New South Wales has gone too far in allowing the public to participate in planning decisions as a way to gain social licence, and Queensland may be going down the same road, a senior lawyer suggested this week.
“I think we’ve gone too far and I think NSW is a perfect example of where that has gone too far,” HSF Kramer partner Peter Briggs told the Clean Energy Investor conference this week.
“The squeaky wheel can dominate and be heard over the voices of people who would otherwise be very supportive of projects, with the result that it takes eight years to get a wind farm through an appeal.”
NSW’s planning system lets anyone from anywhere in the world make submissions on planning applications.
Fifty or more objections will send any application to the independent regulator, after which a merit appeal through the courts is also possible in most cases.
Briggs’ concern is Queensland is going down the same route, following changes to planning rules last year and the now 10 projects called-in by the planning minister since January 2025 to assess their merits.
Unlike NSW, there is no bipartisan support for renewable energy as the cheapest source of new generation in Queensland.
Queensland Renewable Energy Council chief Katie-Anne Mulder says “it’s a scary space for us to be in” right now, but she also looks on the bright side.
All levels of government control different parts of the planning process in Queensland, and she points out it would be a brave state or federal MP to oppose a renewable energy project a regional council wants.
Queensland, however, is a different place to the one that allowed coal seam gas wells to pock-mark the state and for three pipelines to be built through the Gladstone to export LNG.
The coal seam gas industry didn’t have to face down coordinated opposition – which Briggs, saying the quiet part out loud, somewhat jokingly called “the enemy” – through social media who have a motivation to disrupt, Mulder says.
She believes social licence will be built through showing how renewable energy projects can reduce the cost of living, and by adapting the playbook of anti-renewables agitators.
“I think what the government would like to see is what are those areas in development that are pretty competitive?” Mulder said during the summit.
“We’ve got to be more coordinated. We’ve got to sing and dance like an industry, not as a project… because our opponents… they’re really coordinated. They’re really cohesive in their messaging, in the narrative.”
Fixes are not quick
In NSW however, the government is aware of how the desire to bring people into planning processes to build social licence is causing problems down the track.
Not enough, however, to alter the 50 objections issue in reforms passed in November last year.
However, in late February planning minister Paul Scully used rarely employed powers to direct three contentious wind projects to a public hearing process, which blocks follow-up legal challenges.
And the newly established Investment Delivery Authority (IDA) will be able to override councils and accelerate planning approvals for proposed projects deemed worthy of being shuffled more quickly through the state’s tortuous planning processes.
In Victoria, the state ended merit appeals when it brought energy projects into its fast-track planning process.
That move has infuriated some Victorians, but unblocked the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) which holding energy projects up for years.
State opposition leader Jess Wilson has promised to being VCAT appeals back.
For transmission, it’s not that easy with VicGrid having to put in old-fashioned legwork to win back social acceptance for new projects, after the Australian Energy Market Operator badly stuffed up around the VNI West proposal with locals.
VicGrid chief Alistair Parker says they’ve had to go back to the start of the story.
“It always starts from coal in Victoria closing. That’s unavoidable. It’s a technical fact. It’s something we have to respond to,” Parker told the investor conference.
“And if we’re replacing coal, the modern equivalent is renewables firmed with batteries, and with transmission. It’s connections to other states, like Marinus Link, like VNI West and so on.
“We learned pretty quickly… people don’t know the whole story. As an industry, we’ve been talking about this for a decade or more, but when you come to that householder, they’ve got plenty of other things going on in their lives, it’s the first time they’ve heard about it.
“So you have to start at the beginning. You have to tell a story that is accurate and consistent.”
But he also admits that government rules allowing compulsory acquisition of land for transmission lines do not feel fair to people, and this is an extra problem that generation doesn’t have.
“I joked before the last federal election [that] I was delighted nuclear was being called up because it is the only thing more unpopular than transmission,” he said.
Victoria passed legislation last year requiring landowners to let transmission line workers on to their land, or face fines. The changes bring the state into line with requirements in other states including NSW.
But it’s yet another obstacle for people steadfastly opposed to projects such as VNI West.
Just 27 landowners of about 250 are holding out on agreements for the VNI West transmission line, according to reporting by the ABC last week.
“There are people who are really opposed to these projects, and we have to treat them with respect. We have to listen to them. We have to address their substantive concerns,” Parker says.
“But, you know, in a consultation one time… we’d gone through 15 things. Things where genuine concerns were expressed, and I had an answer for them and was able to give some reassurance.
“But we got to the end of the 15 and I said, ‘You don’t really want me to fix these, do you, because you just want me to stop doing this?’ And they laughed and said, yeah, we just want to stop you.”
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Rachel Williamson
Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.
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