Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association (TFGA), Media Release, 20 October 2022

The Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers CEO Hugh Christie wants Tasmania’s Minister for Energy and Renewables Guy Barnett to know the tractors are ready to roll. Farmers have had enough.

We have been asking nicely for two things:

• A review of compulsory acquisition legislation to ensure that it is fit-for-purpose and suitable to Tasmania’s infrastructure agenda. Compensation frameworks that are not constrained by aged legislation.
• Farmers want sympathetic transmission network design, where possible we need transmission underground and better usage of current easements. Just because it is cheaper to do it one way doesn’t mean it is the best solution long-term.

“Tasmanian farmers are 100 per cent supportive of increased renewable energy, yet we need a fair and transparent process that doesn’t make winners and losers.

“But let’s be clear Tasmania does not need the extra energy, but the state’s public-owned energy industry would make money from exporting the excess power to the mainland. 

“It is the fight of the fundamental industries – food and power. We should never plan for one to miss out over another.  If the past few years have taught us anything – pandemics, geopolitical unrest and floods, it is we don’t know what is around the corner. Uncertain times call for brave infrastructure investment decisions. Now is the time to invest in future appropriate infrastructure. Major infrastructure planning in my opinion shouldn’t be about designing the ‘black and gold’ cheapest solution, it should be about building solutions that safeguard fundamental industries and supply for the future. Put things underground, use current easements, make sure valuable land and the infrastructure farmers have invested in is available to do what it does best “feed the world”.

“What we aren’t supportive of, is Tasmanian farmers being treated like an afterthought in infrastructure planning. The Government and TasNetworks has had over 6 years to ensure the legislation and planning framework is appropriate to achieve their Battery of the Nation Infrastructure agenda. It is very easy to write pretty words and draw diagrams in reports but someone at some stage must do the hard slog of legislation change and consultation to ensure the building blocks of good process are ready. 

“The antiquated compulsory acquisition legislation backing TasNetworks has left Tasmanian farmers as the last in the queue for a fair deal regarding infrastructure placement and compensation payments.

“If we are genuinely serious about creating a transmission network for the future, we need a state-of-the-art transmission network that is suitable now, but also 50 years from now. Cutting cost corners, is only short-changing Australians in the long run.

“There needs to be recognition of decades of on-farm investment and the constraints electricity infrastructure places of future development.

“We can’t just plan with the mandate of the cheapest power prices, we can’t make one sector king by making another a pauper.

“Food, fibre and pharmaceuticals are crucially important, the land we use to grow it shouldn’t be given a raw deal.

“Tasmanian farming land deserve better than a ‘black and gold’ budget approach to infrastructure planning.”