Victoria to NSW Interconnector West

VNI WEST IS A CONDUIT FOR TOXIC ENERGY POVERTY!
Rather than alleviating energy bills, VNI West will increase energy poverty—especially in rural and low-income households—by pushing expensive, subsidised, weather dependent, intermittent electricity with volatile pricing.

Coal is essential as it is far more stable, affordable, and dependable than China’s pathetic, fake green, energy depriving solar/wind junk and needs none of TransGrid’s unnecessary interconnector scams.

All of greedy TransGrid’s rip-off plans are anti Australian and would cause severe hardship and austerity - especially cruel for the poor, vulnerable people.

Like rotten TransGrid’s other torturous Interconnector SWINDLES - VNI-West is a Trojan Horse for more energy deprivation and ecocide!

The VNI West disaster would cause vast, ecological destruction as well as enabling poisonous solar/wind industrialisation—resulting in the irreversible destruction of native grasslands, endangered habitats, bird migration corridors, essential food growing land and groundwater recharge zones.
This is deliberate ecocide, nothing to do with genuinely clean, sustainable energy.

We already hate crooked TransGrid’s sabotaging Project Energy Connect disaster in the Riverina and definitely don’t want or need this damaging VNI West Interconnector or anymore of this totally illogical, bankruptingly costly, CCP sabotaging RenewaBULL takeover of our Electricity Grid.

NO VNI West - NO Energy Connect - NO HumeLink -
GO COAL, GO GAS, GO NUCLEAR instead.

Farmers will suffer great loss of productivity, biosecurity threats, GPS interference, and disruption of livestock and cropping operations from TransGrid’s careless, self serving plans.

This isn't progress—it's economic vandalism imposed on the very people who feed the nation, just to line the pockets of vested interests, global elites & off-shore energy developers.

TransGrid’s CONtrolling VNI West is AGAINST OUR WILL - WITH NO CONSENT - NO SOCIAL LICENCE.

to object to this Project on the following grounds:-

1. Transgrid is a foreign company and the cost of the project and any profits will not be kept in Australia. As taxpayers the Australian people are entitled to keep our sovereign wealth. I understand that this project has now doubled in cost and has not even started. Who will be left to pay for the rectification of all the damage that this project will cause and who will be left to pay for the removal of this line or will it be an environmental eyesore for our future generations.

2. The proposed corridor takes the line in a westerly arc and nearly doubles the cost. The corridor should be kept close to the existing line to keep the costs at a minimum and the environmental damage to a minimum.

3. I am very familiar with the land around Moulamein and this is an extremely fragile environment. The Hay and Chenopod Plains have unique vegetation which will be difficult to rehabilitate due to the extreme climate of this area. The effect on the land of putting the corridor through will be scarring and create loss of habitat for many birds and Australian flora and fauna. Building roads and building 90 metre tall towers with large concrete platforms will permanently damage this fragile environment.

4. The area around Moulamein is home to the endangered Plains Wanderer, as seen on an episode of ABC “LandLine”. This is a critically endangered bird and its habitat should not be disturbed.

5. The Australasian Bittern will also be endangered with the ongoing disturbance of the environment.

6. The height of the towers will create visual pollution especially on the Hay and Chenopod Plains.

7. The electricity line and towers will pose a fire danger through lightening strikes which will also cause extreme environmental damage.

8. I understand that Transgrid is not listening to the concerns of the property owners who know and understand this fragile environment.

The whole premise of this project is based off the building of the VNI West project in Victoria.
This project is facing widespread and organised rejection from the communities along the proposed path. Local councils such as the Northern Grampians and Buloke have rejected the proposal in its current form.
VicGrid legislation has not been passed in the Victorian parliament as yet and the access powers described in the Bill may not be adopted.
The cost blowouts in VNI West and like projects in NSW clearly fails the public benefit test. The fact is that AEMO is seeking to push these transmission projects forward whilst avoiding the safeguard mechanisms that protect consumer interests is a scandal and a betrayal of good governance.
The connector to Dinawan is not secure because the Victorian section is not secure as an actionable project.
Communities along the path have agreed to an undertaking not to allow any access to their land for the purposes of advancing the project. This effectively locks off 140km of the VNI West path from Bulgana.
The community will not be threatened by coercive legislative powers intended for VicGrid or any company they seek to represent.
You are blocked in Victoria and therefore this NSW section is redundant and misuse of planning and public monies.

