PM’s renewables watchdog, key independent sound the alarm on Victorian planning process
The PM’s energy infrastructure tsar and a pro-renewables independent are worried concerns about one of Australia’s largest proposed solar farms are being ignored.
The Albanese government’s Energy Infrastructure Commissioner is gravely worried that Victoria’s fast-tracked approvals process for renewable energy projects is seeing the concerns of local communities ignored.
Both Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar and pro-renewables independent MP Helen Haines have written to Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny, urging her to establish an advisory committee to deliberate over a proposal for what would be one of Australia’s largest solar farms in the northeast of the state.
Under controversial changes introduced by the Allan government last year, approval power has been concentrated in Ms Kilkenny’s hands, with no requirement for applications to go before an independent planning panel, and no option for local communities to appeal decisions in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
In a letter dated last Thursday, Mr Mahar requested Ms Kilkenny use her discretion as minister under the new legislation to establish a committee to advise on the $750m, 330 megawatt Meadow Creek Solar Farm, which is proposed to be built on 570ha of prime agricultural land in the King River catchment, south of Wangaratta.
“I have written to you recently in relation to concerns in the community relating to energy infrastructure in Victoria,” the former National Farmers Federation CEO wrote, noting he is due to meet with the minister next month.
“My view is there should be more oversight and accountability in the process. The community concerns are not being sufficiently recognised or acted upon.”
Mr Mahar said he had attended a meeting in June with the Meadow Creek community and proponents of the development, where “practical and basic issues” such as access to the site during weather events, impact on local or regional water and fire risks had been raised.
“I would be very supportive of additional measures that increase the transparency and enhance community confidence in the decisions made on this development and accordingly seek your support for the community’s calls for an independent advisory committee to help address the community concerns,” he wrote.
“If for some reason the advisory committee is not possible, I think it is important for the community to understand why not and what alternative measures could be put in place.”
Dr Haines, whose electorate of Indi takes in Meadow Creek, said she had worked closely with the local community to try to ensure they were consulted and their concerns properly addressed by the project’s proponents.
“I have been greatly disappointed in what I have seen in the community consultation process, which has been marked by little contact, and almost no responses to the community’s concerns, particularly as they relate to impacts on the environment, waterways and native species,” Dr Haines wrote.
“In a recent community meeting, it was clear the consultants hired by the proponents to prepare the documents that will inform your decision-making had not visited the area around which they were making recommendations, and that mitigation and avoidance measures are not properly being considered.
“I recently undertook a tour of the perimeter of the site with members of the community and I found it invaluable, to understand the true scale of the project, its proximity to important waterways and to bushland, increasing bushfire risk and risks to waterways in the event of fire or flood.
“I recommend that you, as the decision-maker, and your delegates … or others who are advising you on this matter, undertake a tour of the site of the proposed project and its surrounds before making your decision on whether to approve this project.”
A Victorian government spokeswoman said any proposal would be “considered on its merits and every submission will be considered”.
“As this project is currently under assessment it would be inappropriate to comment further,” the spokeswoman said.
The proponents of the Meadow Creek Solar Farm have been contacted for comment.
State opposition energy spokesman David Davis said the government was “once again bulldozing ahead with major energy projects without proper community consultation”, accusing it of “ignoring locals, silencing concerns and treating regional Victorians as an afterthought”.
“The extraordinary steps Labor has taken to strip councils and communities of any planning say will be reversed under a Liberal and Nationals government,” Mr Davis said.
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