Stop Labors Towers Newsletter – November 7, 2026
IN THIS ISSUE
YOU HOLD THE POWER
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21 days until the State Election. 11 days until early voting. the WRL is not inevitable.
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Come and see us at the Bacchus Marsh Strawberry and Cherry Festival!
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New “PUT LABOR LAST” signs available
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Six and a 1/2 Years of Warnings. WRL Harm in Infographics
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When We Stop Questioning Power, We Surrender Our Future
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21 DAYS UNTIL THE STATE ELECTION. 11 DAYS UNTIL EARLY VOTING.
THE WRL IS NOT INEVITABLE.
Look, let’s be honest with each other. For six and a half years – twenty-three hundred days of standing shoulder to shoulder – we have fought for our homes, our farms, our environment, our livelihoods, and the irreplaceable landscapes that generations have built across western Victoria.
For six years, our communities have endured it all. We have faced the deflection, the intimidation, the closed doors, the corruption, the endless inquiries, and the outright hostility of a state government that stopped listening a long time ago.
They thought we would get tired. They thought we would give up. They believed that if they made it hard enough, long enough, and exhausting enough, we would simply walk away.
Well, let me tell you something: We have endured it all. We have not surrendered. And we will not be silenced.
And still, the Western Renewables Link presses forward. But here is what they don’t want you to understand: The WRL is not inevitable.
With the Victorian state election now just 21 days away – and early voting opening in a mere 11 days – the power has shifted. AusNet doesn’t get to determine the outcome of this election. When they tell you this project is a done deal, they are only describing the wishes of the present government. They are ignoring the most powerful force in a democracy: you.
Further approvals remain. Government decisions remain. Political accountability remains. And right now, the choice before us could not be clearer.
Every single community member needs to know two fundamental truths as we head to the ballot box:
- The Parties Are Offering Entirely Different Futures
- The Liberal–National Coalition has made a commitment: they will cancel VNI-West and fundamentally alter or outright cancel the WRL in its current form.
- One Nation has explicitly committed to scrapping the WRL and VNI-West altogether if elected.
- Labor? Labor simply continues to push the project through the approvals pipeline, ignoring the voices of the people who live here.
- Your Vote Is Your Leverage
We are standing at a crossroads. On 18 November, early voting begins. On 28 November, Victoria votes. If we are going to win this, we have to be smart, disciplined, and united about how we cast our ballots:
- Recognize reality: Independents mean well, but they cannot form a government. They don’t have a seat at the cabinet table to stop harmful policies. Don’t waste your primary leverage.
- Do not split the vote: Fracturing the anti-Labor vote only hands victory to the very people trying to build these towers through your backyard.
- Send a definitive message: Vote [1] for the Coalition or One Nation and put Labor dead last.
This isn’t just about transmission lines. It’s about whether a government serves the people who feed it, or the corporate interests that fund it.
Share the facts. Demand accountability. Make the WRL an issue no candidate can ignore.
The choice is ours. Let’s make it count.
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STOP LABOR’S TOWERS: COME AND SEE US AT THE BACCHUS MARSH STRAWBERRY & CHERRY FESTIVAL!
As we race toward the final stretch before the 28 November election, the fight against the Western Renewable Link (WRL) is more critical than ever. After six and a half years of campaigning, the message is clear: the WRL is not inevitable, and we are not done fighting.
Next weekend, Saturday 14 November and Sunday 15 November, the Western Victoria Community Alliance (WVCA) will be hosting a community information stall at the Bacchus Marsh Strawberry and Cherry Festival from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Come on down to check out our stall – complete with banners, infographics, informative flyers, and new corflutes. Most importantly, come and have a chat with us! We want to talk with community members about why the upcoming election is our chance to make our votes count, how to ensure we put Labor last, and what candidates are doing to commit to cancelling the WRL.
Whether you want to learn more about the campaign, pick up some merchandise, we’d love to see you there. Stop by, say hello, and let’s stand together to protect our community!
