Students pen powerful letter

By Lachlan Ellis

A local primary school has seen their Grade 5 and 6 students write a strongly worded letter to powerline planners AusNet, calling for the controversial Western Renewables Link to go underground.

The passionate plea to put the powerlines underground was written as a joint effort by all Grade 5 and 6 pupils at Coimadai Primary School, as part of the school’s ongoing efforts to have students’ voices heard.

The letter was originally intended to be presented by the school captain at the community information dinner in Bacchus Marsh on Monday 30 August, but was presented by Principal Moira Ross instead, as the school captain was unwell.

In the letter, which is just over 500 words, Coimadai Primary students ask why AusNet “wasted thousands of dollars” on advertising the series of community discussion dinners, and accused AusNet of having “no intention to listen to and respect the community’s voice seriously, because if you did more people would be allowed to attend your meetings”.

“All the money you have wasted on printing cards, advertising in the newspapers and holding what we believe is ‘waste of time dinner for 20 people’, could have been put to better use. This money could have been used to help pay for the transmission lines underground as this is what the community desires,” the Coimadai Primary students wrote.

“AusNet can try very hard but you will not be successful in trying to get local community people on your side and agreeing to the construction of the appalling high voltage transmission towers.

“We are sick and tired of having our views and opinions swept under the rug. We may be young in age, but we are the future generations fighting for what we believe in. We will not go away. Our school has been here for 160 years and as a school community group we know what is best for our local community. We will not stop trying to have our voice heard,” the letter read.

Principal Moira Ross said the school community were proud of the students for speaking up about an issue that mattered to them.

“We’ve been writing to numerous people, Premier Dan Andrews, Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, everyone that’s involved, so this is the latest letter of many. Previously, two letters have been read out to State Parliament by Bev McArthur MP. The students are really good at writing letters,” Ms Ross told the Moorabool News.

“We like to have a student voice and student agency, so that students can see that they can make a difference. And parents are very supportive, they’ve been supportive of the students speaking out against all kinds of issues that affect the community, including the toxic soil as well.”

The school sits just a few kilometres north of the current proposed powerline route, which AusNet recently moved further north at Coimadai “to avoid the high-quality native vegetation and threatened species south of Diggers Rest–Coimadai Road and impacts to Long Forest and its significant ecological values”.

AUSNET RESPONDS

Executive Project Sponsor for the Western Renewables Link, Jeff Rigby, said AusNet welcomed the engagement from Coimadai Primary students, and would host more sessions in the future.

“We thank the school community at Coimadai Primary School for sharing their letter with us, and voicing their concerns. We’ve committed to responding personally to their letter and have offered to visit the school to speak directly with them,” Mr Rigby told the Moorabool News.

“The dinner discussions are just one of the ways people can engage with us about the project. We will have more webinars and drop-in sessions coming up or people can speak with us individually or online.

“The Bacchus Marsh session had 16 people attend. Had this particular session booked out, we would have arranged further sessions to accommodate anyone who wanted to attend, which is what we have done in Melton.”