THE cancellation of a supply of natural gas to Invermay has come as no shock to locals who say the plans were merely a vote winning ploy by the previous state government.
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Regional Development Minister Jaala Pulford last week wrote to the Invermay Progress Association saying that specific targets to offset the cost of the natural gas pipeline had not been met, and due to this, the planned connection would not proceed.
In 2010, the Coalition government promised to supply reticulated natural gas to small communities across Victoria through the Energy for the Regions program. In all, there was an $85 million contract for the gas rollout to 11 towns including Heathcote, Lakes Entrance, Orbost, Terang, Invermay, Maldon, Marong, Nathalia, Swan Hill, Robinvale and Kerang.
A clause, which Invermay residents say they only discovered in February 2016, stipulated that the connection would only proceed if the developer signed up commercial customers with a total demand of at least 65 terajoules – which was about 70 per cent of the population.
The condition was designed to offset the costs of delivering major infrastructure to a small population of just over 800 at the time.
As late as March 2015, Regional Development Minister Jaala Pulford said Labor would honour the contract.
All towns are set to be connected by the end of this year, except Invermay.
Invermay Progress Association president Ian Martin said it was a mistake to announce a pipeline to such a small community in the first place. “Obviously it would have been very nice for it to happen, but it never made any economic sense,” he said.
“Labor said they’d honour it in 2015 and we’d been waiting ever since. I sent an email off a couple of weeks ago to find out what was happening, this response is the first we’ve heard.
“We spoke with Brookfield (the supplier) in February 2016 and they indicated to us then that there would need to be a 70 per cent take up, but as far as I’m aware, no-one has spoken to them since.”
Mr Martin said a boom in population had seen many new residents in the area connect to electricity, but he said a number still used bottled gas.
“If they are fair dinkum about making the provision of gas more equitable for rural communities, there are a whole lot of people on bottled gas, why can’t they subsidise for that?” he said.
“The other option would be for the money earmarked for the pipeline to go into renewable energy or solar panels across Invermay. But they’ve made it quite clear that money was for gas.”
RELATED: Invermay Gas Snub
Ms Pulford said the previous contract was “botched”.
“We’re fixing the mess the previous government left behind,” she said.
The Victorian Nationals, who announced the contract in 2010, were contacted for comment but did not respond before deadline.
Mr Martin said both major parties were to blame.
“We can’t trust them and it’s really sad,” he said.
“Jaala Pulford’s office spoke to us three years ago and promised to keep in touch. We hadn’t heard a word until now.”
