Guardian readers will be familiar with what I have been sharing from across Mallee the history of the reckless railroading of farmers and their communities by ‘net zero’ energy projects, particularly the VNI West transmission line.

I listened to the thousands that answered Mallee’s Biggest Survey last year, where 61 per cent of Mallee residents said they oppose both Labor’s 2030 target of 43 per cent renewables and 2050 ‘net zero’ emissions target.  A huge 69 per cent said they don’t even want to pay $1 per annum towards net zero.  The lived experience, as we know, is power bills haven’t gone down $275 as Labor promised 97 times, but have risen by $1000s.

I have lobbied for our farming communities for years in Canberra and brought Leader of The Nationals Matt Canavan to St Arnaud last Thursday to a packed Town Hall meeting, where he received a huge cheer for two big announcements.

First, Matt declared The Nationals will scrap net zero.   Days later The Nationals for Regional Victoria at our State Conference voted that The Nationals in Victorian Government publicly oppose net zero and repeal all legislated emissions reduction and renewable energy targets.

Second, Matt said on Thursday that The Nationals will stop VNI West.  Days later the Victorian Nationals state conference voted that, in government, we would scrap VNI West and the WRL (Western Renewables Link) projects.

Farmers present at the town hall meeting welcomed these huge wins for Mallee, telling me:

“Thank you to you and Matt for your unwavering support for our cause. Your announcement was music to our ears and you have made plenty of people extremely positive and relieved that we have a political party supporting us.

“We know it is not all over yet, the overwhelming support that you have maintained for us in parliament has been inspiring. I am proud and honoured to take this fight to these out-of-control Labor Governments.”

This is The Nationals in action for you - a locally-represented party with the experience in Government to give you a voice and deliver real action in the corridors of power.