Daniel Andrews heckled by group of angry farmers in Maryborough

Farmers have accused the Andrews government of refusing to hear their concerns about a controversial proposal to build massive power lines across farmland in western Victoria.

A group of Maryborough farmers heckled Daniel Andrews at a press conference in regional Victoria on Wednesday July 19, demanding that the government scrap plans to build massive transmission lines throughout the area. Picture: Supplied

Daniel Andrews was heckled by a group of angry farmers during his trip to western Victoria, who say the regions have been “completely ignored and forgotten” by the Labor government.

The group, who were protesting the government’s proposal to build massive transmission lines across large swathes of farmland, tried to approach the Premier as he left his press conference in Maryborough on Wednesday, holding up signs that read: “Tractors not transmission lines”.

But farmer Barry Batters, who said the group had been trying to discuss the issue with relevant ministers for months, said the Premier slighted them as he rushed to his government car.

“We were completely ignored,” he told the Herald Sun.

“We’ve written many emails to the minister, Lily D’Ambrosio. They won’t return the letters.

“They won’t meet with us, they won’t talk with us.”

Mr Batters said Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan agreed to speak with them on Wednesday but had changed her mind because “she didn’t like the way we’d carried on in front of the Premier.”

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews speaking at a press conference at Maryborough in Western Victoria.

“This has been going on for three years, six to eight months in our area,” he said.

“The community is being ignored. This must stop.”

The Herald Sun last week exposed tensions between Victorian farmers and Australia’s energy operator, with the Australian Energy Market Operator asked to start being transparent with farmers in the path of the 400 km power line project that will run across hundreds of farms in Victoria’s west.

Fellow farmer Jason Barratt said Labor’s decision to pull out of the Commonwealth Games was the final straw, accusing the Andrews Government of “destroying the regions”.

“Running power lines through the most productive farmland in Victoria, making our jobs so much harder when we’re trying to feed the county … we’re just getting pushed out and forgotten,” he said.

“None of this is going to make the bills cheaper. None of this is going to make food production easier.”

“The regions have been forgotten completely.”

Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano last week accused AEMO, which is acting on behalf of the Victorian government, of using “dirty tactics … to try to coerce farmers into signing away their rights”.

“If the Victorian government continues to allow for this sort of behaviour from AEMO, farmers won’t co-operate.”