What does this exit mean now for the future of the proposal?

Yeah, look, there was a huge collective celebration and sigh of relief when Origin Energy announced pulling out of Sky Ridge.

You know, at a big level, it shows us that the writing's been on the wall.

The generation for electricity up here, wind and solar, has absolutely fallen out in the New England region.

And, you know, it, it begs the question now why the Minns Albanese Labor government are continuing with a $20 billion transmission project and renewable energy zone on a concept of a field of dreams, because they keep saying, "We build this line, the projects will come," and we just know, as landowners around this region, that is absolutely not the case.

You know, we did a recent survey of our landowners, and 350-plus landowners said, "We do not want any part in this," with only 22 in our whole area saying that they did.

And so with only one project left of 14 originally proposed by Walcha Energy back when this was declared, it begs serious questions why the Minns government are continuing with this rollout.

What else are you hearing from farmers right around Australia?

What do we know about them pulling out of this wind farm near Wolka?

Yeah, look, people in our community in Welker are ecstatic yesterday about this and this morning.

There was a lot of relief for our community, for the directly impacted neighbours, but also the whole community as we realised what the project would mean in terms of the devastation to our town.

And so, look, I think the writing's been on the wall for months with this, right? We know that financial backing is being pulled out of the New England Res left, right and centre.

We also know that the people on the ground who would have to host these things...

Their backing has also been falling out.

You know, we just did a survey recently of landowners and over 350 in our small town said they absolutely would not host anything renewable.

Was that meeting worthwhile?

What do we know about them pulling out of this wind farm near Wolka?

Yeah, look, people in our community in Welker are ecstatic yesterday about this and this morning.

There was a lot of relief for our community, for the directly impacted neighbours, but also the whole community as we realised what the project would mean in terms of the devastation to our town.

And so, look, I think the writing's been on the wall for months with this, right? We know that financial backing is being pulled out of the New England Res left, right and centre.

We also know that the people on the ground who would have to host these things their backing has also been falling out you know we just did a survey recently of landowners and over 350 in our small town said they absolutely would not host anything renewable and then only i think there were three or four around this project so that the backing had fallen out and so we were just waiting for an announcement but it often doesn't come it's often just put on ice And so this just confirms a big move, right? This is them very clearly saying we are withdrawing from Wolka.

And that's now, since 2020, there were 14 projects that this company called Wolka Energy, and look, they were energy salesmen, but they told the New South Wales government at the time that there were 14 projects to come in Wolka.

Now we are down to one.

Was that meeting worthwhile?

you've previously accused energy co of illegally trespassing on land and failing to properly consult with locals you stand by that

Absolutely, Ben.

There has been some serious, seriously poor behaviour by Energy Co and we keep raising it with them.

We've asked Minns to meet with us about it multiple times and he's still refusing.

And, you know, they've admitted how badly behaved they've been, but there's actually no accountability that comes from that.

They just apologise and then they do it again.

Apologise and do it again.

Anna, we know what this is going to do to land values in the area, but what has it done to the mental health of the local community?

you've previously accused energy co of illegally trespassing on land and failing to properly consult with locals you stand by that

Absolutely, Ben.

There has been some serious, seriously poor behaviour by Energy Co and we keep raising it with them.

We've asked Minns to meet with us about it multiple times and he's still refusing.

And, you know, they've admitted how badly behaved they've been, but there's actually no accountability that comes from that.

They just apologise and then they do it again.

Apologise and do it again.

Anna, we know what this is going to do to land values in the area, but what has it done to the mental health of the local community?

What are you doing to try and stop it, Anna?

So we're still trying to get in contact with Premier Minns, who's still refusing to meet with us.

You know, but really, Ben, we're so thankful to you because it's getting the word out to everyone because this is gonna cost them all.

It's gonna be a $20 billion project, and there's no power to go into it.

So it's almost like [laughs] we're trying to remind people that right now our government is acting like willful toddlers.

You know? They're so recklessly proceeding with a broken renewable energy zone and transmission corridors on camps and all this other rubbish when the evidence is stacking up to say it is going to be so disastrous financially, socially, environmentally.

And so we are just gonna push, push, push until the very end.

Sadly, there'll be some people who will probably give up and think, "All right, I'm just gonna get out of here and go somewhere else."

And so tell us about the policy reset that you want to see.

So we understand that five years ago when the New England Res was declared in 2021, it looked like it was gonna be a great project.

It looked like it could be the right place for wind generation, for solar generation.

Since then, there's been a lot of data collected and five years is a long time for new information to come in.

And that new information has clearly highlighted how flawed this project is.

And so what we know is that over the past few years, what people thought was going to be cleaner, greener, cheaper is just not the case anymore.

And so for this project, the transmission corridor is going to cost $20 billion.

Have you spoken to Premier Chris Minns yet?

Anna, what's the argument that you'll be getting across in New South Wales Parliament today?

This whole transmission project is just so flawed.

You know, environmentally, economically, it just does not stack up, and, and it doesn't stack up in terms of social license either.

And so we're really hoping today, uh, that they're gonna prosecute how flawed the whole thing is, uh, and how much the New England Res needs to be scaled back, and this transmission line just needs to be scrapped so that all of our state and our country aren't paying for it forever.

It's not at all.

It's an issue for all of Australians, and anyone is welcome to join us today.

We're meeting at 3:00 PM at the top of Martin Place and gonna walk across to Parliament for 4:00 PM.

Come along, listen to what's going on, and listen to how problematic this all is.

Anna, what's the argument that you'll be getting across in New South Wales Parliament today?

This whole transmission project is just so flawed.

You know, environmentally, economically, it just does not stack up.

And, and it doesn't stack up in terms of social license either.

And so we're really hoping today, uh, that they're gonna prosecute how flawed the whole thing is, uh, and how much the New England Res needs to be scaled back, and this transmission line just needs to be scrapped so that all of our state and our country aren't paying for it forever.

It's not at all.

It's an issue for all of Australians, and anyone is welcome to join us today.

We're meeting at 3:00 PM at the top of Martin Place and gonna walk across to Parliament for 4:00 PM.

Like what?

I'm really curious to see.

Well, it's the same thing actually.

It's, it's, it's looking through and I, I'll tell you a story about that.

Years ago when I had my studio at Hill End and I was selected to have a solo show at Western Plains Cultural Centre and I had a fantastic curator working with me called Kent Buchanan, amazing guy.

And every, I had this sort of kind of thing where I, because I find painting is the hardest thing, it's always the hardest thing.

So when I finished a group of painting, because I was at Headland, I'd go for a lot of walks and I'd find all sorts of things.

It was just so simple.

Absolutely

... y- you know, because what Aidan was just explaining then as well, I think what made us really confused even, even more so, was that when it suddenly switched to us and then we've all kind of been starting to try and understand how that happened, we found a report from a year prior with a near identical route that EnergyCo, so this government department, uh, had spent however many millions putting together that said out of, out of their pillars, four out of five, this route failed.

All they did to change that failed route to our current route was move it 50 meters here, 100 meters there, and then suddenly all their data in that new report says, "No, no, this is now the best option possible." So 200 mil on the past line, how much?

It is.

But, but we'll give the example for our region.

So back in 2019, this was kind of sold to the government, right? So this transmission line that we are now under is part of, to join what's called the New England RES, right? And we look at maps of what the government was shown about what projects were gonna happen.

And for instance, on that map, there's like six projects around Walcha that are dotted as, as being told, like, they're gonna come to fruition.

So energy salesmen saying, "Yep, they're gonna happen." Then what's happened is they've, they've formalized it.