it, because if we do not get a full understanding of how these communities think and operate on this prime agricultural land, we will not get balanced outcomes into the future. We are not anti-renewables; I have said that all along. This group is very pro-renewables, but we all know Meadow Creek is not the right place to have it. It is the right project in the wrong location, and that is why I implore the Minister for Planning to come and have a look, as the Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety has. The Shadow Minister for Planning is going to make their way up later this week.