‍Monday 27 July 2026

Labor's flagship Capacity Investment Scheme was supposed to deliver more reliable electricity. Instead, it is proving what regional Australians have been saying all along – Labor's renewables-only experiment simply does not stack up.

New industry data shows that of the 12.9 gigawatts of wind generation backed under Labor's Capacity Investment Scheme, only 788 megawatts has reached financial close and is actually progressing - barely six per cent.

Dr Webster said the Capacity Investment Scheme had failed to deliver new generation capacity and had instead turbo-charged division in regional communities.

"The Albanese Labor Government told Australians an unprecedented rollout of wind farms and transmission lines was urgently required. Clearly, many of the projects Labor has championed do not stack up,” Dr Webster said.

“Adding insult to injury, Mallee residents have to suffer the Victorian Labor government railroading these economically unviable projects and associated transmission lines like VNI-West through fast-track processes, forcing land access and dividing regional communities.”

Industry analysts report that rising construction costs, declining power purchase agreements and changing market conditions are creating significant challenges for wind developments. Rystad Energy's head of Australia, Gero Farruggio, said batteries had "eroded the price premium that once underpinned wind economics" while construction costs had more than doubled and power purchase agreements had dried up.

Dr Webster said the findings raised serious questions for regional communities such as Mallee, which have been asked to bear the burden of Labor's energy transition.

"For years, Mallee communities have raised concerns about transmission lines, industrial-scale wind farms and blanket solar developments turning productive farmland into industrial wastelands, yet Labor has continued pressing ahead regardless,"  Dr Webster said.

Dr Webster said Labor's Capacity Investment Scheme could not be viewed in isolation from the broader ‘Rewiring the Nation’ agenda and VNI West, both of which The Nationals have declared they will halt.

"Last year I said Labor's Rewiring the Nation plans should be dumped for the sake of energy affordability and justice for farmers. The evidence against these projects has only become stronger,” Dr Webster said.

Earlier this year, after meeting with hundreds farmers and community members in St Arnaud and Maryborough, Nationals Leader Matt Canavan and Dr Webster announced that The Nationals would scrap ‘net zero’ and stop VNI West and the Western Renewables Link. Senator Canavan said at the time "Without Labor's net zero agenda driving massive new transmission infrastructure, VNI West is simply not needed. If you scrap Labor's net zero agenda then the case for VNI West collapses."

Dr Webster said Mallee has been ground zero for Labor's reckless renewables rollout.

“Families have faced years of uncertainty, communities have been divided, productive agricultural land has been threatened and property rights have been undermined,” Dr Webster said.

"Labor should stop treating regional communities as sacrificial lambs for a failing energy experiment."

"Mallee deserves an energy policy that is cheaper, better and fairer, one that respects farming communities, protects prime agricultural land and delivers reliable and affordable electricity instead of more bureaucracy, more subsidies and more transmission lines."

Dr Webster drafted her Prime Agricultural Land Protection Bill, tabled by Senator Canavan in the Senate as his first act as Leader of The Nationals, to ensure federal funding does not flow to projects that diminish the productivity of Australia’s best farming land.

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