15/09/2026
Victorian Government announces a review of VNI West transmission line project amid cost blow-outs of more than 300% in 7 years since 2019 and a Victorian tax payer bill of 1.53 billion dollars. Farming advocates say a review is not a cancellation and the project should be scrapped.
🚨 BREAKING: Shameless Carroll pauses forced acquisitions from the Western Renewables Link transmission line
Stand with the farmers who's farms are on the line 👉 farmersfightback.com/petition
Ten weeks out from an election, Premier Carroll has suddenly discovered a conscience. 😤
Yesterday he ordered a review into the Western Renewables Link transmission line and announced no farm will be compulsorily acquired while it runs. 🚜
Farmers have been fighting this for years. Years of sleepless nights. Years of officers at the gate. Years of being told it was locked in, signed off, done, and there was nothing they could do about it. 💔
Nothing changed on those farms this week. The only thing that changed is the calendar. 🗳️
And look at what he's just admitted. $479 million in 2019. $1.53 BILLION now. More than triple. 💸
Don't believe that number either. It is a very lowball estimate and it will end up a lot more than that. Steel, labour, easements, land, litigation, none of it is getting cheaper. This project has already tripled once and it will blow out again. Just another one of this government's Big Build projects, running years late and billions over, with the bill sent straight to you. 📈
And for what? This line was planned almost a decade ago. It is completely unnecessary. It never needed to be built. 190km of transmission towers driven through productive farmland to prop up a plan that has already failed its own budget. ❌
He says he respects the public's money. Farmers say he got caught. 🔥
This is the same government that wrote the compulsory acquisition powers. The same government that wrote the fines for farmers who shut their own gate. The same government that took away the right to appeal at VCAT. They built every weapon being used against country Victoria, and now they want a pat on the back for holstering one of them for eleven weeks. ⚖️
Because that's all this is. The review reports at the end of the year. The election is before that. A pause is not a promise. The day after the votes are counted, the surveyors are back down the driveway and the notices start again. 🚧
So let's be clear about what farmers actually want.
Cancel it. Not a review. Not a pause. Not a rethink. Cancel the Western Renewables Link outright. 🚫
No more acquisitions. No more fines. No more towers on productive farmland.
Sign and stand with them. 👇
👉 farmersfightback.com/petition
