Western Victoria Transmission Network Project consultation was flawed: Catherine King

Speaking at Newlyn on Monday, Ms King reaffirmed her concerns about the Ausnet project, which she first raised in a parliamentary speech in August 2021.

At the time Ms King called for new corridors and easements and extensive undergrounding of the proposed high-voltage lines, which would slice through prime agricultural land in Western Victoria.

"From Darley and Myrniong through to potato country in Newlyn, Mount Prospect and surrounds, the community has come together to fight against the plan put forward by AEMO and being built by AusNet," she said in her speech in August.

"It has united Labor MPs, Liberal MPs, tourism operators, the Victorian Farmers Federation, big businesses like McCain's, residents in suburban growth areas, those in regional farming communities. It is increasingly clear to all of us the northern corridor proposed to build the transmission lines and the transfer station at Mt Prospect is unviable..."

"It should be using existing easements as the corridors; we should be looking to use the latest in technology, undergrounding where we can; battery storage along the way; ensuring that there is local community benefit not just through community funds but through cheaper access to renewables in the corridors and proper ongoing remuneration for all affected landholders."

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Now Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Ms King said the future of the project was now in the hands of development agencies, and qualified her expectations of an suitable outcome.

"Unfortunately, we're now in a position where it has regulatory approval, and it's now seeking planning approval," Ms King said.

"We're in a planning process... which will sit with both the Victorian state government and the federal environment ministers... where we're trying to see whether we can get improvements to the outcome for communities across this district.

Sh said had expressed strongly to her colleague, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, the need for reining in transmission projects, including the second project proposed for the region, the $3.25bn Victoria - New South Wales Interconnector, or VNI West.

Ms King said the VNI Project Assessment Draft Report had no regulatory approval as yet.

"We went to the election campaign saying we would reform what's called the RIT-T (Regulatory investment test for transmission) process," Ms King said.

"I've been speaking to Minister Bowen, who has responsibility for that area; obviously, that will take some time, and I've expressed the view strongly that I don't think any further transmission projects, particularly the one we're seeing in the regulatory approval process at the moment, should happen until that regular approval process has changed.

"There are lessons to be learned from the Western Victorian Transmission network. I certainly hope, if we don't get regulatory approval changes through before then, that some of those lessons are actually incorporated already into the regulatory process."

Ms King acknowledged the strong protest across the planned routes of the transmission lines, where farm fences, tractors, trucks and bale stacks are adorned with protest messages, saying she had been involved with the protests from almost the beginning of her time as local member.

But, she says, the energy market and energy production is in a state of transition, and change is a difficult process.

"We've go to get renewables into the grid; I think that's the challenge. We've got almost 20 years of knowledge of development of wind farms; there's a whole lot of principles we've learned in the development of wind farms. I was part of communities protesting about those, in my early days as a local member here.

"We've learned a lot about how to work with community organisations to make sure that communities benefit. We've learned about the importance of long-term compensation for rural communities. We've learned about the importance of our landscapes, importance of our horticulture, high-value horticulture - yet we don't seem to have applied those lessons to the transmission network.

"We know we have to build them; the world is changing. We're no longer generating all of our electricity down in the Latrobe Valley; we're no longer having to rely on gas from other states to keep our manufacturing sector going. Renewables absolutely are critical, and getting it into the grid is critical. That's why we announced the $20bn Rewiring The Nation plan to get cheaper money for proponents to do these projects.

"At the same time it shouldn't be beyond our weight, given what we've learned over the last 20 years, about how we work with communities to ensure we get better outcomes. That's the challenge. With this project, we've had pretty much a decade under the previous government where they did nothing. We're now a decade behind where we should be in getting renewables into the grid. There's a tension, obviously, between making sure we look after communities at the same time as we get these projects done."

Ms King says the opportunities offered in her new portfolio, including a proposal to start a long-awaited high-speed rail project, are exciting.

"We're spending a lot of money investing in - catching up really, is what it feels like at the moment - trying to look at using smart technology to extend the life of our infrastructure," Ms King says.

"We've talked about high-speed rail, and the first tranche of that we've made commitments to is between Newcastle and Sydney. I probably won't be the minister who actually gets to cut the ribbon because it's probably a 20-30 year project, but I am going to be the minister who starts the ball rolling on high-speed rail coming into this country.

"Think about what that means for emissions: people will be less in their cars, less flight domestic flights, people will actually be using high-speed rail. So when I am long gone from this world, having been the minister who started that in Australia is pretty exciting."

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