I object to the transmission lines being located on public road corridors. The transmission lines should be located on private property, preferably on land already hosting government or corporate infrastructure, in order to preserve the biodiversity of our local roadside corridors.
Bushfire mitigation - The construction area is highly susceptible to multiple fast evolving grassfires ignited by lightning through the summer months. It is incumbent on Transgrid and its contractors to exercise high levels of situational awareness when working out in the field in higher risk conditions. Water and pump resources such as tanks & pumps on utes should be on scene at all times with personnel trained in their use. Grassfires ignited by lightning can develop extremely quickly in the area, and workers operating in isolated locations out in the middle of paddocks are highly exposed, and need to be very aware of their surroundings and environment.

TransGrid’s illogical Interconnector plague - including this unwanted, fiercely objected to and not needed VNI West plan - greatly increases life-threatening Fire Risks.

VNI West will dramatically increase catastrophic fire risk across agricultural regions where objecting volunteers refuse to fight them.

Transmission towers are highly flammable ignition points during storms.
Combined with BESS BOMBS and degrading ruin-a-bull solar/wind infrastructure strewn everywhere, this becomes a fire disaster zone, threatening lives, farms, and emergency services.

TransGrid are already causing permanent PFAS contamination with their irresponsible and completely unnecessary implementation of the CCP’s EVIL, CONTROLLING and SUPPLANTING GLOBAL ELECTRIFICATION - ASEAN POWER GRID AGENDA.

Construction and operation of VNI West infrastructure and all the POISONOUS RUIN-A-BULLS it enables will involve PFAS-contaminating infrastructure - including condensors, inverters, battery chemicals, PFOS coated solar, Bisphenol A shedding turbines and other pollutants—risking irreversible, poisonous land and water contamination, wrecking limited, irreplaceable, food producing land forever, violating the Stockholm Convention, undermining Australian Drinking Water Guidelines and defying the Commonwealth PFAS Ban.

TransGrid already has a very bad, untrustworthy reputation of carelessly causing Public Health & Safety disasters with their previous use of lead based asbestos paint killing Riverina livestock and putting human lives at risk.

When it comes to the RUIN-A-BULL SWINDLE - TransGrid are disgracefully being given free rein by the dodgy Regulator to be a Law Unto Themselves!

Who is properly, independently testing all of TransGrid’s destructive plans and dodgy components now because ALL HONEST, INDEPENDENT EXPERTS ARE TOTALLY CONDEMNING TRANSGRID’S DIABOLICAL, BANKRUPTINGLY COSTLY, VANDALISING INTERCONNECTOR PLANS!?

I object to this unconscionable waste of our money by unethical bully TransGrid and its partners (e.g., BEON Energy, Spark Infrastructure, Elecnor) who are ripping off the public so cruelly and sourcing unethically manufactured components - with spyware inserted - built with slave labour in Chinese and other exploitative supply chains—violating the Modern Slavery Act and betraying all ethical sourcing commitments and our nations critical infrastructure security.

VNI West is a cybersecurity and national security disaster, opening the grid to vulnerabilities through hardware and components sourced from Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked supply chains.
This increases our exposure to cyberattacks and foreign control over essential infrastructure.

Stop this TransGrid parasite’s out of control takeover!
Far superior Australia Coal and Nuclear power is essential - NO Ruinous Energy Poverty Interconnector Nightmare needed!

This project is based on AEMO’s 2024 Integrated System Plan (ISP)—a fudged, debunked, and biased document riddled with conflicts of interest and unrealistic modelling.

ISP assumptions rely on wishful thinking, not reality—pushing a renewables-only ideology at the cost of truth and science.

Australia needs reliable, affordable, secure, Australian Coal power & a future Nuclear Power industry to provide essential synchronous inertia and Grid security.

VNI WEST plan is electrical engineering malpractice, scientifically baseless & unethically compromised with no integrity.

VNI West is an illogical experiment, not grounded in any sound electrical engineering principles.
There is no credible evidence it improves grid stability.
Instead, it introduces fragility, transmission losses, and interstate dependency, reducing the grid’s resilience to blackouts.

The VNI West interconnector is an economic catastrophe waiting to happen—locking Australians into ever-escalating electricity costs driven by intermittent, part-time generation from solar and wind that will never ever be cheap, reliable, affordable or secure.

Far from delivering “affordable” power, it ensures market-manipulated energy pricing, reliant on costly Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) that are neither scalable nor financially viable.

STOP this economic black hole masquerading as energy infrastructure!

This VNI West project is being force-fed to communities with no social licence, consultation, or respect.

TransGrid are despicable parasites - unjustly mistreating rural communities, intimidating their victims with bullying tactics, plundering through the countryside - solely for their own gain.

Landowners are coerced, gaslit, and steamrolled with threats of compulsory acquisition.
There is no democratic mandate—just a top-down corporate imposition for profit.

An immediate Moratorium & Royal Commission is essential.

Totally Unnecessary, VNI West Disaster is an Unjust, Catastrophic Land Grab for Junk Power Infrastructure Totally Reliant on our Most Hostlie Enemy - China.

