AusNet starts compensation talks

By Lachlan Ellis

Electricity distributor AusNet has announced a new step in negotiating with landowners on its controversial Western Renewables Link (WRL), releasing a new landholders guide.

AusNet released the ‘Landholder Guide: Option for Easement process and compensation’ last Monday, proposing that landholders could be paid up to $40,000 for engaging with AusNet, including payments for taking part in assessment surveys, payment for professional fees, and reimbursement for legal and professional fees.

Western Renewables Link Project Executive, Jeff Rigby, said payments were intended to support the rollout of a modern and reliable electricity network to connect renewable energy into the grid to benefit all Victorians.

“The information package is an important first step in working towards a commercial arrangement with landholders and to provide them with certainty about the payments and compensation they will receive,” Mr Rigby said.

“We hope that by providing landholders with information now, they can make an informed decision when it comes to consider compensation offers, as well as seeking their own independent advice.”

AusNet says independent valuers experienced in compensation will assess the value of compensation to be paid, which will then be subject to negotiation. Landholders will then be able to seek their own valuation.

The value of compensation will also be based on difference between market value before and after project construction – also known as market value depreciation.

The easement compensation offers, in the form of an Option for Easement proposal, will be progressively given to landholders in coming weeks and will take several months to complete.

But spokesperson for the Stop AusNet’s Towers group, Emma Muir, says the new document does nothing to ease the concerns of landowners along the proposed route, and “no amount of money will compensate us for what we’re losing”.

“We don’t want the project in its current form. We want it to go back to the drawing board, and feel we deserve a seat at the table to discuss this and look at better options the community will agree with. I’ve read it, I don’t think a lot of people can bear to read it…what really concerns me is the last page about compulsory acquisition,” Ms Muir told the Moorabool News.

“We’re telling our community to hold the line, to not let AusNet in, to continue to delay and block this project. When we first started this project, we were told it would be built in 2023, now it’s not happening until 2027. We’ve delayed this project, and we will continue to do so until there’s a better, safer, less impactful option for the community.”

AusNet expects to submit its Environment Effects Statement for the WRL later this year, and complete construction of the network, pending approvals, in 2027.

The Landholder Guide can be viewed by visiting www.westernrenewableslink.com.au and searching ‘compensation’.