Tuesday, 29 July 2025

Renewable energy infrastructure

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:32): (1751) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Energy and Resources, and the action that I seek is for the minister to seriously consider the feedback provided by community members and local government regarding the Central North renewable energy zone and address their concerns with the size and location of the zone and its misalignment with existing land uses and planning commitments. The Draft 2025 Victorian Transmission Plan was recently released for public consultation and brings together future planning for electricity transmission lines with proposed zones for renewable energy projects. Forward-thinking planning for the integration of renewable energy projects into the grid is appropriate, but the Allan Labor government is using this plan to force large-scale renewable energy infrastructure onto unwilling rural communities.

Two of the renewable energy zones are in my electorate: the North-West REZ and the Central North REZ. The Central North zone is located between Bendigo and Shepparton and will cover 3440 properties over approximately 160,000 hectares. The size and location of the Central North zone are particularly worrying for community members as well as local government, because it overlaps significantly with high-quality agricultural land that is essential for food production in Victoria. The draft plan says that it intends to minimise impact on agricultural land and acknowledges that due to the complexity of irrigation infrastructure across the district the area is much less suitable to have co-located wind and solar infrastructure. However, despite this acknowledgement the plan ignores community objections and still chooses to include irrigation areas within the zone in order to give renewable energy developers more options for future projects.

This valuable land must be protected, not vandalised by Labor’s industrial energy infrastructure. Covering the area with renewable energy projects will reduce land values without fair compensation, increase biosecurity risks and interrupt livestock movement and business operations. The draft zone also conflicts with council planning schemes and strategic documents prepared by the municipality to protect landscape values, economic opportunities, biodiversity and threatened species. The zone is expected to deliver 60 to 100 megawatts of capacity from wind energy facilities, which raises serious concerns with local residents that new, taller wind turbines will disturb the peace and quiet of rural communities by casting noise and shadow flicker much further than before. Last year I asked the government to replace the current 1-kilometre turbine setback requirement with a 2-kilometre buffer zone between wind turbines and homes, but the minister replied to say that the government is not currently reviewing this requirement. How can we believe that the consultation process is being carried out in good faith when the government has already refused to consider a demand for a larger buffer zone?