Wednesday, 9 September 2026

 Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) presented a petition bearing 2244 signatures:

The petition of certain citizens of the State of Victoria draws to the attention of the Legislative Council the proposed Nioka Solar Project at Glenrowan West which will consists of 420,000 solar panels on prime agricultural land, alongside and surrounding a landowner’s property only two acres in size. Government guidelines require when identifying suitable locations for large scale solar sites, there be adequate space between facilities to avoid cumulative impacts and have access to main roads. The Nioka Solar Project meets neither. Within a designated Bushfire Prone Area, the project also includes the installation of a Battery Energy Storage System increasing the threat of catastrophic fires and explosions and the contamination of critical waterways, feeding into the world-renowned Winton Wetlands. These waterways provide vital corridors for species movement from the foothills to the wetland. Proponents of the project claim the site was chosen as it sits within the eastern section of the Central North Renewable Energy Zone (REZ). A proposed REZ zone that was expanded to include this area without any community consultation. The project would ruin prime agricultural land, threaten critically endangered wildlife, greatly impacting the mental health of residents who fear for the land they love and the way they live.

The petitioners therefore request that the Legislative Council call on the Government to oppose and reject the Nioka Solar Project, including the Battery Energy Storage System, remove the eastern section of the Central North Renewable Energy Zone from the 2025 Victorian Transmission Plan and prevent large-scale cumulative industrial energy developments in designated bushfire prone areas on existing environmentally sensitive vegetation overlays in farming zones.

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL: As this is a petition qualifying for debate under standing order 11.03(10), I give notice that I intend to move ‘That the petition be taken into consideration’ on Wednesday of next sitting week.