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The Moorabool News – 19 July, 2022 Page 3
Signed, sealed and delivered By Helen Tatchell It is a job that could rival Australia Post, with a large collection of letters delivered last week. Volunteers from the Stop AusNet’s Towers group have collected and collated 5000 individually addressed and hand signed complaint letters from community members, and delivered them at their Ballarat tractor rally on Friday. Not only were the recipients Labor and Liberal politicians in the area but number one on the list will be the state Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio. Emma Muir is one of the volunteers and staunch advocate against the Western Renewables Link overhead transmission line project, and said AusNet told Ms D’Ambrosio they had only received 16 complaints. “We think they may have missed a few,” Ms Muir said. “So, we are delivering these thousands of complaints so they can be officially logged and the message really get through to the politicians who are making these decisions.” Ms Muir said the community is angry and frustrated by the proposed project. “The devastating impacts and the deplorable behaviour and actions of the project’s proponents AusNet and AEMO, is one reason they are very angry,” she said. “To date community concern has been largely ignored and dismissed.” Over the past two years large numbers of the community have written to various members of AusNet as well as to members
of both the State and Federal Governments with little or no response. Ms Muir said opposition to this project is growing daily and other communities around Australia and taking up their cause. “To voice their concerns community members have personally signed complaint letters expressing indignation about the way this project has been handled from its inception. “These community members are representing their families, business and organizations and as such these letters represent a small part of the tens of thousands of western Victorians who oppose this project in its current format,” she said. Once known as the Western Victoria Transmission Network Project, the name change announced in the Moorabool News (28 June edition) to Western Renewables Link, was “simply to reflect more accurately the important role this project will play in brining renewable wind and solar energy from the west of the state to the grid for all Victorians to use”, an AusNet spokesperson stated. “At the upcoming state election in November, Labor or Liberal, the proposal for this project will remain the same,” Ms Muir said. The Stop AusNet’s Towers group are campaigning for the overhead transmission line project to be put underground, as the current proposal is set for 85-metre high towers across over 60 kilometres through the Moorabool Shire, including market gardens, agricultural and farming land, and forests.
UNITED THEY STAND – Volunteers with the 5000 complaint letters they have and will, deliver to politicians and AusNet. Photo - submitted
Top 5 complaints • Stop progressing the so-called cheapest and route that is the highest risk • That you listen to the people affected by this project and consider what they have to say • Enforce AusNet to undertake a transparent process and a proper analysis of all alternatives • Stop AusNet steamrolling communities with outdated short-term thinking, and • Step up and drive the future thinking required to provide a renewable energy solution that is not out-dated, inferior and destructive but one that all Australians and our natural environment deserve and is in Australia's best strategic national interest.
A cause for Christmas carols
By Lachlan Ellis
Moorabool residents will be treated to a big ‘Christmas in July’ celebration this month, with all proceeds from a carols event to go to a local special needs family. ‘Carols in Winter’ will be held at the Ballan Mechanics Institute Hall at 3 pm on Sunday 31 July, with a fun hour of singing followed by traditional mince pies and mulled wine. Tickets are $10 per head, with entry free for kids under 12 – and all money from ticket sales will go to the family of 6-yearold Emeliah Flenley, who has a range of conditions including scoliosis, dwarfism, and developmental delay. Little Emeliah featured on the front page of the Moorabool News Tuesday 28 June 2022. The event is a collaboration between the Ballarat Singers, The Little Brass Band, the
Ballan Mechanics Institute, and the Ballan & District Community House (BDCH). Musical Director of the Ballarat Singers and President of the BDCH, Kevin Harper, said supporting Emeliah, in a way that would be fun for the whole community, was “a no-brainer”. “The choir started up just before COVID, so for two years we haven’t sung very much. There was a desire for us to do something that doesn’t take too much rehearsing like carols, during winter,” Mr Harper told the Moorabool News. “We heard from Asha Shanahan at Crossroads Trading at a recent Chamber of Commerce meeting about Emeliah and her family, and decided to direct our money that way. We thought, this is great, we’re looking for something to support…plus the Mechanics Institute and Community House can get behind it and provide the venue.
“We’re having fun and making the best out of winter, singing and making merry…and here’s a family that’s slightly distraught, that we can bring some joy to as well. It’s about sharing the love and sharing the joy.” The event will be less a performance, and more a community sing-along and celebration. “It’ll be carol singing for everybody, and the choir will be singing some secular Christmas songs…then we’ll have a competition in the middle, with the two sides of the Hall seeing who can sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer the best,” Mr Harper said. “We encourage people to come dressed for winter carolling, scarves and bobble hats, that sort of thing. We’ll hand out bells and shakers for Rudolph.” Tickets will be available at the door, and include refreshments and a song book.
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Michaela Settle MP
YOUR STATE LABOR MEMBER FOR BUNINYONG
15 Main Road, Bakery Hill VIC 3350 5331 7722 michaela.settle@parliament.vic.gov.au MichaelaSettleMP