According to state Member for Shepparton Kim O’Keeffe, residents in Greater Shepparton, as well as others across the state, have been left out of discussions on renewable energy projects by the Victorian Government and multinational corporations.
Ms O’Keeffe said a future Nationals and Liberal state government would ensure that Victorians were heard in decisions about renewable energy projects that affected their communities.
Ms O’Keeffe said the Nationals and Liberals’ plan would address the issues of community consultation by reinstating the right of appeal to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which the government removed earlier this year.
“Our policy will ensure that local voices will not be sidelined in the planning process,” Ms O’Keeffe said.
The plan includes several measures aimed at increasing transparency and local involvement in renewable energy projects. These measures include:
- Rigorous and independent planning panel assessments for major transmission, wind and solar projects.
- Establishing a standard 2km buffer zone around proposed wind towers to reduce the impact on nearby residential areas and local communities.
- Requiring lower-emission generators, high-voltage transmission lines and large-scale battery operators to adhere to all applicable bushfire safety regulations.
- Revoking a Labor-introduced planning scheme amendment (VC261) that removed local planning powers for high-voltage transmission lines.
- Advocating to exempt from taxation any compensation landowners receive for hosting major transmission lines or for impacts caused by these projects.
- Setting principles for overhead line setbacks to reduce visual and environmental impact.
Ms O’Keeffe emphasised the increasing frustration among residents regarding the government’s neglect of local concerns.
“Labor’s fast-tracking of renewable projects, without genuine community consultation, is deeply concerning. Our communities must have a say, and we will ensure they do,” she said.
The Nationals and Liberals are also proposing a bond system to ensure that decommissioned projects are fully cleaned up and the sites restored by the developers.
“Our policy will also ensure that developers cannot profit from flipping projects to new buyers without proper community consultation,” Ms O’Keeffe said.
“The Nationals and Liberals will always put local communities first.”
The government, meanwhile, said the public notice process was open to everyone, allowing community members to make submissions and have a say when it came to planning decisions.
According to the government, VicGrid was set up to manage renewable energy infrastructure, ensuring projects were built in the right locations while protecting key resources such as energy, food and water security.
The government also said VicGrid involved communities early in the planning process and was creating funds so that those hosting Renewable Energy Zones could benefit directly.
The government also announced that landholders hosting transmission lines would receive payments of $8000 per year per kilometre of hosted transmission, with the payments indexed for 25 years.
Victoria currently has 6500 km of transmission lines, along with several wind and solar farms, much of it located on agricultural land. The government said landholders had been working safely with this infrastructure for many years.
The government also indicated that while more than one in five renewable projects were delayed at VCAT, most of the original approvals for these projects were eventually confirmed.
According to the government, it has expanded the Development Facilitation Program to include renewable energy projects, bringing them in line with other major projects such as affordable housing.
“We’re getting on and building for our future energy needs — quadrupling our renewable energy generation, driving down power bills, creating 59,000 jobs and bringing back the SEC,” a government spokesperson said.
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