Wednesday, 10 September 2025

Energy policy

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:55): (1955) My adjournment is to the Minister for Energy and Resources, and the action I seek is for the minister to pause the rollout of high-voltage transmission projects in western and northern Victoria until full consultation, fair compensation and community consent frameworks are in place. This is actually affecting everybody, and all of us know people in the regional areas where families and farmers are hurting. Whether it is the farmers on the outskirts or throughout the areas of Victoria, the CFA volunteers or the young families who are moving into areas and struggling to find a home, the message is simply the same: everybody is feeling sidelined by this government. They feel that this government is incredibly reckless in the decisions that it is making. Its lack of consultation, its lack of thought and process, are hurting everybody. I have to say, this is a constant theme throughout my area in the south-east, where I am witnessing a growing backlash to the government’s heavy-handed approach.

The heavy-handed approach to the renewable energy rollout, land access legislation and planning enforcement policies made by this Labor government may find its friends in the city, but it is acutely felt in the rural areas. Recently, residents in my area, particularly in the areas of Cardinia and Casey, where people have farming connections, have raised serious concerns about the transmission powers planned near homes and farms, with no real consultation once again and no local input. The Energy and Land Legislation Amendment (Energy Safety) Act 2025, which now allows infrastructure companies to enter private land without consent, is being described by locals as a land grab by legislation. Whether it be to do with rezoning or just looking at people’s areas and just walking in, we find that, throughout the horticultural area in my region and just beyond in the eastern region, land is being rezoned and squeezed out, either for housing or for industrial-scale energy infrastructure. It is unsustainable; you cannot talk about food security on one hand and erase the food bowl on the other. We are, in my area, absorbing thousands of residents each year. Our roads are clogged, our schools are full, our hospitals are stretched, and now we are going to have to see more farmers sell their land because they cannot abide by this.

Minister, I formally call on you to (1) amend the Energy and Land Legislation Amendment (Energy Safety) Act to remove forced land access powers from energy companies; (2) allow local council sign-off and landholder consent for any transmission projects in surrounding urban and rural zones; (3) protect food-producing farmland with zoning safeguards from industrial-scale energy developments; and (4) pause major transmission builds until there is proper local consultation, route transparency and compensation clarity. The people – (Time expired)