Planning Minister moves to ‘gazump’ court challenge on Golden Plains wind farm

750 future jobs are on the line as Planning Minister and a farmer go head-to-head after the government moved to torpedo legal action threatening the southern hemisphere’s largest wind farm.

The state government has changed a development law in an attempt to torpedo legal action threatening plans for the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere that is due to be built northwest of Geelong.

A major investor in the $2 billion Golden Plains wind farm, Tag Energy, last month told the government the project was a financial risk because of ongoing legal action.

The mechanical engineer behind three years of legal wrangling over the project, due to its potential impact on brolga habitat, said he would start another legal challenge to Planning Minister Richard Wynne’s latest move.

The project, expected to need 750 workers during construction and 40 during operation, is due to go to trial in the Supreme Courtthis month as plaintiff, brolga enthusiast and mechanical engineer Hamish Cumming contends the minister made a mistake amending the project’s permit conditions.

That action had cast doubt on the project, due to be built across 16,700ha at Rokewood about 70km north west of Geelong, and could potentially push construction to August.

Wind farm challenger and brolga enthusiast Hamish Cumming. Picture: David Geraghty

Victorian Planning Minister Richard Wynne has defended the changes.

Now the minister — after he was approached by the wind farm’s developer WestWind Energy which first lodged plans for the project in 2017 — has changed the Golden Plains Shire planning scheme to allow it to go ahead without a permit.

The minister’s intervention is the latest twist in a long-running saga which has involved four legal challenges, including an unsuccessful appeal in the High Court.

Mr Cumming’s lawyer, Dominica Tannock, said he wanted the wind farm to proceed with 181 turbines, not with 215 as WestWind wants, which is in line with its previous permit that would protect brolga nesting and flocking areas.

“We are going to challenge the (minister’s) amendment to the planning scheme,” Ms Tannock said.

“It is fundamentally a different layout and design (with 215 turbines) to what (the independent planning) panel considered.

“They’ve tried to gazump the (Supreme) court making a finding that the minister’s decision to amend the planning permit (for the wind farm) was illegal, by amending the planning scheme.”

Mr Wynne said the project would provide enough electricity to meet approximately 9 per cent of Victoria’s total electricity demand, power approximately 750,000 homes, and abate more than 4.2m tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum.

In his reasons for changing the planning scheme, Mr Wynne wrote that WestWind had told him the change would provide certainty, and would create potential for construction to start next month.

“There is a short window of opportunity to salvage the planned construction timeline for the project,” Mr Wynne wrote.

“The project will provide ... significant economic investment into the Victorian economy of approximately $2 billion.

“The project (will) deliver downward pressure on electricity prices for consumers through increased electricity capacity.

“I have considered what is appropriate in the interests of Victoria.”

The project has potential to save the equivalent of 4.2m million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, and contribute more than half of Victoria’s legislated renewable energy production target of 40 per cent by 2025.

Mr Wynne also wrote his decision to change Golden Plains’ planning law was not based on the “lawfulness” of his previous decision to change the planning permit in 2021, which is the subject of a trial due to start this month.

Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office special counsel Mark Egan wrote that Mr Cumming needed to decide the “utility” of his legal challenge in light of the government’s change to the planning scheme.

“This decision ... (provides) plaintiffs with an opportunity to consider discontinuing the proceeding,” Mr Egan wrote in a letter to Ms Tannock last month.

Mr Wynne said the project was previously subjected to an in-depth planning assessment.

“Further consultation is unlikely to change the outcome of this amendment. I am unlikely to

change my views in relation to it,” he said.

Originally published as Planning Minister moves to ‘gazump’ court challenge on Golden Plains wind farm