Victoria to NSW Interconnector West

VNI WEST INTERCONNECTOR – A CATASTROPHIC BETRAYAL OF RURAL AUSTRALIA AND OUR NATIONAL INTERESTS 🚨
Official Project: Victoria to NSW Interconnector West – Planning Portal
This is a ruthless assault on:
Our agricultural productivity,
Our precious ecosystems and biodiversity,
Our energy sovereignty and security,
Our economy, our communities – and our future.
It must be stopped – completely and permanently.
The VNI West Interconnector is not just a bad idea. It is a diabolically destructive, financially ruinous, ecologically catastrophic, and strategically negligent scheme — deceptively sold to the public under the false banner of "renewable energy transition" and "grid reliability".
Let us call it what it truly is:
A land grab. A wealth transfer. A national sabotage.
🔥 WHY THIS MUST BE REJECTED OUTRIGHT:
💰 1. ECONOMIC INSANITY
Astronomically costly – with zero economic return for host communities.
Built not for reliability, but to force through an overbuild of unreliable, weather-dependent solar/wind/BESS infrastructure.
The result? Skyrocketing power bills, crippling our manufacturing, farming, and essential services.
Funded by taxpayers and consumers, while profits are funnelled offshore to parasitic corporations and CCP-linked entities like Cheung Kong Infrastructure (via Spark Infrastructure).
🧨 2. NATIONAL SECURITY NIGHTMARE
Critical infrastructure connected to foreign, hostile state actors.
Components sourced from unethical, slave-labour-drenched supply chains.
Built by corporations with no allegiance to Australia, including Spark Infrastructure, Beon Energy, Elecnor – exploiting our grid, our land, our people.
Cyber vulnerability is baked into the model: centralised, exposed infrastructure easily sabotaged by bad actors.
🧬 3. ECOCIDAL INSANITY – PERMANENT ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE
This is not “clean energy.” It is industrialised environmental vandalism.
Enables a deluge of industrial wind, solar and BESS monstrosities across once-pristine landscapes.
Results in:
Widespread land degradation
Toxic PFAS pollution
Contaminated water tables
Bird and bat annihilation
Biodiversity collapse
Massive fire risks from battery storage systems and overheated lines.
All in direct contradiction to the Stockholm Convention, Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, WHO guidelines, and PFAS bans.
🚫 4. DESTRUCTION OF AGRICULTURE & RURAL LIVELIHOODS
Irreversible damage to high-value farming land.
Severe disruptions to livestock management, aerial spraying, vehicle movements, and farm productivity.
Biosecurity risks, EMF health concerns, and ongoing interference with farming operations.
All for infrastructure that has no local benefit and was forced through without social licence.
⚠️ 5. ENERGY INSECURITY – NOT RELIABILITY
VNI West is not about "reliability". It’s about enabling chaos.
Designed to funnel unreliable generation (solar/wind) from South Australia eastward.
Creates grid fragility, energy poverty, and an over-reliance on intermittent generation.
This infrastructure does not "store" or "stabilise" power – it amplifies volatility.
❌ 6. BASED ON DEBUNKED, DECEITFUL ISP (Integrated System Plan)
AEMO’s ISP has been widely discredited – based on flawed modelling, fabricated assumptions, and deliberate underestimation of costs.
Assumes technological miracles, while ignoring:
The collapse of wind/solar output in real-world conditions
The cost of transmission maintenance and replacement
The environmental cost of mass-scale energy sprawl
VNI West is a sunk-cost fallacy in action.
😤 7. TRANSGRID IS UTTERLY UNTRUSTWORTHY
A parasitic monopoly, abusing its power to plunder rural communities.
Refuses to pay contractors.
Operates without transparency, integrity, or accountability.
Refuses to acknowledge social or environmental damage.
Engages in deliberate greenwashing and public deception to secure approvals.
🚨 THIS PROJECT DEFILES:
The National Electricity Law Objective
Ecologically Sustainable Development principles
The Paris Agreement
The Modern Slavery Act
The Commonwealth PFAS Ban
The LPA accreditation framework
The trust and rights of every rural landowner it exploits
❗ IT OFFERS:
No meaningful jobs
No energy savings
No community benefits
No accountability
No removal of infrastructure after decommissioning
Only mass-scale, irreversible damage, and the entrenchment of an energy model that is broken from the start.
🔚 RECOMMENDATION:
This project must be abandoned in full. Not “revised.” Not “offset.” Not “mitigated.”
ABANDONED.
Let’s be clear: There is no “clean energy future” built on destruction, deception, and exploitation.
Australia deserves a sovereign, affordable, reliable energy future based on real engineering, true environmental protection, and ethical governance.
VNI WEST IS NONE OF THESE.
👉 Say NO to VNI West. Say NO to TransGrid. Say NO to the corporate sabotage of Australia’s energy, land, economy, and national security.

Multiple transmission projects (VNI West, EnergyConnect, Western Renewables Link) concentrate infrastructure in rural zones, magnifying disruption, noise, and environmental scars. Not enough integrated planning is evident.

Investing billions in infrastructure that relies on renewables, whose output fluctuates with weather, does not guarantee stable power supply on overcast or windless days.

