Landowners Tell TasNetworks to Bugger Off

Independent Braddon MHA Craig Garland joined protesting landowners outside TasNetworks’ Burnie office today to demand an immediate pause on the Marinus Link and North West Transmission Development (NWTD).

Garland criticised the state government and TasNetworks for failing to secure agreements with approximately 46 landowners, warning that the projects would lead to forced acquisitions, skyrocketing power prices and negative environmental impacts on the north west coast.

Media release – Craig Garland MHA, independent for Braddon, 28 November 2025

Landowners tell TasNetworks to ‘Bugger off’

Today, landowners and supporting community members came together with a simple message: “Bugger off, TasNetworks.”

Landowners outlined that they do not want new transmission or upgraded transmission on their properties, regarding TasNetworks’ proposed North West Transmission Development (NWTD) as part of Marinus Link Stage 1, a proposed second electricity interconnector to connect Tasmania and Victoria across the Bass Strait.

There’s a lot of staunch people in the northwest. They don’t like being dictated to, and I commend these landowners for making their voice heard.

TasNetworks CEO, Seán Mc Goldrick, gave landowners until the 1 December deadline to sign on the dotted line, but then refused their requests to meet with them to hear their concerns. Does he and the Minister for Energy expect impacted landowners to just line up because the Government says so? If anything, the events of this week has only affirmed their resolve to stand strong.

I finally found out in Government Business Enterprise (GBE) scrutiny hearings this week, after repeated questioning in Parliament of the Minister for Energy, that 17 per cent or approximately 46 landowners of the 271 private landowners on the NWTD Stage 1 route have yet to sign up to a Strategic Benefits Payment and options agreement to host new or upgraded transmission towers and lines, highlighting how unwanted this project is.

Mc Goldrick must be dreaming if he predicts that TasNetworks will get the remaining 46 private landowners on side.

Then what? The Minister has been lost for words when discussing land acquisition to force landowners to accept the easement whether they like it or not. The Government is now facing the fact that they didn’t do the work needed and will show their true colours by treating landowners with contempt.

It would be a much better outcome for TasNetworks to listen and make every effort to consider what this means for people in Braddon and Lyons, even if that means dropping the project or the proposed route altogether.

I also take this opportunity to reaffirm my stance against Marinus Link and the NWTD, due to its cost, impacts, and growing community objection.

We know that Marinus Link and the NWTD will lead to higher power prices for both residential electricity customers and the major industrials. The Marinus Link Stage 1 project is the biggest public infrastructure project in the State’s history and will cost more than $5 billion dollars, a cost worn by taxpayers and paid back by electricity consumers over the coming decades. Tasmania can’t afford to wear these costs.

Marinus Link will add billions of dollars of debt to Tasmania’s already unsustainable budget deficit.

At GBE scrutiny hearings, the Minister was asked repeatedly about information from Treasury that shows that power prices are going up 53 to 60 percent under Marinus.

The Minister wouldn’t answer. He said his modelling or the information that he’s got shows otherwise. Energy is complicated, but we’re getting very mixed messages here.

In a time of financial pressure, the Government must now pause and consider alternatives.

I reject the Government’s suggestions that Marinus Link and the upgraded transmission will provide benefits to power users or everyday Tasmanians. The state government has a history of selling us the promise of cheaper power, but power prices haven’t demonstrated that they ever go down.

Tasmanians have been struggling with one or two or three percent rise in power, how the hell are they going to manage with 50 percent rise in power? People right now not being able to afford to feed themselves and stay warm.

This is urgent, and I encourage the community to take notice of what is happening.

Those that joined me today are very well informed and they know that there is nothing in it for us except impacts and costs. In particular, the place where they live, their land value is likely to go down, the impacts onto the natural environment will be felt and I share their concerns wholeheartedly.

Make no mistake – Marinus Link also equals more wind farms, not just more overhead transmission lines.

I am against wind farms in the wrong location, but if the Government is going to disrespect us and push this on Tasmanians, then we should get a say where it goes, not be dictated to by foreign corporations, the corporate cheerleading government and those mainlanders who think they know best.

Robbins Island is the worst location for a wind farm, but wind farms in the Central Highlands and the Northeast of Tasmania aren’t any better. I found out today that the Circular Head Coastal Awareness Network are taking their fight to the proposed Robbins Island Wind Farm to the federal court. I welcome this action because Governments at all levels have failed to protect this place. Hopefully there can finally be intervention to stop this absurd project.

On that project alone, the community has been ignored at every step along the way, but like most government led consultations, the community rarely get to influence the Government. That must change in this new space of large-scale wind farm projects near our homes, our recreational areas, our food sources and our critical habitats.

The Parliamentary energy matters committee has also not released its final report after months of hearings, but the Government & TasNetworks are still going full steam ahead with this mad push to wind farms and new transmission. Another example of bad planning and poor governance.

Following Budget Estimates and GBE scrutiny hearings, the Minister for Energy demonstrated that he has not properly considered or costed, sensible, alternate options, like locating new renewable energy closer to where it is needed for example on the West Coast, to avoid unnecessary transmission projects all over the place.

The government has also not publicly reported on the scenario where we don’t have Marinus Link at all, and we have gone through two elections in two years, where the Liberal Party have continued to sign Tasmania up to the project during caretaker mode, avoiding proper public scrutiny.

Members of Parliament and the public need more information and more time to consider the full impact of Marinus Link, new large-scale transmission and wind farms in Tasmania, before these projects commence.

I also ask, where does the Labor Party stand with the cost and impacts of Marinus?

If the Government won’t do the right thing, then the opposition are meant to be the ones that can put a stumbling block or a halt to this process until we get all the information and see what is involved.

I call on Labor to be a worthy opposition and stick to their 2024 election position that believed that Tasmanians should not be paying any costs for this second electricity cable across Bass Strait.

Today, I call on the Government to put an immediate pause on Marinus Link & the Heybridge Converter Station, abandon the North West Transmission Development & direct TasNetworks to withdraw their permit application from the Tasmanian Planning Commission.

Acknowledgements

Today, outside the TasNetworks offices in Burnie, I was joined by members from across the community to support landowners opposed to the North West Transmission Development (NWTD), including:

Kim Phillips-Haines – Tas Power Democracy;
Terry Chandler – NWTD Affected Landowner;
Sam Graham – NWTD Affected Landowner;
Alice Carson – Circular Head Coastal Awareness Network;
Michael Harries – NW Environment Centre; &
Supportive community members

We came together to represent the voices of many people across Northern Tasmania who say – no to Marinus Link and no to the North West Transmission Development.

I wanted to make note of some notable apologies from several NWTD Stage 1 & Stage 2 – affected landowners, many of whom who prefer to be anonymous and other representatives that couldn’t make it today.

I’d like to mention, in particular – Malcolm Ryan and his support team, who have been actively advocating for and understanding the concerns of NWTD affected landowners.

I also acknowledge representatives from SOLVE in Loongana, the Circular Head Coastal Awareness Network, and community members from the Northeast of Tasmania who also face a mega wind farm from ACEN on their doorstep despite objection from locals.

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