Tuesday, 11 August 2026

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) presented a petition bearing 1300 signatures:

The Petition of certain citizens of the State of Victoria draws to the attention of the Legislative Council the Victorian Government’s proposal to include in the final version of the 2025 Victorian Transmission Plan (VTP) a new eastern section of the Central North Renewable Zone (REZ), between Shepparton and Glenrowan, without proper consultation.

While there is a need for renewable energy, landowners and local communities who will be affected were not informed before the decision was made and were not given an opportunity to respond before the VTP was made public. VicGrid’s retrospective six-week consultation is clearly deficient in contrast to the consultation and evidence gathering of over a year for stakeholders in every other REZ in the VTP. There is great concern that the inclusion of the new eastern section of the Central North REZ has failed to consider all the evidence for the importance of existing highly productive agricultural land use, landscape and tourism values, and Aboriginal cultural heritage sites.

The Petitioners therefore request that the Legislative Council calls on the Minister for Energy and Resources and VicGrid to remove the eastern section of the Central North Renewable Energy Zone from the 2025 Victorian Transmission Plan until proper consultation with affected landowners and community is undertaken.

Wendy LOVELL: I move:

That the petition be taken into consideration on the next day of meeting.

And I note that this adds to the more than 10,000 people who signed the online petition.

Motion agreed to.