No trust without track: Energy transition failing accountability test in rural Australia

The energy transition is real. But trust isn’t. At least not in the places being asked to host its infrastructure.

Across the Wimmera Southern Mallee, and in rural regions around the country, the energy buildout is being mapped on kitchen tables, rolled out in paddocks, and felt in rising insurance premiums, livability pressures and local frustration.

Communities have heard it all before. That the benefits will flow. That we’ll be part of it. That it’s suitable for the region. But when there’s no way to track what was said, or who’s responsible for delivering it, trust falls apart before the first pole is even in the ground.

This isn’t about being anti-renewables. It’s about a delivery model that keeps saying “we’re listening” while doing almost nothing to prove it.

Accountability has been missing for decades

The mistrust didn’t begin with transmission lines; it began with regional Australia being overlooked. The erosion of services, crumbling roads, the widening gap in health and education, and the long recovery tails from floods, fires and droughts.

Rural communities have been told to be more resilient, only to see promises fade after ribbon-cuttings. When energy developers or governments arrive with another set of benefits to believe in but no tools to see them delivered, it triggers what’s already broken.

Too often, when rural concerns are raised, they’re dismissed as uninformed, ungrateful or resistant to change. That’s not just unfair, it’s dishonest. It’s easier to label a community as difficult than to admit that the systems being used don’t work.

Communities aren’t asking for the world. They’re asking for receipts

In the Wimmera Southern Mallee, we’ve started building some of the tools that should have been in place years ago. A public Commitments Register. Hyperlocal procurement frameworks. Place-based housing and workforce plans tied to energy investment.

Local businesses aren’t asking for handouts. They know they’ll need to tender and compete. What they want is procurement guidance that doesn’t freeze them out before they’ve even had a chance. They want to know what opportunities will be available and what clear targets will be. They want a shot.

The Commitments Register is simple. If a developer or agency makes a promise, we log it. If it’s delivered, we mark it off. If it’s not, we follow up. There’s no shaming. Just clarity. It’s not innovative, it’s basic governance.

The energy transition won’t be fixed in a media statement

Last month, we hosted Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar for the Regional Energy Accord roundtables. In sessions with farmers, local businesses, councils, developers, and community leaders, the same messages emerged.

Trust comes before investment. Housing and workforce are still holding back growth. Local procurement needs to have a specific meaning, not a general one – local means here, not hundreds of kilometres away. And people still haven’t heard a straight explanation for why this energy transition is happening here, why now, and what they’re meant to gain from it.

And still, despite all of that, most people want to be part of something real. They want a future to be proud of. But pride doesn’t come from media releases. It comes from delivery.

The Regional Energy Accord is not a fix, but it’s a start

The Regional Energy Accord supported by The Energy Charter isn’t a silver bullet, but it can give shape to a different way of doing business with genuine intent. One where government, industry and regional communities are all required to show their work. It can give us something to point to and something to hold ourselves against.

It’s also a challenge to all sides. For companies: don’t show up with a brochure and call it a consultation. For the government: stop funding plans and strategies and start funding delivery. And for regional communities: trust doesn’t come from Canberra or Spring Street.

We have to model it ourselves. That means procedural and distribution fairness. That means shared purpose. That means showing what we’re for, not just what we’re against.

This is a national moment. And we’re being watched

The Wimmera Southern Mallee is now seen as a test case. The Regional Energy Accord roundtables are headed to New South Wales next. And others will follow. What happens here will shape the expectations for every other energy region in the country, and those expectations can be captured through the Accord.

If we get it right, the result will be faster projects, fewer delays, and a generation of infrastructure delivered with communities, not despite them. If we get it wrong, the cost blowouts, legal battles, political damage, and, most sadly of all, the division in rural communities will only grow.

Conclusion: No trust without track

There’s no shortage of strategy. There’s a shortage of follow-through. People don’t need another transition roadmap. They need to see the vehicle moving. They need to see an Accord setting out their expectations, and on the ground, those commitments being brought to life.

If trust is to be rebuilt in rural Australia, it won’t come through speeches or diagrams. It will come when we make what we say visible and make how we act count.

No trust without track. That’s the line. And right now, it’s the only one that matters.

Chris Sounness is CEO of Wimmera Southern Mallee Development, working across housing, workforce, agriculture, population and infrastructure in his region. He focuses on bridging policy and delivery on the ground. As land use shifts accelerate, he is determined to ensure his community improves through the transition – not after it.