In an ironic twist that many joked could have conspiracy written all over it, last Monday’s Community Meeting in Murrabit, to discuss the VNI West transmission line project, at the Murrabit Golf Club, lost power just before the meeting commenced.

A convoy of vehicles then made it’s way to the Murrabit Football Club to convene the meeting.

The large crowd of concerned residents and landowners were very vocal and involved in the discussions.

Speaker Ben Duxson said that the fight is about the passion of the people in the fight, and it starts and ends with the government trying to railroad and bulldoze through our land.

“We have been able to come up here and share our experience. It is all about educating and unpacking the policy that has no future here,” he said.

“If you look into the policy as it is, if you get educated about it, there is no way that this is good for Australia and no way it is good for energy consumers and certainly not good for farmers. It’s certainly not good for food production in Australia.

“We don’t need it and we have to tell them in no uncertain terms, to bugger off, because it will be people power that wins this.

“These government agencies come in and divide communities. It’s all about dividing communities. That is what they do.

“Communities here don’t want to be divided. They actually want to stick together.

“It is about education and how we can help each other and help our communities.”

Opposition is not specifically about using renewable energy. It is about the way it is being forced onto rural Australia and reducing the nation’s capability to produce food and fibre, by taking rich agricultural land and turning it into wind and solar factories.

Gerald Feeny has spent a great deal of time looking at the policies and talking to people in jurisdictions such as Canada. He said that it is not to say we can’t have renewables, but in the right places with the agreement of the community, with the support of the community.

“It should not just be politicians, not just multinational investors and that is who they are, by and large, multinationals. These are foreign companies,” Mr Feeny said.

“These assets will be held by mostly foreign entities because they have the financial power to buy into the system.

“When a large system like VNI is created they create what is called a regulated monopoly.

“It is not open to competition. It should be competitive.”

Four councillors from Gannawarra Shire Council were on hand to listen to the concerns of residents including Mayor Garner Smith, who was called on by community members to explain the council’s previous stance, on inviting and rolling out the welcome mat, to both the transmission lines and renewables companies.

Cr Garner Smith said he was there to listen and not to do a presentation.

“I don’t disagree with anything that has been said. The invite from Gannawarra in the past has been real and very strong. The red carpet has been laid out. We now have a new council, and I believe there is a different attitude in the new council now,” Cr Smith said.

“I’m not here to drum anything up, I am just here to listen, but personally, I have pushed very hard to have a meeting with all five impacted councils.

“On February 20 there will be a meeting in Charlton with just the mayors and CEOs. No bureaucrats and no one from AEMO, as far as I am aware.

“We are really going to discuss this in an open fashion, although I need to run it by the other councillors, to make sure that they are on board and happy with the position I am going to put forward.

“We are not going to be as accommodating. Personally I think that the deal that has been offered for all this is an insult, and I have gone on the public record to say that.”

Wimmera Mallee Environmental and Agricultural Protection Association (WMEAPA) president, Ross Johns said decommissioning will need to occur in 25 years and is a huge issue with no guarantees by the government or energy companies to ensure that the cost is not borne by the land holder.

“A planning permit for a wind factory project near Lal Lal states that the wind operator is responsible for decommissioning with a decommissioning plan six months after there is no longer power produced. In the absence of a wind operator it is the responsibility of the landowner,” he said.

Powerline battle still strong continued

“If the energy company goes broke or is located overseas it then becomes the landholder’s liability to decommission the turbines. This has the potential to render farmland with wind turbines negatively due to this liability.”

Mr Johns added that the government had forgotten how important agriculture is to Australia and the world.

“There is currently 8.2 billion people in the world, and it is forecast that by 2050 there will be more than 10 billion people. We have to continue to feed increasing numbers of people with a declining amount of arable land,” Mr Johns said.

“Agriculture is important to Australia because we not only feed the nation, but we provide 14 per cent of export revenue.

“Victorian agriculture is particularly important because although we only control 1.5 per cent of Australia’s land mass, we produce 25 per cent of Australia’s agricultural production.

“Every acre of farmland in Victoria is very important and that is what our government has forgotten. We need to tell them it’s important. We need to tell them it’s not just important to us, it is important to humanity that we protect agricultural land to be able to produce good fresh, clean food for not just Australians but for the world.”

There were a lot of questions as to why the government has not been negotiating in an open and transparent fashion with communities and only talking to landholders on an individual basis with different deals containing non-disclosure statements and gag orders not to discuss any aspect with other members of the community or neighbours.

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 6 February 2025