Jacinta Allan’s net zero agenda is unconscionable, draconian, violates the rule of law, as well as the rights of farming families to defend their private property and their own homes, according to Mia Schlicht, Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs.
The IPA released new analysis of the Victorian state government’s National Electricity (Victoria) Amendment (VicGrid Stage 2 Reform) Bill 2025, due to be debated in parliament this week. The analysis reveals;
- The Allan government’s proposed powers are more invasive and confer greater powers than any other state.
- The bill confers unprecedented powers on a new class of unaccountable and faceless officers to invade private land by force.
- The bill violates rights to property and privacy recognised in the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities.
- The bill facilitates the destruction of agricultural land that will undermine Victorian food security and exporters.
“Victoria’s farming families are being steamrolled by bureaucrats to satisfy the net zero ambitions of inner-city elites who will never see a transmission tower built in their own backyard,” Ms Schlicht said.
The bill will allow government-appointed “authorised officers” to enter private land, using force, without the landholder’s consent, to construct transmission infrastructure deemed necessary by the Victorian government to meet its economy destroying net zero targets.
“The proposal is a blatant attempt by the state government to grant itself extraordinary powers that exceed those of any other state. This is what the government resorts to in Victoria when it can’t get its way,” Ms Schlicht said.
“This is a demolition of regional communities. What’s being torn down is not just our energy system, but the very communities that feed and power this nation,” said Ms Schlicht.
Contrary to claims that renewable energy infrastructure can coexist harmoniously with farming, the reality is that industrial-scale wind and solar facilities destroy productive land that all Victorians depend upon for food security and for supporting our national export market.
“The Victorian government’s own, now-deleted, 2022 policy paper acknowledged the potential need to convert up to 70 per cent of Victoria’s agricultural land to renewable energy sites,” Ms Schlicht said.
“This figure underscores the risks posed to both regional communities and Victoria’s broader economic and environmental resilience.”
Recent IPA analysis revealed that the Australian Energy Regulator’s default market offer has risen by as much as 50 per cent for energy customers in parts of the nation since 2022.
“As usual, it will not be the wealthy, inner-city elites who face their livelihoods being destroyed in the name of net zero; rather it is families and small businesses in the outer-suburbs and regions who pay the price.”
To download the IPA’s research click here.
-Institute of Public Affairs