Apology needed, says MP

LOCAL Liberal MPs say the State Government could have avoided causing landowners anguish by making underground electricity a requirement from the outset in the tender process for the desalination plant.
Bass MP Ken Smith said the State Government at least owed an apology to Gippsland residents after backing away from the overhead pylon option.
“Again, while it is pleasing that power lines will go underground, Mr Brumby owes the residents affected by the works a huge apology – if not recompense – for the anguish, time and money they have spent fighting to stop the lines going in overhead. This should have been a requirement of the tender right from the beginning,” he said.
Federal McMillan MP Russell Broadbent lauded the decision to use underground power for the desalination plant project as a victory for common sense.
Mr Broadbent said Thursday’s announcement was great relief to landowners and local community groups who had vigorously opposed the above ground option.
“The announcement ends months of unnecessary anxiety felt by farmers and landowners concerned at the impact pylons and overhead power lines would have on the value of their properties,” he said.
“The Victorian Government could have avoided this anxiety by announcing from the outset that it would put the power supply for the desalination plant underground.”
Mr Smith still has reservations about the project, which is set to deliver desalinated water to Victorian households by the end of 2011.
He said that while he had never supported the building of a plant on the Wonthaggi coastline, the announcement would finally end speculation as to when, and even if, the plant would go ahead.
“There is no doubt that many people in the region oppose this project, and no question in my mind that it is the wrong location for a desalination plant of this size,” he said
“But now that it has been announced, the government must ensure that the promised benefits to the people of the region, such as an expected 1700 new jobs, are fulfilled.”
Mr Broadbent acknowledged Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s input into the decision to put the power supply underground.
“I went to the Prime Minister to seek his intervention on this issue and I feel sure his support for the underground option would have weighed heavily in the Victorian Government’s decision,” he said.