Powerlines And Hot Potatoes
Growing volumes of local opposition to a proposed electricity network project in Western Victoria has Federal and State Labor MP’s nervous ahead of elections next year.
The 100 Mile Run by Ballan athlete Kelly Conroy last week has consolidated public angst against the Western Victoria Transmission Network Project.
The proposed 190 km transmission line would stretch from Bulgana, near Stawell to the west, and Sydenham to the east, linking renewable energy to the grid.
Among the locals’ concerns are the lost viability and destruction of farmland, the junking of bio-links, degradation of landscape and visual amenity and subsequent tourism impacts.
This week, the project manager AusNet is advertising that the “Planning, design, assessment and decisions about approvals for this project will continue until approximately mid-2023.”
This date is much later then earlier indications of 2022.
Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, said the delay indicates the unpopular project has become an electoral hot-potato which Labor MPs want to avoid in an election year.
Mrs McArthur told the Victorian Parliament she has noted that “…local Labor MPs, both federal and state, have begun to wake up to the opposition.
“Catherine King, the Federal Member for Ballarat has said: “We know that underground (transmission lines) will cost a bit more, but I think it is worth the effort.”
Ms King has also admitted: “While new transmission lines do need to be built…this is not the way to do it” and concluded “It is my opinion and the opinion of many in the community that the transmission lines should be run underground.”
But Mrs McArthur said the bigger Labor alarm was being set off by the Member for Buninyong, Michaela Settle.
Her change on the issue was described in the parliament by Mrs McArthur as akin to a “Damascene conversion.”
“Last week she finally woke up to months and months of desperate pleas from her constituents. She wrote to Australian Energy Market Operator chief executive Daniel Westerman saying:
“You asked AusNet to build the project and we are asking you to send them back to the drawing board. The project needs to respect our prime agricultural land, precious natural landscapes and our home. Hear our voices and demand AusNet investigate all other options, including undergrounding and alternative routes.”
Mrs McArthur was the only MP to join Kelly Conroy in Ballan during her 100 Mile run on Friday, and she well understands the community desire for the undergrounding of the transmission line.
She said it is now time for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Lily D’Ambrosio, to speak up.
“The action I seek from the Minister is for the Minister to make her own views clear and to order that undergrounding and other routes be prioritised.
“I ask the Minister: does she accept the requests of her own Labor colleagues to take this project underground, and will she now work to make that happen?”
06 August 2021