Power struggle

By Lachlan Ellis

Two regional MPs have spoken out at a Labor Party conference, urging the State Government to intervene and force further consultation on a controversial transmission line project.

Federal Member for Hawke Sam Rae, who represents much of Moorabool Shire, and State Member for Ripon Martha Haylett, were among those who supported a motion at Victorian Labor’s State Conference, calling on the State Government to step in and change tack on the Western Renewables Link project.

Held across Saturday 17 June and Sunday 18 June, the Conference included a broad range of ‘Urgency Resolutions’, with Urgency Resolution 93 concerning the Western Renewables Link (WRL) specifically.

The motion called on the State Government to move planning, development, and engagement control of the project – which has faced staunch opposition from local communities for around three years – to VicGrid, a body within the Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action (DEECA).

It highlighted “critical failures of [AEMO] and AusNet to properly consult with the community”, which community groups such as Stop AusNet’s Towers have formed from the frustrations of.

Ms Haylett, who lives in Creswick, said the process run by AusNet Services and energy market operator AEMO so far for the WRL had failed to “bring communities along for the journey”.

“Transmission line projects need a social licence to be delivered. I am here to tell you that it [the WRL] simply does not have one in my community,” she told the Conference. Following a speech from Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, the motion was lost.

The Moorabool News asked Mr Rae how he felt about the motion being lost, what he told the Conference when voicing his support of the motion, and what reasons those who voted against the motion voiced for doing so, but he declined to comment.

On 8 June this year the State Government took control of planning for future renewable energy projects in Victoria under the ‘Victorian Transmission Investment Framework’ (VTIF), but the framework will not apply to pre-existing plans such as the WRL.