{"id":76842,"date":"2026-08-20T23:36:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T23:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/76842\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T23:36:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T23:36:37","slug":"victorian-coalition-promises-to-scrap-vni-west-transmission-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/76842\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian Coalition promises to scrap VNI West transmission project"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Victorian Coalition has promised to scrap Labor’s controversial VNI West transmission project, 100 days out from the state election in November.<\/p>\n

The Liberal and National parties previously committed to pausing and reviewing<\/a> VNI West after strong opposition from farmers in its path.<\/p>\n

Nationals deputy leader Emma Kealy said the Coalition’s decision to dump the project made it clear where the parties stand.<\/p>\n

“As far as the Nationals and Liberals are concerned, VNI West is dead, buried and cremated,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve gone back and had a look at all of the data that surrounds VNI West and it’s really clear that the project isn’t going to ever stack up.”<\/p>\n

\"Old<\/p>\n

Anger is palpable among farmers in the path of VNI West. (ABC Rural: Warwick Long)<\/p>\n

The proposed transmission line connecting Victoria to the New South Wales grid is estimated to cost between $7.6 billion and $11.4 billion.<\/a><\/p>\n

It is part of Labor’s plan to support renewable energy generation and maintain power reliability.<\/p>\n

There is strong and widespread opposition in Victoria’s west, particularly among farmers whose land<\/a> is along the planned route.<\/p>\n

The Coalition said it would explore alternative options to keep power generation and prices sustainable.<\/p>\n

“We’re looking at unlocking our gas reserves, we’re looking at extending coal to its technical end of life,” Ms Kealy said.<\/p>\n

“[We will] make sure we’re looking at those renewable projects like the solar parks in Melbourne and other metropolitan areas \u2026 [to] capture the energy near to where it’s going to be consumed.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Emma Kealy says the Nationals will fight the project.\u00a0 (Supplied: Emma Kealy)<\/p>\n

In a statement, Energy and Resources Minister Jaclyn Symes said the Coalition’s pledge to scrap the project was irresponsible.<\/p>\n

“Jess Wilson’s One Nation-Coalition’s reckless decision will destroy electricity reliability across Victoria, guaranteeing blackouts and pushing up power bills,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Only Labor will build the critical renewable energy infrastructure, including VNI West, needed to deliver cheap power and keep the lights on as our aging coal-fired generators retire.”<\/p>\n

Ms Symes also questioned whether the Coalition would reintroduce fracking.<\/p>\n

“There is no restriction on bringing online new gas supply through conventional means in Victoria,” Ms Symes said.<\/p>\n

“Is Jess Wilson promising to overturn the ban on fracking in Victoria?”\"Jaclyn<\/p>\n

Jaclyn Symes has questioned whether the Coalition will reintroduce fracking. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The Victorian Farmers Federation has welcomed the Coalition’s commitment.<\/p>\n

“VNI West has long been a failed project that is tearing apart generational farming families and would rip up some of the best farmland in the country,” president Ryan Milgate said.<\/p>\n

“You cannot put a dollar figure on the loss of irreplaceable, highly productive farming land or the damage caused when you carve a massive transmission project through established farming operations.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ryan Milgate has welcomed the Coalition’s promise to scrap VNI West. (ABC News: Sean Warren)<\/p>\n

While farmers are cheering the Coalition’s move, renewable energy and environment groups have slammed it.<\/p>\n

Clean Energy Council chief executive Jackie Trad said VNI West was critical to energy security and the replacement of aging coal.<\/p>\n

“Cancelling VNI West does not make that closure [of Yallourn] go away. It just decreases the amount of electricity Victorians have access to, inevitably pushing up prices and electricity bills,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The Coalition says gas will fill the gap, but Victorians deserve to know where that gas is actually going to come from.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Transmission tower and lines on farmland. (Supplied: VicGrid)<\/p>\n

Environment Victoria’s climate campaign manager Joy Toose said the Coalition’s plan would expose Victorians to higher power prices and less reliable electricity.<\/p>\n

“Renewables and the transmission that carries them are the only thing actually bringing bills down,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Cancelling that to burn more gas is a plan for higher bills and blackouts, dressed up as the opposite.”<\/p>\n

The Coalition has also committed to reviewing and potentially scrapping the Western Renewables Link project, which is further along in the planning process than VNI West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Victorian Coalition has promised to scrap Labor’s controversial VNI West transmission project, 100 days out from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,9855,3683,3426,7875,10123,321,18705,1623],"class_list":["post-76842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-clean-energy","tag-environment","tag-farmers","tag-renewable-energy","tag-rural","tag-state-election","tag-transmission-lines","tag-vni-west"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}