The proponents of the VNI West transmission line have belled the cat that they never intended to listen to farmers in the firing line, Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster said this morning, after an eleventh hour withdrawal from talks she had organised in Tragowel and St Arnaud today.

“I am disgusted that this government-run body can treat the community with such contempt,” Dr Webster said, “I have worked very hard to bring community members directly affected by the proposed transmission corridor into one room at Tragowel at 11am and St Arnaud at 2:15pm. Yet, through the Commissioner and not even direct to me, I learn at 10:48pm last night the proponent Transmission Company Victoria (TCV) and AEMO will not be turning up.”

“I will be turning up, and I will also be turning up the volume and heat to maximum on this travesty. Farmers and community members have set aside time in their day to get to these meetings to share personal, heartfelt stories and TCV do not even have the guts to tell me directly they now won’t be attending.

“TCV’s contempt has been on display from the very start and this has the Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s fingerprints all over it. After the embarrassing scaling back of offshore wind zones yesterday, clearly the Albanese and Allan Labor Government are in panic mode. They think they can shaft regional communities to railroad VNI West through, I tell you this morning, they can think again.

“I have heard many complaints about TCV’s divide-and-conquer tactics and plainly they did not want to hear today from united community members on the impacts this transmission line will have upon their homes, their farms, firefighting capacity and more. I will now be galvanising these landholders about their rights and encouraging them to build a protest movement. Labor cannot railroad regional Australia in their reckless rush to renewables to appease inner city elites.”