Transmission powerline compo: NSW to pay landholders $200,000 a km

In an Australian first, NSW landholders will be paid $200,000 per kilometre of transmission lines they host, while Victorians still get nothing.

The NSW Government is compensating landholders for electricity transmission lines and towers built across their land.

NSW landowners will receive $200,000 per kilometre of new transmission lines that are built across their properties, paid out in annual instalments over 20 years.

The annual CPI-indexed payments of $10,000 for 20 years are on top of the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act payments, which cover market value of the land, loss due to severance and disturbance, and reasonable costs and expenses.

NSW deputy Premier Paul Toole said the $200,000 would support landowners who are hosting infrastructure that he said would “help us build the network we need in time to ensure energy security, supply and affordability.

Victorian farmers have been protesting proposed AusNet plans. Picture: Alex Coppel

“Building new transmission infrastructure is critical to connecting renewable energy sources to the grid and most of this new infrastructure will be built in regional NSW.”

NSW Farmers Association Energy Transition Working Group chair Reg Kidd said the payments were vital in helping “deal with the losses of our rural landowners in productivity and amenity, and for the contribution to both our state and national goals of reducing carbon emissions.”

Asked if landholders could take the $200,000 as an upfront payment, Mr Kidd said it was one of the issues that was stil up for negotiation.

He said NSW Farmers Association was also in discussions with the government on ensuring the compensation payments did not set neighbour against neighbour.

“If I have the transmission line 20m inside my place, you as my neighbour get nothing,” Mr Kidd said.

The NSW Government’s compensation deal sits in stark contrast to Victoria where the Labor government and Liberal-Nationals Coalition have refused to respond to their state farmers’ demands to establish a similar scheme.

That refusal comes despite the state government collecting $190 million in easement taxes from AusNet each year, which was established in 2005 to subsidise Alcoa’s Portland aluminium smelter’s electricity costs.

While Alcoa’s subsidy has been wound back, the government annual easement tax take has grown from $103 million when it came to power in 2014 to $190 million in 2022-23.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano has said “there’s a strong argument for this tax being returned to farmers in exchange for hosting infrastructure on their land which benefits the whole community.”

Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh and Labor’s Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio have rejected the concept.

Details of the NSW scheme can be found at https://www.energyco.nsw.gov.au/community/strategic-benefit-payments-scheme