Stop Labors Towers Newsletter – October 23, 2026
IN THIS ISSUE
YOU HOLD THE POWER
- The WRL is an election issue. you must vote to Kill the WRL.
- New Stop Labor’s Towers and Put Labor Last signs available
- Labor’s record speaks for itself. It’s time for accountability.
- Michaela Settle and the WRL: promises today, permanent consequences tomorrow
- Don’t Settle for Settle
- Eureka candidates debate – Ballan – Tuesday 27th October
- The $3 Billion Warning: When social licence collapses, the consequences follow
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THE WRL IS AN ELECTION ISSUE. YOU MUST VOTE TO KILL THE WRL.
With the Victorian State Election on 28 November just over a month away, the future of the Western Renewables Link is firmly on the ballot.
For more than six years, our community has challenged this project, questioned its necessity, exposed its risks and demanded genuine alternatives. Yet the threat to our farmland, homes, environment and way of life remains.
The political differences are now unmistakable.
Labor continues to advance the WRL through the approvals process, subject to a newly announced independent cost assessment.
The Liberal–National Coalition has committed to stopping the WRL in it’s current form and stopping VNI West while undertaking a full cost-benefit review and examining alternatives. Stopping in it’s current form means the Coalition will not proceed with a greenfield above ground option through our land for the WRL.
One Nation has pledged to cancel both projects.
If the WRL is to be stopped, Labor must lose government. A victory for either the Liberal–National Coalition or One Nation offers our communities the opportunity to end this destructive project once and for all.
We have endured years of uncertainty. We have seen our legitimate concerns about bushfire safety, agricultural production, environmental destruction, property rights and economic justification pushed aside. We are entitled to demand more than another review, another consultation process or another promise.
Our position has never changed. The WRL in its current overengineered destructive greenfield form is unacceptable. Its necessity must be demonstrated, genuine alternatives must be examined, and our communities must never be treated as collateral damage.
The election is approaching. The political positions are on record.
HOLD THE LINE. OUR COMMUNITIES DESERVE BETTER.
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NEW STOP LABOR’S TOWERS AND PUT LABOR LAST SIGNS AVAILABLE
GET YOUR ELECTION SIGNS IN BALLAN – SATURDAY 24TH OCTOBER!
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!
📍 WHERE: McLean Reserve, corner of Fisken Street and Inglis Street, Ballan (opposite the newsagent).
📅 WHEN: Saturday 24 October 2026
⏰ TIME: 9:00 am – 11:00 am
🪧 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)
✉️ PRE-ORDER NOW – DON’T MISS OUT!
If You can’t make it on Saturday please e-mail here to place order!
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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LABOR’S RECORD SPEAKS FOR ITSELF. IT’S TIME FOR ACCOUNTABILITY.
Twelve actions. Six years of community opposition. One unmistakable pattern: a government determined to push through the Western Renewables Link, regardless of the cost to regional Victoria.
Look closely at the record of the Victorian Labor Government.
Poor consultation. Ministerial intervention. Communities dragged through the courts.
Farmers facing coercive land access powers. Compulsory acquisition powers expanded. Local voices sidelined. Project costs escalating into the billions. And thousands of community objections failing to halt the government’s determination to proceed.
This is not how a government should treat the people it was elected to represent.
For more than six years, we have stood our ground. We have demanded transparency, proper scrutiny, genuine consideration of alternatives and respect for their homes, livelihoods and environment.
And what have we received?
More powers for government. More powers over private property. Less community influence. Less accountability. And an ever-growing bill for Victorian taxpayers.
The Western Renewables Link threatens to leave a permanent scar across some of Victoria’s most productive farmland and treasured landscapes. Its consequences will be felt not just by today’s landholders, but by generations yet to come.
Meanwhile, the government responsible for these decisions continues to ask regional Victorians for their trust.
Trust is earned through actions, not promises. And Labor’s record is there for everyone to examine.
The November State Election is approaching. This is no longer simply a fight over transmission towers. It is a fight for property rights, democratic accountability, regional communities and the fundamental principle that governments must answer to the people.
The message must be unmistakable: regional Victoria will not be ignored, dismissed or sacrificed for political convenience.
We have written letters. Attended meetings. Made submissions. Challenged decisions. Rallied. Marched. And stood together.
Now comes the opportunity to deliver our verdict at the ballot box.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
HOLD THE LINE. DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY. LABOR MUST GO.
Read the twelve actions. Share this infographic. Make sure your family, friends and neighbours understand what is at stake.
The decisions made today could scar our landscape for generations. The decision made this November belongs to the people of Victoria.
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MICHAELA SETTLE AND THE WRL: PROMISES TODAY, PERMANENT CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
For more than six years, our community has fought the Western Renewables Link, defending our farmland, homes, livelihoods and environment from a project that threatens to scar western Victoria for generations. Michaela Settle has promised to advocate for us. But she has not?
