Make ‘your voices heard’

OPINIONS needed to be voiced that more detail was required for Loddon farmers to make informed comments on AEMO’s transmission line plans.

Victorian Farmers’ Federation Wedderburn branch president Graham Nesbit made the call after more than 50 people attended a branch meeting on Tuesday night.

Mr Nesbit said landowners would be encouraged to raise concerns with Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Andrew Dyer.

The commissioner’s role is to help “community members address their concerns about wind farms, large-scale solar farms, energy storage facilities and new major transmission projects”.

“We need people to voice their opinion about not being given access to enough information to make informed decisions,” Mr

Nesbit said. “At the very minimum, there needs to be an extension to the consultation period to allow that information to be provided and considered.”

Mr Nesbit said landowners also needed to make submissions to AEMO “no matter how major or minor” despite the lack of detail around the new preferred Option 5.

“We still need to be brought up to speed to know what’s really going on,” he said. “Everyone is being kept in the dark.”

Tuesday’s VFF branch meeting had RSVPs from 24 members but numbers more than doubled with farmers also attending from the Laanecoorie and Charlton branches.

“It’s a hot topic. Laanecoorie members are of the opinion they could still get a line through their area too, hooking supplies into Bendigo,” Mr Nesbit said.