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NEW SIGNS AVAILABLE – ORDER HERE OR AVAILABLE AT BACCHUS MARSH STRAWBERRY & CHERRY FESTIVAL
GET YOUR ELECTION SIGNS
The November State Election is approaching, and now is the time to make our message impossible to ignore!
We need our signs on fences, farm gates, front lawns and properties right across the region.
Let every passing motorist know where our communities stand. PUT LABOR LAST AND STOP THE WRL!
LIMITED SUPPLY – ORDER TO SECURE YOUR SIGNS!
We have two designs of our bold, high-impact election signs available for collection in Ballan.
🪧 SIGN DETAILS:
- Size: 600 mm x 900 mm
- Material: Durable Corflute with eyelets, ready for mounting
- Two designs available
- PRICE: JUST $10 EACH (to cover production costs)
✉️ ORDER NOW – DON’T MISS OUT!
Email info@stoplaborstowers.org
EVERY SIGN COUNTS. EVERY FENCE COUNTS. EVERY VOTE COUNTS.
The more signs we get out across our communities, the harder our message will be to ignore.
Stand up for our farms, our homes and our communities.
PUT LABOR LAST. STOP THE WRL. HOLD THE LINE!
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SIX AND A HALF YEARS OF WARNINGS. ONE DECISION THAT COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING.
We have fought to protect something that cannot be replaced: our land, our wildlife, our farms, our homes and the communities that give western Victoria its soul.
The infographics we have published throughout this battle, brought together here, tell a confronting story. They document the environmental destruction, bushfire risks, agricultural disruption and human consequences that we have repeatedly warned must not be ignored.
These are not simply lines on a map. They are lives, livelihoods and landscapes.
And once destroyed, some things can never be restored.
With Victoria heading to the polls on 28 November, the future of the Western Renewables Link deserves renewed scrutiny. Decisions can be challenged. Policies can change. Governments can be held accountable.
The damage is not inevitable. The future is not yet written. And the choices we make today will echo through generations.
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WHEN WE STOP QUESTIONING POWER, WE SURRENDER OUR FUTURE
Six years fighting the Western Renewables Link have taught our communities a disturbing lesson: when political ideology, institutional loyalty and powerful interests dominate decision-making, ordinary people can find themselves fighting simply to be heard.
In 1943, German theologian and resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer issued a warning that deserves to be remembered whenever political power escapes meaningful scrutiny.
“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice.”
Bonhoeffer was not talking about a lack of intelligence. He was describing the danger of people surrendering their independent judgment to political movements, leaders and collective ideology.
He understood that educated, capable and otherwise decent people could become instruments of decisions they had ceased to question.
His message challenges us to confront an uncomfortable possibility: that some of the greatest failures of political judgment occur not because people lack information, but because loyalty becomes more important than the truth.
When did the pursuit of a political objective become more important than the people, properties and communities expected to sacrifice for it?
THE WRL IS ABOUT MORE THAN TRANSMISSION TOWERS
We are not simply opposing steel structures across our landscapes.
We are defending productive agricultural land, family homes, biodiversity, bushfire safety, property rights and the right of regional communities to have a meaningful say in decisions affecting their future.
We are confronting the possibility of permanent industrial infrastructure being imposed upon landscapes that generations of Australians have worked to protect.
And we are questioning a political system in which years of community objections have not produced the fundamental reconsideration we have sought.
WHEN NET ZERO BECOMES AN UNQUESTIONABLE IDEOLOGY
We believe energy policy must be tested against evidence, economics, environmental
consequences and community impacts.
Yet our experience with the WRL has left us deeply concerned that the political pursuit of net zero is becoming an ideological justification for decisions that deserve far greater scrutiny.
A net-zero target is not a licence to disregard farmland, destroy amenity or dismiss legitimate concerns about environmental and community harm.
We question whether all viable alternatives have been adequately considered, whether the full costs have been transparently assessed and whether the communities bearing the heaviest burdens have been treated fairly.
