Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

Last week I stood in a tiny town, Marnoo—population 99—in the heart of the Mallee. I stood with Anne Webster, their local federal MP, with local councillors and with hundreds of farmers and their families who are standing up for their future. They'd asked me to bring their fight here to the Australian Senate to make sure, particularly, the Labor Party and the Greens understand the impact of this reckless race to 100 per cent renewables. It is an absolute case of out of sight, out of mind when it comes to Chris Bowen's and, indeed, Premier Jacinta Allan's energy policies, and it is rural and regional communities who are paying the price through the desecration of our land, our livelihoods and our very communities. Similar protests are happening not just across the Wimmera Mallee but right across regional Australia, because government is now pushing this project onto these communities. That day we burnt the draft plans for the VNI West project—a 500 kV double-circuit transmission line running approximately 240 kilometres across Victoria then north into New South Wales to link with the EnergyConnect project. The Victorian section alone will likely need around 600 transmission towers, every single one as tall as the Parliament House flag mast above us, at 80 metres.

And the cost? AEMO's own figures show it has blown out from $3.9 billion, with some estimates now hitting $11.4 billion. Net zero does not mean net zero costs. That's been the hoax from the start. Someone has to pay, and it turns out it's rural and regional communities.

This community in Marnoo were very, very clear last week that they will be locking their gates. They are prepared to go to jail against a government that is determined to override their private property rights and determined to enter their farms without permission, with the inherent biosecurity risk. This project has not only caused economic harm, with property values plummeting on intergenerational assets, and harm to food security and food production. It also has environmental and social costs, with families torn apart as a result.

This Victorian Labor government has form. It's the same government that sent police into people's homes during COVID, that locked up citizens without a second thought and that now gives itself new powers to force entry onto private land and silence objections from farmers whose livelihoods are at stake. It's a government with the worst instincts of authoritarianism and zero care for its citizens when it wants its own way.

Net zero is just a marker in time—a date on a calendar. It measures neither the path taken, nor the fairness, reliability or affordability of the transition. And, remember, this is a 95 per cent renewables target by 2035. They're in a hurry, and that is to appease urban voters in the middle of Melbourne who don't have to put up with the social, economic and environmental costs that this project brings.

Right now, we're intent on creating two classes of citizens in Australia: those who advocate for and benefit from the national emissions reduction effort and those in the regions who are paying the price through falling property values, loss of amenity and, in some cases, the broken bonds of their communities and families. If we want to keep faith with the people who actually feed this nation, then before those first 600 towers start going up the Victorian government needs to stop this project and go back to the drawing board. The National Party stands with those farmers and their families in Marnoo, just like we stand with every single rural and regional community that is putting up with Labor's rush to renewables.