Tuesday, 22 September 2026

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (23:19): (2813) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Energy and Resources, and the action I seek is that she join me in meeting with the Liberal candidates for Eureka and Ripon, Megan Reed and Emma Muir, and the communities affected by the Western Renewables Link. I have mentioned Western Renewables Link 213 times across 33 contributions in nearly four years, more than anyone else in this Parliament. Tonight I want to expose Labor’s duplicitous rhetoric on the Western Renewables Link. In December 2022 Labor’s member for Ripon told the Assembly:

I am not in the business of saying one thing in Smeaton before the election and another on Spring Street today. The project is a disgrace and must be fixed …

The project has not been fixed. The member for Ripon is absent.

On 9 September the minister warned of ‘skyrocketing power bills’ if Western Renewables Link is delayed, with Ms Ermacora attacking the coalition’s firm stance two days running. The same day I put to her what it really costs. It was costed at $479 million in 2019. In March 2026, though, AusNet’s owner Brookfield told the United States Securities and Exchange Commission it is a $4 billion project – more than eight times the original estimate. Yet in May, answering this Parliament, the government put it at just over $1.5 billion, giving a lower figure to this Parliament than that given to the American regulators. On 15 September the minister told a CEDA audience, ‘We need these projects.’ Forty-five minutes later the Premier ordered a so-called independent review of project costs. The same day, the Minister for Planning released her environment effects statement assessment, foreshadowed in mid-August. So within a week of attacking our stance, Labor announced a review that halts and changes nothing.

The Premier says his review will finish by year’s end. He will not say whether that is before an election, though. He says no compulsory acquisitions will occur while it runs. That is a political promise no better than the one he made to his daughter and the Premier he rolled. This Premier voted three times to give VicGrid the power to enter and compulsorily acquire private land and to fine the farmers who defend their property rights. I am told VicGrid is still talking to farmers about acquisitions. This review is smoke and mirrors, an exercise to save seats. If the minister disagrees, she should come and defend it to the people living under it. Western Renewables Link cannot proceed without fundamental changes.