‍DR ANNE WEBSTER MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TERRITORIES
SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MALLEE

TOPICS: 

Victorian government renewable energy targets, transmission plan, renewable energy zones, community anger, cost escalation, transmission lines, farmer compensation, land access, fines, wind turbines, environmental issues, land owners, Rewiring the Nation

PRICE

On the weekend, the Victorian government released its new Transmission Plan that it says will help us reach renewable energy targets - you know, those targets the experts are warning us are unreachable. Victoria, well, they want to 65 per cent renewable by 2030 and 95 per cent by 2035, it's just extraordinary. Dr Anne Webster is the federal Nationals MP for the Mallee and she today met with some farmers at a place called Marnoo, which is smack bang inside one of those two western renewable energy zones. She joins us now, Dr Webster, great to talk to you - Lily D Ambrosio, on a Sunday, late,  footy is on, no one's listening to politics, decides to tell us all that her renewable plan is going to cost $8 billion, not $4 billion, and that we're now going to expand these zones, some of them twice as big as what we thought they were going to be. What's the anger like out there?

WEBSTER

The anger is palpable, there is no two ways about that Steve, I've met with these community groups across Mallee, many, many times now, the story does not get better, and I think if we put into the mix the reality, and I noted Chris Uhlmann said it before, the cost is just going to keep going up and up and up. And I think until city folks really understand the cost of transmission lines on their power bills for the next 10 years, 25 years, we are going to continue to be rolled over in the regions. We need our city people to really understand what's going on here. Bruce Mountain, from the Victorian Energy Centre, policy professor, he estimates it's actually going to go up to $28 billion cost over this next decade. And you know, the Victorian government comes out and says, ‘Oh, we will save you $20 a year if you're a consumer at home, or maybe $30 if you're a business’ …  these are ludicrous figures. I don't think anyone can believe a word that Lily D'Ambrosio says about the energy plan, and there is a lot of resentment and an absolute determination to stand their ground and not allow this to go ahead on their properties.

PRICE

I note the Sunday Age yesterday - I don't know quite why I buy the Sunday Age, but I did - they made the point at the end of that story that farmers can earn up to $8,000 a kilometre for 25 years every year, if they have a transmission line on their property, is that right? And if it is, are the farmers then  - some of them - taking that, and then it's dividing the community because others don't want to?

WEBSTER

Well, I think the point here is that farmers are not being given the option. So if the government - Vicgrid, in this instance - determines that the VNI west or the Western Renewable Link, will be going through your land, you don't get an option. What they are saying to farmers is, if you bolt your gates and we have to open them, and you don't want us on your property, you can be fined up to $12,000 and if you're a corporate organisation, up to $48,000 for not allowing Vicgrid onto your property. So it's a threat. What they're planning on earning over this next period of time is a little bit like the wind towers, which I heard yesterday, someone was being offered $60,000 a year. Let's remember that that is for the maximum period of 20 years, and at the end of that the decommissioning cost, let alone the environmental issues, the decommissioning cost in Queensland right now is a million dollars per turbine. I did have one farmer say to me, when I said to him, ‘Well, you know, how do you feel about that your kids or your grandkids might end up paying?’ He said, ‘Oh, well, you know, that's their problem.’ I think, you know, people have more decency than that. Most of the farmers that I talk to, you know, I would say 95 per cent of them are dead against all of this renewables really to roll them out of farming.

PRICE

Well, D’Ambrosio has got far too much power, I mean, she can tell a local council, local Shire, well, bad luck. I'm going there, whether you want me to be there or not, and you've got no way of fighting against this. We're going to do it. I mean, that is an absurd use of parliamentary legislation to make this happen. I mean, it shouldn't be just your farmers that are angry. We should all be upset and angry because, as Chris Uhlmann pointed out, Victoria is like much of Australia is going to be carpet bombed with wind turbines,

WEBSTER

Absolutely

PRICE

…and I agree with you, Lily D'Ambrosio now has unfettered powers to change her mind, to change what she wants to do when she wants to do it, how much it's even going to cost?

WEBSTER

This is … it feels more and more like the Socialist Republic of Victoria, rather than a democratic state where people who own land. They're not land holders. I note the government's changing language here, land holders. No, they're not. They're land owners, and they do not have the right to say, ‘No, I don't want this.’ And when you've got whole communities who have come together, you know, today we had tractor on tractor on tractor, and so many farmers present, making their voices heard, and my encouragement to them is keep it up. We are standing with you, and this Victorian government needs to have a second look. And let's not let's not forget, Steve, this comes from the Rewiring the Nation under Chris Bowen and Anthony Albanese. What it really is, is retiring the farm.

PRICE

Yeah. Chris Bowen, you give it to him when you get back to Canberra, he's part of big part of the problem. Dr Anne Webster, thank you very much for talking to us. We'll keep on top of that and I know Peta Credlin has a very strong view on that. She'll get stuck into it when she gets back. 

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