Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Electricity infrastructure

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (18:38): (1236) My matter for the adjournment tonight is for the attention of the Minister for Energy and Resources. Many in the chamber will have seen the article, initially in the Weekly Times but then further in the Herald Sun today, from Peter Hunt, who did get a scoop. He has got some maps which lay out the VNI West route. That route has not been clear. We have known individual sections of it, pieced together in a piecemeal way, dare I say, by the information you have from individual landholders. He has got some maps which show Transmission Company Victoria, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Australian Energy Market Operator, its routes and some alternate routes moving across the river, Murrabit, Kerang, around to the west of Boort and Charlston, down through Marnoo West, then to the east of Stawell and finally a connection through into the renewables link.

What this shows is 250 farms that will be impacted by the 500-kilovolt VNI West route. It is a very wide easement that is involved here. It is an easement that generates a significant amount of money for the government – up to $177 million, $177,000 per kilometre – very significant revenue for the government through land tax. Importantly, the amounts are much less than what is being paid to landholders. Peter Hunt makes a lot of these points very clear. Tomorrow we understand the formal release of the VNI West material and route will occur. What is important here is that there has not been proper consultation, and I saw the comments made by a number of my colleagues earlier today about the government’s approach to consultation – cutting communities and cutting councils out of that role. We certainly have announced a policy that would see things like VC261 removed and a proper buffer around certain low-emission technology generators. This is of course going to get much worse when we see the so-called renewable energy zones, with their spider-like connections to the main lines, come into operation.

What I am seeking today is for the minister to recognise the lack of consultation and to come and meet people along the route at some formal public meetings, or indeed, if she wanted, Mrs McArthur and I would be very prepared to take her to some people to meet them and hear their views. This is a request for a proper consultation before the government promulgates this. She needs to listen, she needs to learn and she will not do it – (Time expired)