Western Renewables Link: AusNet landholder compensation offer fails to convince affected farmers

Energy company AusNet Services is offering landholders along the route of its proposed Western Renewables Link (WRL) transmission project a minimum of $40,000 for agreeing to host infrastructure on their properties, in addition to state government compensation announced late last month.

AusNet's compensation scheme is outlined in its latest 'Landholder guide: Option for Easement process and compensation', released earlier this week.

The document states landholders who grant access to their properties will automatically receive three one-off payments, totalling $40,000, plus a range of additional "property specific" payments, and potentially other payments covering legal fees and other costs.

These payments would be on top of the state government's recently announced 25-year offer of $8,000 per year per kilometre of new transmission easement hosted.

Any landholder who does not co-operate will be subject to a compulsory acquisition process and will not be compensated until the conclusion of that process.

The guide states those landholders who accept compensation under the proposed 'Option for Easement' process will have "certainty about the compensation and payments [they] will receive and the timing of those payments if the Western Renewables Link is approved and constructed."

"It will provide flexibility for you to discuss and agree the access arrangements to be implemented during preliminary investigations on your property and, if the option is exercised and the easement acquired, construction on your property," the guide states.

"The compulsory acquisition of an easement is a statutory process.

"The easement is vested in AusNet prior to you receiving an offer of compensation under the statutory process."

For landholders who enter into the agreement, that agreement remains valid for two years.

The guide states AusNet will pay $15,000 to extend the agreement by 12 months if required.

Victorian Farmers Federation Horticulture Vice-President Katherine Myers runs a potato farm at Tourello that is in the path of the proposed transmission line route.

Ms Myers said she and other affected landholders were "not looking at" compensation when there was no guarantee the project would go ahead and opponents still held out hope it could be stopped.

She planned to meet with AusNet and Australian Energy Market Operator representatives at Dean on Tuesday to put "a lot of" questions to them about the project's status, and to keep working with the Stop AusNet's Towers legal working group to challenge the project through the courts.

"I don't quite understand how they're going to start talking to landholders about compensation when they don't know what they're actually compensating anyone for and who they need to compensate," Ms Myers said.

"The project still hasn't gone through the planning process - it's still 50/50 whether it'll even go ahead once it gets to the Environmental Effects Statement and what form it'll go through, so we're not even considering [compensation] at the moment."

Moorabool Shire Council released a statement saying AusNet's offer of compensation based on the market value loss of an entire property, not just the easement area was a "small win" for landholders, but added it "would like to encourage decision makers to explore depreciation assessments for properties neighbouring those accommodating an easement, which are also being impacted but are not set to receive any form of compensation."

Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio has previously stated the government is "considering" neighbour payments and community benefits schemes as part of its Victorian Transmission Investment Framework.

"We will undertake additional consultation as we prepare legislation to implement the framework," Ms D'Ambrosio said.

The WRL Environmental Effects Statement is due for release this year, although the state government has not provided a date.

Hepburn and Pyrenees Shire Councils were contacted for comment.