Victorian farmers to rally against controversial new land penalties

Farmers, landholders and community groups will gather outside Parliament to express their anger at what is “an onerous and non-Australian way of doing things”.

Rupanyup grain grower Andrew Weidemann is helping organise a July 30 rural land rights rally on the steps of Parliament.

Farmers are preparing to run a rural land rights rally in Melbourne on July 30, in a bid to stop the Allan Government granting transmission companies the power to force their way onto properties and impose penalties of up to $12,210 on landholders who block access.

Rally co-ordinator Andrew Weidemann said farmers, other landholders and community groups would gather outside Parliamentary on July 30, when the Bill was due to be debated, to express their anger at what was “an onerous and non-Australian way of doing things.

“It’s bullshit to penalise farmers for not allowing people to come onto their land.”

The call to rally on the steps of parliament comes as the Victorian Liberal-Nationals Coalition promises to scrap the new powers and penalties, if elected to govern next year.

Coalition energy spokesman David Davis said the Bill reflected “an increasingly authoritarian stance in a Labor government now in its eleventh year”.

“The Allan Labor Government has panicked and will seek to acquire outrageous new powers to force through its so-called transition to renewables.”

The government’s National Electricity (Victoria) Amendment (VicGrid Stage 2 Reform) Bill 2025 not only imposes penalties of $12,210 on landholders who obstruct transmission companies’ entering their properties, but also grants authorised officers the power to cut locks and force open gates.

When introducing the Bill last month Labor’s Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio told parliament it allowed “authorised officer to use reasonable force to gain entry if it is reasonably necessary to do so, including to remove any obstruction”.

Farmers have branded the legislation “complete thuggery”, but it appears the government has the numbers in the Upper House to pass the Bill into law.

Gre Gre North farmer Jason Barratt, who faces 5km of his property being carved up by the 500kV VNI West powerline, said he was grateful to hear the Opposition would repeal the powers outlined in the Bill.

“I’m 100 per cent supportive, because it (the Bill) is completely backwards and undemocratic.”

Nationals Leader Danny O’Brien said Labor’s approach was to bully and attack regional communities, rather than work with them.

“This Bill highlights Labor is steamrollering farmers and other landholders in its blind rush to renewables,” Mr O’Brien said.

“This is an outrageous assault on farming families from a desperate government that is more interested in out-greening the Greens than respecting regional Victorians.

“A government that respects rural Victorians would not be introducing legislation like this, on top of taking away their right to appeal against these projects at VCAT. The Liberals and Nationals will hand back these rights to rural people, as well as reintroducing a two kilometre buffer zone between wind turbines and homes.”