Tuesday, 26 August 2025

Energy policy

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (00:34): (1866) My adjournment debate tonight for the Minister for Energy and Resources concerns the so-called VicGrid stage 2 reform bill. It is being sold as a way to speed up energy infrastructure, but like much of this government’s energy policy, it is driven by ideology. The approach is not about consensus or trust, it is about imposing a model regardless of the cost to rights, fairness or due process. The truth is it strips away democratic oversight, hands unprecedented powers to a single state-controlled body and removes checks and balances that prevent abuse. I want to acknowledge the work that Darren Edwards at the Energy Grid Alliance has done in exposing the real consequences of this legislation. Darren, along with other voices across western Victoria, has shown expertise, energy and passion. They have fought tirelessly for their communities and for fairness and transparency in our energy transition, doing so as volunteers simply because the threat of these transmission lines was imposed on them. Under this bill VicGrid becomes planner, developer, regulator and enforcer. That concentration of power is dangerous. Worse, it allows entry to private land without consent, the use of force, police involvement and heavy penalties for landowners who object. It even makes it a criminal offence to try to slow or stop activity on your own property. Transparency is discarded. VicGrid will be exempt from freedom-of-information laws, shielding decisions that affect entire communities from public scrutiny. That destroys trust.

We have already seen the consequences of this top-down approach. The Western Renewables Link and VNI West projects have suffered massive cost blowouts. The Western Renewables Link alone jumped from $370 million to $3 billion with years of delay because the government ignored community voices and forced through flawed plans. This bill would lock that broken model into law. Here is a hint to the government – it should be pretty obvious, really: if your policies are sensible, there would be no need to rewrite centuries of property law. Instead of addressing real problems this legislation bulldozes opposition, treating Victorians as obstacles rather than partners. Victoria’s energy transition is vital, but not at the expense of democratic rights, property rights and public trust. This bill seeks to scare us into believing we must abandon those rights, using threats of blackouts to intimidate communities into compliance. Minister, the action I seek is simple: withdraw this legislation and work with Victorians, not against them.