Australia’s farmers have backed calls by the country’s top electricity transmission companies to scrap big taxes being imposed on rural property owners who sell their land to make way for critical infrastructure, which they say is complicating sale negotiations and delaying Australia’s energy transition.

Major pole and wire operators including Transgrid, AusNet and Powerlink Queensland argue that potato farmers, horse trainers and wool growers are among the landowners being hit with capital gains taxes for property sales that support the build-out of critical energy infrastructure.