MEDIA STATEMENT
POWER POLES ON FIRE
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Member for Western Victoria Region, Bev McArthur used an adjournment debate last week in parliament to raise concern over the appalling state of energy infrastructure across her electorate.
The Western Victoria Region has been subject to numerous faulty power pole failures leading to fires, notably the St Patrick’s Day fires in 2018, which resulted in the loss of 23 houses, 40 000 hectares of land and 10 000 head of livestock. Last week the region saw two more fires that were fortunately controlled, in Warrnambool; on Monday night, Mepunga and Newfield on Wednesday morning. These incidents left around 300 Western Victorians without power.
Bev McArthur said “once again energy distribution network provider Powercor, in its failure to replace power poles beyond their expiration date; has negligently endangered and disadvantaged Western Victorian constituents.”
Bev McArthur asked “for how much longer must Western Victoria patiently wait for the replacement of 550,000 power poles across our region?”
“The government must hold Powercor to account by forcing them to replace the 550,000 power poles across the Western Victoria region, and probably throughout the rest of Victoria as well, to prevent any further damage to property or even human life,” she concluded.
3 June 2019