I am sure others will argue that this proposal is not required and I would agree, however should this project be approved it requires the condition that the cabling should go underground. There are many good reasons why undergrounding should be used and one in particular is the comparison between what is proposed and undergounding. Above ground installation requires significant earth works to construct a road and the massive excavation of earth for the footings of the towers. Surely the trenching for undergrounding would not be as destructive as the above ground tower footings. The bonus of undergrounding has less visual impact and reduced fire risk

The REZ inquiry indicates mental health impacts and social cohesion erosion due to poorly managed consultation and undermined trust. VNI West exacerbates community distress without proper support frameworks.

Clearing land for transmission lines fragments ecosystems, threatens fauna, and reduces biodiversity. The EIS’s environmental mitigation appears insufficient for cumulative ecological damage.

The NSW REZ alone will cost NSW customers over $5.5 billion, with transmission charges likely passed on . VNI West’s additional cost burden makes electricity less affordable for households.

I object to VNI West (NSW) on a core procedural flaw in cost disclosure and on material environmental, agricultural, social/visual and cumulative impacts. The Application Form publicly listed an Estimated Development Cost (EDC) of $17,000,000. The proponent’s letter of 4 Aug 2025 corrects this to $3.75b. The Application Form also names “VNI West Estimated Development Cost Report – Final 21072025,” but that EDC report is not exhibited in the public Application or EIS folders. SEARs required disclosure of the EDC using the Standard Form. This defect misled the public during exhibition and prejudices assessment. I request the Department publish the EDC report and re-exhibit; re-test all economic claims against $3.75b; and require route-level avoidance/partial undergrounding for biodiversity and visual hotspots. If compliance cannot be demonstrated, the project should be refused.

Delays and cost blowouts are exacerbated by supply chain constraints and workforce shortages. Such pressures suggest construction is premature and risky without stable supply and labor commitments.

With compulsory easements possible under the Electricity Industry Act, landowners risk being forced into dispossession without proper compensation or consent . This coercive tactic is unjust and ignores rights.

Project completion is now pushed to late 2030, two years later than initially planned . With coal plant closures like Yallourn scheduled by 2028, this delay risks an energy shortfall in the transition period.

I strongly object to the VNI West Interconnector project due to its unacceptable impact on endangered native flora. The transmission line corridor and substation clearings will destroy large swathes of native vegetation, including species already listed as endangered under the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 and the Commonwealth EPBC Act 1999.
Particularly at risk are vulnerable woodland ecosystems, such as Grey Box Grassy Woodlands and Buloke Woodlands, which are already heavily fragmented and in decline. Once cleared or disturbed, these ecosystems are extremely difficult—if not impossible—to restore. The Environmental Impact Statement grossly underestimates the time it takes for woodland flora to regenerate and ignores the specific needs of slow-growing native plants, some of which have lifespans exceeding 100 years.
This destruction is irreversible in ecological timescales. Allowing this level of degradation in already fragile ecosystems is both irresponsible and contradictory to NSW and Commonwealth biodiversity goals. There is a legal and moral obligation to avoid and not merely offset damage to endangered flora. The assessment should trigger a more rigorous EPBC referral and a re-evaluation of whether this route is appropriate at all.

The AER’s dismissal of dispute grounds, that route and options assessment were flawed, doesn’t resolve governance failures. Transparency remains poor, with limited willingness to adapt to public feedback .

I object to VNI West due to its likely harm to critically endangered fauna, including habitat loss, fragmentation, and disruption of breeding grounds. The project threatens species such as:

Plains-wanderer (Pedionomus torquatus) – critically endangered and endemic to native grasslands.
Regent Honeyeater (Anthochaera phrygia) – known to nest in remnant woodlands affected by this route.
Swift Parrot (Lathamus discolor) – migrates through NSW and relies on hollow-bearing trees for nesting.
Growling Grass Frog (Litoria raniformis) – highly sensitive to habitat fragmentation and waterway pollution.

These species cannot survive further loss of the already minimal habitat remaining across central-west NSW. Substations, easement clearings, and access roads will cause direct habitat loss, increased predation risk, and vehicle strike danger, while construction noise and vibration will disrupt breeding cycles.
The project’s biodiversity offset strategy is vague and untested at scale. There is no guarantee offsets will be successful, especially for species that require specific microhabitats, hollow trees, or contiguous corridors.
The precautionary principle under environmental law should apply: where the potential for serious or irreversible harm exists, lack of full scientific certainty is not a reason for proceeding. This project should be rejected on biodiversity grounds alone.

The AER noted that the RIT‑T process failed to fully assess credible route and alignment options . That indicates planning was skewed toward a predetermined outcome rather than exploring less intrusive, more efficient alternatives.

Regional areas are bush fire prone, history shows that transmission lines have been the cause of many bushfires that have resulted in many deaths. Transmission lines are a hazard to aerial fire fighting, transmission towers are a hazard to aerial fire fighting. Wind turbines and met masts are aerial hazards, wind turbines generators have started fires, BESS are at risk of thermal runaway, industrial solar has started fires.

Why are we building incendiary projects in a bush fire prone landscape while simultaneously reducing our ability to manage bush fires?

Expansion of VNI West and associated REZ developments threaten agricultural productivity and food supply. With over a dozen projects in central-western regions, cumulative impacts remain inadequately assessed .