VFF president Brett Hosking said the decision would weigh heavily on Victoria’s farming communities.
“The Victorian Farmers Federation is gutted that parliament has backed laws allowing farmers’ land to be taken for transmission lines before the environmental assessment is even finished,” Mr Hosking said.
“This will pour fuel on the anxiety and uncertainty already gripping communities at the heart of the energy transition.
“Families now face the shadow of compulsory acquisition hanging over them while they are still trying to understand what a project means for their homes and livelihoods.
“It tells us that those in charge don’t genuinely understand the sentiment on the ground.
“Our message to the parliament is simple: you assess the environmental impact first and do it by the book before you do anything else.”
A spokesperson for the government told Country News that the government’s reforms would strengthen the state’s power grid and lower energy prices.
“The faster we can build new transmission lines, the faster we can connect renewable energy to the grid and the cheaper our energy prices will be,” the spokesperson said.
The Country News has been told that the government’s reforms do not impact the Environment Effects Statement procedure, but allow for other processes such as biodiversity and heritage surveys to progress at the same time.
The Country News has been told that any requirements identified by the Environmental Effects Statement process will still need to be met before major works can begin.
Nationals leader Danny O’Brien said that the opposition would repeal the legislation if elected in November.
“We opposed this legislation in the parliament strongly, and we will repeal it if elected to government,” he said.
“These amendments are a slap in the face to regional people and cannot be tolerated.”
