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🇦🇺 Australia /Energy & Infrastructure

Landholders say renewable energy zone is void because mandatory report was missing

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Documents & data In the courts
  • Three landholders are seeking judicial review of the New England Renewable Energy Zone, arguing that the former NSW government failed to consider a mandatory report on electricity costs.
  • The plaintiffs say the zone’s declaration could be void or voidable because the report may not have existed when the energy minister approved the zone.
  • The case is due to be heard in the NSW Supreme Court later this month, while the NSW government has been asked for comment.

Three landholders are asking the NSW Supreme Court to overturn the declaration of the New England Renewable Energy Zone, arguing that a mandatory report on electricity costs was never produced.

The judicial review application concerns a report that the secretary of the NSW Environment Department was required to prepare on the zone’s potential effects on electricity costs for NSW customers. Under the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Act, the energy minister had to consider the secretary’s report before declaring the zone.

According to an affidavit filed by the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Mark Grady, another landholder sought information about the report through a government access request in February. On March 23, the government said the report “was not created for the New England Renewable Energy Zone” and that the department held no records relating to it.

With this fatal foundation, everyone is going to bear the costs, because they never sought to see how big this project was going to get.

· Anna YoungThe Walcha grazier’s criticism of the process behind the renewable energy zone.

The affidavit says that if the report did not exist when the zone was declared, the minister could not have complied with the statutory requirement. The plaintiffs therefore argue that the order establishing the zone is “void or voidable.” The NSW government has been contacted for comment.

The landholders describe themselves as people aggrieved by the zone’s establishment. They say a proposed transmission line would cross all three properties, potentially leading to compulsory acquisition of land, a fall in the value of the remaining land, visual impacts and economic loss caused by dividing the properties. The first plaintiff is GC Pastoral Pty Ltd, owned by Walcha grazier Anna Young. Young, Libby Crouch and Lucy Haigh oppose EnergyCo’s revised transmission-line corridor. Young told ABC radio that “the foundations of this whole New England REZ are unstable.” The case will first be heard in the NSW Supreme Court later this month.

The foundations of this whole New England REZ are unstable.

· Anna YoungHer assessment of the legal and administrative basis of the zone.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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