Market research mystery for farmers cold called about controversial transmission line

Mystery surrounds who has commissioned market research into landowner attitudes toward the controversial VNI West transmission line project.

VNI West and the connected Western Renewables Link is set to cover about 400 kilometres from Melbourne to the New South Wales border. 

Residents in the path of the project have been receiving calls in the past few days purportedly from a market research company.

They have told the ABC the market researchers describe themselves as being from URG Research, although return calls to the number are met with a voice message from Market Research Australia.

The state government, federal government and VNI West proponent, the Australian Energy Market Operator, have denied commissioning the research.

‘Really quite deceiving’

Boort farmer Jerri Nelson said some of her family’s land in northern Victoria could fall in the path of VNI West.

She said in the call she received last Thursday, the caller indicated the research was “being undertaken on behalf of the federal government”.

“They started with some very generalised questions about our satisfaction with our local government area, but the majority of their questions were about VNI West and they became much more specific,” she said.

“It became very clear that the underlying purpose of the research was in relation to VNI West.”

Ms Nelson said she believed the questions were deliberately worded to elicit positive responses about the project.

“They asked about consultation with Indigenous communities, investments into clubs and organisations in your town, investments into local roads, and whether these would be good investments by VNI West,” she said.

“I believe that is really quite deceiving, because of course I want to see investment in our community, but I don’t want to see transmission lines.

“I can only think they’re trying to prove there is some support for the VNI West proposal.”

Route refined

Meanwhile, the Australian Energy Market Operator has refined the potential route for VNI West to a corridor about two kilometres wide.

It was down from an area up to 50 kilometres wide.

The operator said it would contact affected landowners before releasing the refined route publicly.

“This is a significant milestone as it now allows one-on-one conversations with farmers and landholders, to listen and answer questions related to their properties,” a statement from the operator said.

The operator said it would refer the draft corridor to Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny in coming months, who would decide if an Environmental Effects Statement was required. 

Farmers vow to ‘continue the fight’

Marnoo farmer Ben Duxson, who has been part of an outspoken group of VNI objectors, said his neighbours had received calls to say their properties fell within the draft corridor.

“But it doesn’t change how we go about things,” he said.

He said his group would continue its fight against the market operator and the state government that had started in early March when they found out about the project.

Mr Duxson said the project was creating widespread anxiety in his community.

“You’ve got to really feel for the older people out there, they get these calls and it changes their whole world and the anxiety levels lift,” he said.

“We’ve got a plan, we deny access, we lock the gate and we expose the … environmental vandalism and social divisiveness.

“All we want to do is continue to farm and produce food and fibre as best we can without the hindrance of these projects.”