Victoria’s Liberal National Party opposition has become the latest branch of the Coalition to nail its colours to the mast on renewables, with a promise to reintroduce controversial and potentially crippling wind farm development restrictions not seen since the former Baillieu government.
As Peter Dutton takes the federal opposition on a nuclear power odyssey that experts say would drive up power bills and put Australia even further off course on climate, state and territory Coalition governments are being watched closely for their responses.
Most have distanced themselves from Dutton’s nuclear plans, if not ruling them out entirely, but some appear all too happy to toe the federal party line on the need to prop up “baseload” coal and rein in the shift to renewables.
In a “renewables plan” released on Wednesday – more than two years out from the next state election – the leader of the Victorian Liberal Party, John Pesutto, pledged to institute a default 2km buffer zone around proposed wind turbines to minimise their impact on homes and communities.
The 2km rule picks up where the former Coalition Victorian government left off more than a decade ago, when it was introduced by then premier Ted Baillieu alongside no-go zones that banned the development of wind farms in some of the windiest parts of the state – bans that are still in place today.
Baillieu’s restrictions – alongside the Abbott government’s attack on the national Renewable Energy Target – were disastrous for wind development in Victoria, costing the state an estimated nearly $900 million in lost or stalled investment and bringing new wind farm proposals to a halt.
Pesutto’s renewables policy preview also promises to ensure new transmission projects “adhere to strict setback requirements” and – along with solar and wind farms – face a rigorous and independent planning panel assessment.
Pesutto says the LNP government, if elected in November 2026 – would also scrap elements of the Victorian Labor government’s Development Facilitation Program (DFP) for renewables, reinstating the right for people to challenge planning decisions in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
“We support the transition away from coal however this must occur in close consultation with regional communities,” Pesutto says
“A Pesutto Liberals and Nationals government will reinstate the third-party appeal rights that Labor has stripped from regional communities because it is unfair and anti-democratic to deny those who are directly affected by these major projects from having a say.”
But the Clean Energy Council says the LNP’s suggestion that renewable energy projects are not required to undergo thorough and rigorous assessment under current planning rules “is just wrong.”
“As part of existing assessment processes for renewables projects in Victoria, project proponents need to provide detailed studies on managing environmental impacts, visual and noise impacts, transport considerations and a wide range of other issues,” CEC policy director of energy generation and storage, Nicholas Aberle, said on Wednesday.
“Additionally, projects already need to comply with a long list of planning requirements and overlays.”
Further, Aberle says the reintroduction of the “blunt tool” 2km rule threatens to once again render wind energy out-of-bounds in Victoria, which would have serious consequences for the state’s electricity supply and climate targets.
“At a time when we need to be building large-scale renewables as fast as possible to keep the lights on and to deal with climate change, anything that adds to the difficulty of getting projects developed needs to be examined very carefully,” Aberle said on LinkedIn.
The bizarrely timed energy policy pitch from the Victorian LNP comes as the Queensland LNP pledges support for renewables, sort of, in the lead up to that state’s election, while also promising to keep the state’s troubled Callide coal plant burning past its use-by date.
“It would be absurd to close down baseload power at a time when Queenslanders are struggling to eat,” Queensland opposition leader David Crisafulli said last week.
“But we do have a vision to make sure that there’s a renewable future, and that’s why I’ve spoken about the need to have a long term plan, and we intend to deliver that.”
As the Queensland Conservation Council points out, this approach – of putting the breaks on renewables and then declaring the need to prop up coal because there isn’t enough renewable energy capacity to replace it – is “all over the shop.”
“If David Crisafulli becomes Premier, he will have the power to ensure renewables are built in time to close coal fired power stations. [His] statement indicates that he intends to fail at this responsibility,” QCC director Dave Copeman said on Thursday.
“You can’t reach 75% emissions reductions by 2035 without closing coal-fired power stations. If the LNP is serious about keeping coal open indefinitely, they can’t be serious about taking action on climate change and reducing power bills for Queenslanders.
“The LNP is all over the shop on energy and climate – one day they say they want to cut emissions by 75%, the next they say they’ll keep coal open indefinitely.
“The only thing that needlessly delaying coal past its used-by-date achieves is hurting new renewable energy investment and making Queenslanders pay to keep ageing technology chugging along.”
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