Western Renewables Link transmission lines compensation not enough for affected landholders, farmers

Landholders along the path of the Western Renewables Link (WRL) transmission project are far from impressed by an $8000 per kilometre per year package announced by Energy and Resources Minister Lily D'Ambrosio on Friday, some going as far as calling it "the biggest kick in the guts ever".

Tourello potato grower and Victorian Farmers Federation horticulture vice president Katherine Myers was one of those left "really frustrated" by the government's offer, saying it "entirely ignores the impact of the project on [her] business and on the local area."

Ms Myers is on 600 hectares - about 200 of them suitable for production - and is set to host a kilometre of WRL transmission lines.

Under the new offer, she'd be paid eight cents per square metre of land taken up by WRL infrastructure. Without that infrastructure, she said that same amount of land would yield 7.5 kilograms of potatoes per year.

Ms Myers said what the government was proposing to ease the impacts of the WRL was "really not appropriate" for her farming operation - which relies on crop rotation - and for most of the affected properties around her.

"If you're up in the Mallee and you've got four or five thousand acres - the transmission lines aren't going to affect your neighbours in any kind of way, and you can still do all of your normal farming practices under it, so this kind of compensation scheme is quite useful, it's a really nice sweetener to improve the taste of a compulsory project like this in your mouth," she said.

"However, in an area like this where farms are relatively small, they're incredibly intensively farmed and incredibly productive - it's not compatible in the slightest with this kind of infrastructure."

Ms Myers said any compensation offer needed to take into account that large scale infrastructure construction would not only sacrifice food-growing land and decrease property values, but would impact neighbourhood amenity in ways that were difficult to quantify.

She said the "exclusionary" nature of the current offer - only covering those who directly host WRL infrastructure and not neighbouring properties - was simply not good enough after previous consultations highlighted these community concerns.

"We've given our feedback before on this kind of compensation scheme and how it completely ignores the impact on the rest of the community," she said.

"This area is very densely populated, we've got a lot of tourism businesses, we've got a lot of small artisan agriculture businesses, and we've got a lot of 'lifestylers' who work either in Melbourne or in Ballarat.

"They've got beautiful properties and they move here because of the views, and because of the ambiance of the area - none of them have come here for industrial infrastructure and that's not reflected at all in any of this kind of compensation."

Myrniong sheep and cattle producer Emma Muir is also set to host a kilometre of transmission lines, but said the impact on her farm's profit margins would differ to a more intensive operation like Ms Myers' and differ again for other sorts of businesses such as tourism providers "suddenly overlooking huge power lines".

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Ms Muir said her own property was set to lose a native wildlife corridor - known as a biolink - to WRL infrastructure and that no "bribe" could compensate for such impacts.

"It will impact our farming, how we care for the land, the aesthetic and value of our land, our income, our livelihood, everything," Ms Muir said.

"It's safe to say it will have a huge impact financially and $8000 really doesn't cut it.

"But it's never been about the money for me - it's about doing it [the WRL] properly."

And VFF Livestock Group president Scott Young, Fiskville, agreed that was not what producers were concerned about.

"It's the impact on their properties, not the money, that they are concerned about," he said.

He said the group would look more closely at the proposal, at a meeting next week.

"Obviously there is going to be a loss of land value, because of the powerlines going through, and there is no way that money will compensate for the loss of the value, let alone the loss of production.

"It's a high value agricultural area."

Others including Farmers for Climate Action and Friends of Earth have welcomed the Victorian government's recent show of leadership in the nation's transition away from coal to renewable energy - including an order earlier in the week expediting works on the $3.2 billion Victoria-New South Wales Interconnector (VNI) West project.

Community advocacy organisation RE-Alliance's national director Andrew Bray said in a media release payments for landholders were "not a silver bullet" but were crucial to recognising the "core stakeholders in our clean and reliable renewable energy systems".

"Everyone should benefit from the renewable energy transformation, especially communities that host the infrastructure for it," Mr Bray said.

"We're pleased to see that Victorian landholders will now enjoy the benefits of hosting transmission lines, like their counterparts in NSW."

Under the scheme, landholders will receive a $200,000 per kilometre payment, paid over 25 years, for all new large-scale transmission lines built on their properties.

The payment applies to new transmission lines and will be additional to easement payments made under existing arrangements.

FoE welcomed the news, saying it was a good step in the right direction.

"It's essential that communities are supported to participate in planning transmission and this must be co-ordinated by government, it cannot be left to the private sector," FoE Gippsland organiser Wendy Farmer said.

Friends of the Earth has been consulting with regional communities in Gippsland to understand their interests and concerns about transmission, and learn about what is needed to make sure transmission is done properly.

Gippsland farmer Ursula Alquier said it was no surprise communities were concerned about the large rollout of transmission infrastructure, in Victoria, and it was absolutely critical the government got its landholder and community benefits strategy right, early on.

"It's no surprise communities are concerned about the large buildout of transmission infrastructure in Victoria and it's absolutely critical the government gets its landholder and community benefits strategy right early on.

This is a step in the right direction and now we need the government to deliver stronger community benefits and coordinate engagement on the ground"

The announcement of landholder payments comes shortly after the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) released a redesign of the VNI West transmission line, accounting for social and environmental values.

Ms D'Ambrosio was contacted for comment.