We recognise that supporters of the WRL argue that new transmission is essential to connect renewable generation, maintain electricity reliability and support the energy transition.
But those arguments must be tested, not accepted as articles of faith.
If a policy cannot withstand independent examination, the answer is not to silence the questions. It is to examine the policy.
LABOR, THE UNIONS AND THE QUESTIONS THAT MUST BE ANSWERED
Our concerns extend beyond energy policy.
Victoria’s construction industry has faced serious allegations involving corruption, criminal conduct and improper union influence.
The establishment of a Royal Commission into integrity in major public construction projects demonstrates the importance of independently investigating these matters.
We want to know whether the governance arrangements, contracting decisions and commercial relationships associated with major transmission projects have been subject to sufficient independent scrutiny.
That includes the relationships between government, contractors, construction unions and other organisations that may benefit from major infrastructure expenditure.
Public infrastructure must serve the public interest, not political loyalty, institutional relationships or the interests of any privileged organisation.
Our questions are straightforward.
Who benefits financially from the WRL? What contractual commitments have been made? What safeguards protect against improper influence? What independent scrutiny has been applied to the project’s full economic and environmental costs?
These are not unreasonable demands.
They are questions that should be answered before communities are expected to accept irreversible consequences.
THE DANGER OF UNQUESTIONING LOYALTY
Bonhoeffer’s warning speaks to something we have experienced throughout this fight.
When political loyalty becomes stronger than independent thought, difficult questions can be dismissed rather than answered.
When the success of a policy becomes part of a government’s political identity, acknowledging its shortcomings becomes harder.
And when communities challenge established decisions, their concerns risk being characterised as obstacles rather than evidence that deserves careful consideration.
We reject the idea that questioning major infrastructure makes us opponents of progress.
We can support responsible energy development and still oppose projects that impose unacceptable costs upon our communities.
Those positions are not contradictory.
Independent judgment means being prepared to reconsider decisions when new evidence emerges, even when doing so creates political difficulty.
WE HAVE REFUSED TO SURRENDER OUR JUDGMENT
For six years, we have stood together.
We have challenged technical assessments, examined environmental consequences, defended our properties and questioned the assumptions underpinning the WRL.
We have done so because the consequences are not theoretical.
They are personal, permanent and potentially generational.
Our position has not required blind loyalty to any political movement. It has required persistence, evidence, conviction and a willingness to challenge institutions with far greater resources than our communities possess.
We have learned that courage is not simply about speaking loudly.
It is about continuing to ask difficult questions when powerful organisations would prefer those questions disappeared.
It is about refusing to accept that a decision must be right merely because a government has invested years of political capital in defending it.
And it is about recognising that no political party, union, corporation or ideology should ever be placed beyond scrutiny.
NOVEMBER 28: THE COURAGE TO BREAK FROM THE CROWD
The greatest act of courage is not standing with the majority. It is standing against it when your conscience, the evidence and your own judgment tell you something is wrong.
This is the warning Dietrich Bonhoeffer left us.
He understood that political power becomes particularly dangerous when ordinary people surrender their ability to think independently. When they repeat the slogans of their leaders, accept convenient explanations and allow loyalty to replace critical judgment.
The election on 28 November 2026 presents a defining opportunity to exercise that independence.
We ask every Victorian to examine the government’s record, challenge the claims made about the WRL and net zero, and demand clear commitments from those seeking political power.
This is our call to courage.
The greatest danger is not that those in power might make the wrong decisions. It is that ordinary people might surrender the courage to challenge them.
We have not surrendered that courage.
We will not surrender it now.
OUR LAND. OUR HOMES. OUR FUTURE. OUR COURAGE TO STAND ALONE.
Western Victoria Community Alliance
STOP LABOR’S TOWERS | HOLD THE LINE
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SHARE THIS NEWSLETTER – THE WRL WILL BE STOPPED. THIS FIGHT IS FAR FROM OVER!
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