Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

It was nice to see Sam Rae, our Federal MP for Hawke, in the MNews (28 February, p.7) and to read of his support for the Barrys Reef Avenue of Honour Restoration Project. It has been good to see more of Sam about the electorate this year, in most cases announcing good news for projects and financial support.

I don’t want to detract from these worthwhile causes; indeed, I would like to congratulate Sam for his efforts to bring Federal and State attention to projects which benefit the people of Hawke. But these are the easy bits of his job, delivering good news and providing a quick photo opportunity.

A much harder and more vital part of Sam’s role is standing up for Hawke communities and pushing back against government investment in our region which is not wanted, and which clearly will not benefit our communities.

The current ‘wolf at the door’, is the Western Renewables Link (WRL) and the recent action by Lily D’Ambrosio to take ownership of the project via a Ministerial Order to allow AEMO to fast track its completion ahead of the new VNI-West transmission project.

On the positive side, this finally clarifies who ‘owns’ the WRL project and should take accountability for it. It also seems to indicate the State government’s financial support for potential design changes (if allowed).

But on the other hand, this decision also appears to be directed at taking away the community’s right to challenge AEMO’s apparent errors and failure to comply with the National Electricity Law when deciding the current overhead route in the Supreme Court. These failings need to be corrected and a better design and route chosen.

Standing up to the WRL threat and defending the rights of Hawke’s communities to hold AEMO to account and change the WRL outcome will be the real test of Sam’s representation of this electorate. I’d really like to see the MNews publish more photos of him fulfilling this part of his role.

Jim Phasey
Myrniong