Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank my friend and colleague the member for Capricornia for moving this important motion. Unfortunately, time will not permit me to list all the threats to agriculture created by this reckless Albanese Labor government and, I might add, its Victorian Labor colleagues.

I want to start in my electorate of Mallee. Victorian Labor's Renewable Energy Zones were initially proposed for five areas of the state, but now the transmission priority mapping shows Mallee is actually ground zero, along with a small area in my colleague the Liberal member for Wannon's electorate. The VNI West transmission line corridor was announced last week. Some of the farmers in my electorate have voiced their views, and I want to share them because their voices matter in this House, and I'm here to represent them.

Glenden Watts, a farmer in Yeungroon, said:

The project hasn't been done correctly, it's a political decision.

Mr Watts said:

The route does a dog-leg into farming land, rather than the populated areas. This is almost dictatory or communism. I don't believe in taking away people's rights to farm or contest the decision. I don't believe in this project. This isn't Australian to come in and do what they are doing.

Billy Baldwin, a sheep and wheat farmer at Marnoo, in my electorate, said:

We are not going to give it to them, we will have to stand at the gate. The company now plans to get a transmission licence, so they can get more power over us, a bigger stick. But to us it makes no difference, we will be ready to fight. We will protect our community, our home and our right to farm.

Ben Duxson, who has 8½ thousand Marino sheep, as well as canola, barley and wheat, on his 5,500 acre farm in Kanya, Wimmera River, whose property could be impacted by about 1.5 kilometres of transmission lines, said he was prepared to go to court over the decision. He said:

We know this is no good for Australia, this isn't right for agriculture, food sustainability or food affordability. Once they try and put 70 per cent renewables in our farm land, we never get it back. We are an agriculture country that needs to produce food. We have other energy sources out there. The alternative is nuclear, not ripping up prime agriculture land. None of it is good for food consumers or energy consumers. It just increases the cost in both areas and makes no sense.

Gre Gre farmer Jason Barrett, who has sheep, cattle, wheat, barley and canola, said the one-kilometre line through his property would also restrict the way he can farm. Mr Barrett said:

There would be height restrictions, even to the point at time of day. We harvest in summer and there will be temperature restrictions also, not being able to use machinery underneath the lines. We need to farm on warmer days because that's the nature of farming. There is no way we are going to lie down. We are united in our fight.

Today, I received an email from Anne Bryce, and I want to read you a small amount of that. Anne Bryce lives in Traynors Lagoon in my electorate. She says, 'Never in my lifetime did I ever think I would be facing and fighting against a government that is treating my community with such disdain. The transmission route has been narrowed that it now runs alongside our property. Along with this comes the onslaught of wind turbine companies and now mineral sand mining. We feel we are under constant attack, when all we want to do is farm. It's funny how we produce the food, yet we're on the bottom of the food chain, because there seems to be so many external factors vying for a piece of our farm. The government oversees renewable companies and mining, all picking at us like crows. We have been fighting this since February 2023. We have been treated like our lives don't matter by AEMO and Transmission Company Victoria. The mental toll this is taking on my community is immense, and TCV's attitude to this is to give you a card to Lifeline or Beyond Blue. TCV take no accountability.

Her family farm has been farming there for 150 years, and they are facing this kind of onslaught. Where is this onslaught on our food security and, ultimately, our national security going to end?

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