This project is a massive land expropriation scam—permanently removing thousands of hectares of agricultural land from productive use, slashing food security, and slamming rural livelihoods.

TransGrid's parasitic agenda is designed as a massive land grab - enabling the industrialisation of pristine rural areas, covering them in toxic solar/wind waste and high-voltage blight.

📄 Submission – Objection to the VNI West Interconnector (NSW Section)

To the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure,

We wish to lodge our strong objection to the proposed NSW component of the Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector West (VNI West) project.

We are landowners and farmers within a Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) in NSW, and we have experienced firsthand the emotional, physical, and financial impacts that large-scale energy infrastructure projects are having on regional communities. These projects are not just about electricity — they affect people’s land, mental health, livelihoods, and sense of agency.

While we support the transition to renewable energy, we do not believe that the VNI West project, as currently proposed, is justified or responsible. Our key concerns are outlined below:

1. Impact on Landholders and Agriculture

The proposed transmission route risks dissecting productive farmland and privately managed landscapes, imposing long-term disruption, reduced land value, and daily stress on landholders. Many people are being forced into easements with little or no choice. This is not fair, nor sustainable. Communities should not be made to shoulder the burden for infrastructure that offers them no direct benefit.

2. Failure to Properly Consider Alternatives

The project appears locked into outdated models of centralised energy delivery. Emerging alternatives — such as distributed generation, community-scale storage, and demand-side management — could provide the same or better outcomes with far less environmental and social cost. Underground transmission and co-location with existing infrastructure have also been dismissed too easily.

3. Economic and Strategic Uncertainty

There is growing doubt about the long-term viability and value of VNI West. As renewable technology evolves rapidly, investing billions into long-distance transmission may prove unnecessary. Public funds and policy attention would be better directed toward more flexible, modern, and decentralised energy solutions.

4. Environmental Impact

The NSW section of this project would damage native vegetation, wildlife habitats, and landscapes that cannot be replaced. Once cleared, these ecosystems are lost forever. The project’s environmental footprint has been downplayed, and cumulative impacts are not being fully assessed.

5. Cultural Heritage Risk

There is real concern that Aboriginal cultural heritage sites may be harmed or destroyed during the construction of this line. We strongly believe that full, free, and informed consent from Traditional Owners must be obtained before any works are approved.

6. Inadequate and Superficial Consultation

Consultation so far has felt rushed and one-directional. Communities have been informed — not meaningfully engaged. Landowners report a lack of transparency, clarity, and responsiveness from authorities and project partners. A project of this scale demands genuine dialogue and consent, not just notification.

Conclusion

We urge the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure to:

Pause progression of the NSW section of VNI West

Conduct a full and independent review of its necessity, impacts, and alternatives

Engage properly with communities, landowners, and Traditional Owners

Explore smarter, less damaging alternatives

This project risks repeating the same mistakes being made elsewhere across regional NSW — forcing hardship on rural communities in the name of progress.

Please record our objection as part of the official planning process.

What is to become of the VNI West line in NSW if Victorian opposition persists and is delayed in the short term or scrapped altogether? Why was Dinawan substation built outside REZ and on Eastern boundary, where access would be problematic to those proponents out west? Why would a future substation (VNI West) not be built in a more central location in SWREZ which it could attract developments from western areas?
Who is responsible for road maintenance especially during construction?? Our unsealed roads are almost impassable with the huge added volume of traffic and nothing is being done to maintain them. Construction team traffic are using and degrading other roads outside their boundary as other roads deteriorate. The local Shire does not have the capacity to restore the roads.

My objection is that this Project is not required, it is a disaster on farmers who do not need a great big powerline crossing their properties , anyone with a grasp on how Rice and Irrigated Grain properties should know that a huge part of a farmers programme is Aircraft sowing of Rice, then pest and weed control and application of fertiliser also. Very dangerous days work for the Pilots that have to dodge this hideous powerline.
I also object to having to see 90 meter high towers all over the place, the environmental damage to the landscape and also to the First Nations heritage that will undoubtedly disturbed . This project will only mean one thing, disaster and who will pay for it? Every household , business and farmer that uses electricity, not only this generation but all that come in the future. This is a politically motivated situation that we do not need.
This project should be stopped Immediately!

The EIS is NOT correct.
Major impacts have not been included.
Critically endangered species and their habitat has been ignored and left out of the EIS.
Major Wetlands and creeks are not identified on the maps.
Farm infrastructure and critical land use has also been ignored.
This appears to be a very poorly rushed Environmental impact statement that has mainly done via a desktop and not on the ground or with consultation from landholders and impacted communities.
STOP this project now and do it properly with consultation and transparency.

Please see attached file.