‘No one can hear you scream’: Barnaby Joyce tells farmers to march on parliament amid transmission line bullying claims

On the outskirts of Tamworth, landowners are left feeling as though they are being walked all over by state-owned EnergyCo. Barnaby Joyce has called for them to march on parliament.

Angry landholders facing having kilometres of renewable energy transmission lines placed across their properties have been told to march on NSW parliament by Barnaby Joyce after a fiery meeting with state-owned EnergyCo bureaucrats.

In a tense clash with NSW government bureaucrats, around 100 locals and the Federal New England MP accused EnergyCo representatives of trying to divide the community at a meeting in the town of Woolomin near Tamworth in northern NSW, when they initially refused to do a Q&A session with the angry group.

“What you’re trying to do there is play the ultimate trick of dividing us up and playing a tick a box game,” Mr Joyce said at the meeting.

“We’re over being walked over, we’re over having our communities divided up.

“You know how you feel awkward and a little bit scared, that’s how you’ve made us feel.”

Mr Joyce urged angry residents facing the compulsory acquisition of their properties to protest out the front of both parliaments in Canberra and Sydney.

Barnaby Joyce said the energy company is dividing the communities up. Photo: Tom Parrish

“Until you jump up and down in the front of Macquarie street in Parliament House or until you jump up and down of the front lawn of the federal parliament in Canberra no one can hear you scream,” he said.

“I mean this lot are rubbish … this is a tick a box exercise.”

The New England MP is, like many residents living near the New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), is facing the prospect of having part of his land forcibly taken by the government to place transmission lines across it to connect new wind and solar farms to Sydney.

Multiple residents living near Tamworth have accused EnergyCo of not answering their questions while being insensitive and employing bullying tactics in the process of acquiring access to their properties.

Lesley Wright still manages her own farm at the age of 94, and lives alone with the help from her daughter Jenny.

Lesley Wright had EnergyCo representatives show up to her property in Woolimin. Photo: Tom Parrish

Ms Wright, who is vision impaired, called the police after EnergyCo representatives came to her doorstep in March to tell her the transmission lines would be going metres from her home.

Ms Wright said the representatives tried to convince her to sign forms granting them access to her property despite her not being able to see them.

“I didn’t know where they were from because I didn’t know they were coming - they didn’t clearly identify themselves,” she said.

“They wanted to come in and I said ‘no please go’ and I asked her three times to go.

“They did not go and the third time I said I’m closing the door now and I did.”

Ms Wright said the representatives tried to convince her to sign a form granting access to EnergyCo to come onto her property but at the time she could not see what it was.

“I said I will sign nothing unless I read it,” she said

“They tried to force me to sign on the spot - she said ‘why won’t you sign it, don’t you trust the government’ and I told her I do not.”

Members of the local Tamworth community gather at the War Memorial Hall in Woolimin for the Energy co town pop up information evening. Photo: Tom Parrish

Tamworth farmer Jillian Sullivan, 72, her brother Tim Skerrett and his wife Courtney Skerrett run beef cattle on a 6000 acre property that has been in their family for a century. Now they are facing the prospect of having two high voltage power lines with 75 metre tall pylons go up the centre of it, disrupting their business and devaluing their home.

On top of the prospect of their family business suffering, the family have said one EnergyCo acquisitions officer who came to speak to them was insensitive to their distress, instead telling them to treat the carving up of the farm as “a death in the family”.

“We were explaining how upsetting it was for us because this family has been here for over 100 years, it’s not just about the economic devastation or the biodiversity devastation, this is our home,” Ms Skerrett said.

“When I tried to explain that to him, he was like ‘look, it’s going to happen, grieve, get over it, it’s like a death in the family’.

“This is the problem, you’ve got people making these decisions that are so far removed from what it actually means to live this life.”

Courtney Skerrett on her farmland just outside of Tamworth. Photo: Tom Parrish

Landholders facing having the giant transmission lines placed on their properties can only be compensated $200,000 per kilometre paid out in instalments over 20 years.

Yet property owners who will have the transmission lines placed within little more than 100 metres from their homes but not on their properties were not informed by EnergyCo despite it significantly devaluing their properties in some cases.

Michelle, whose family built their home on a 125 acre block near Tamworth ten years ago, was not told the transmission line route would go at least 100 metres from the house. Instead the young mother found out about the proposed route via Facebook. Despite the proximity to the house, which the family believes will devalue the property up to 90 per cent, they are not eligible for any compensation.

“We’re completely ignored by the government, by EnergyCo - we are not considered to be impacted,” she said.

“We’ve put ten years worth of finance in this property, it is my daughter’s inheritance, and it just gets wiped out because there’s a transmission corridor right next to it.”

An EnergyCo spokesperson denied the use of bullying tactics or forcing landowners to sign access agreements, saying they were continuing to have conversions with landholders and communities in New England.

A concerned member of the local Tamworth community expresses his concern for the proposed transmission lines at the War Memorial Hall in Woolimin for the Energy co town pop up information evening. Photo: Tom Parrish

“This includes around 400 meetings with directly impacted landowners to answer questions and listen to feedback,” the spokesperson said.

They also confirmed landowners that were only visually impacted by the lines were not informed by EnergyCo representatives as the impacts were “not yet confirmed”.

A spokesperson for NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said the Minister would meet with any community members, should they come down to Sydney.

“Since being elected, the Minister has instructed EnergyCo to improve its work with communities and landholders,” the spokesperson said.

“The Minister will always meet with residents.”