Since promising in 2022 that her electorate would come first, Settle has risen to become Victoria’s Minister for Agriculture, Rural and Regional Development, and Water.
With greater political power comes greater responsibility to those whose lives will be permanently affected by government decisions.
Yet Western Renewables Link continues to advance.
In July 2025, Settle supported Victoria’s transmission-planning reforms. In August 2026, she voted against a parliamentary motion to introduce proposed legislation strengthening consideration of agricultural land and food security.
Meanwhile, farmers and families continue to confront the prospect of enormous transmission towers, damaged landscapes, restrictions on productive farmland and enduring bushfire and environmental concerns.
A government can announce another grant, promise another regional investment or offer another community meeting. But none of those commitments can undo permanent damage to a family’s property or restore a landscape fundamentally changed by industrial infrastructure.
Settle has attended meetings. But meetings and political praise are not evidence of meaningful outcomes. After more than six years of community opposition, the fundamental question remains: What concrete action has Michaela Settle taken to oppose the Western Renewables Link? What enforceable protections has she secured for affected landholders? What credible alternatives has she publicly championed? What decisions have changed as a direct result of her intervention?
The documented record does establishes that Settle has not sought nor secured any enforceable landholder protections, an alternative route or the cancellation of the WRL.
Access is not advocacy. Sympathy is not protection. Political recognition is not a substitute for results.
That is the fundamental contradiction facing Settle: a minister responsible for regional prosperity belongs to a government advancing a project that many of the affected regional communities continue to reject.
And the consequences are not confined to one parliamentary term.
Governments come and go. Ministers are promoted and replaced. But transmission corridors, altered landscapes and restrictions on agricultural land may remain for generations.
Western Victoria’s communities deserve answers about the lasting consequences of WRL, not simply assurances about the government’s other regional commitments.
The question for Michaela Settle is simple: when her community’s interests collided with her government’s misguided and corrupted priorities, what did she actually deliver for the people she represents?
The Answer: Zero or more simply Net Zero results
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DON’T SETTLE FOR SETTLE
The elevation of Michaela Settle to the front bench as the Minister for Agriculture and Regional Development is a calculated move that speaks volumes about where the Victorian State Government’s priorities truly lie. While the official press releases frame this as a “new chapter” for regional Victoria, for those living in the path of the Western Renewables Link (WRL), it feels like the final nail in the coffin of community consultation.
The Promotion of a Loyalist
Michaela Settle’s rise to these critical portfolios isn’t a reward for community advocacy; it is a reward for party discipline. In a government that is increasingly desperate to salvage its “green boom” infrastructure targets, they didn’t need a champion for farmers – they needed a reliable gatekeeper.
- The Facade of Support: While she has been quick to signal “artificial support” for regional growth, the reality is that she has functioned as a shock absorber for the Premier. Her promotion is a signal that the government is doubling down on its current trajectory, rewarding those who stay on script rather than those who challenge the “railroaded” agenda.
- The Meeting Paradox: You can get a meeting with her, but you can’t get her to listen. Access is not the same as influence. Granting a meeting at a desk in Melbourne or a field office in Ballarat is a hollow gesture if the “core impacts”—the loss of regional lifestyles, the fire risks, and the destruction of agricultural viability – are dismissed the moment the door closes.
“No Friend of Ours”
The Agriculture portfolio is supposed to be the shield for regional Victoria. Instead, under the current administration, it has been turned into a tool for compliance.
- Never Fought, Only Managed: Throughout the five-year fight against the WRL, there is a distinct lack of any record where Settle stood up to the Energy Minister or the Premier to demand the undergrounding or better options of high-voltage lines.
- Ignoring the Alternative: Despite tireless advocacy for less impactful methods, such as using existing easements or modern underground technology, Settle has consistently failed to support the “alter Advocate.” By refusing to champion these viable alternatives, she has effectively endorsed the destructive overhead tower plan that threatens our communities.
The “Bust” Behind the “Boom”
This is where the local betrayal meets the broader economic reality Ben Fordham recently highlighted. Fordham argues that the “green boom” is going bust because of massive drops in investment and crippling delays.
When a Minister like Settle places a self-serving, party-first agenda ahead of her constituents, she is actually accelerating that “bust.”
- Investment Chill: Investors hate uncertainty and long-term legal warfare. By “railroading” landholders instead of finding a compromise (like undergrounding), the state government has created a five-year stalemate that makes Victoria a high-risk zone for energy infrastructure.
- The Reality Gap: You cannot claim to support “Agriculture and Regional Development” while simultaneously overseeing the bisection of prime farmland with high-voltage steel towers. This cognitive dissonance is why the government’s energy plan is stalling, it lacks the “social license” that only genuine listening could provide.
The Verdict
Michaela Settle’s recognition as Minister doesn’t demonstrate a government that cares about the regions; it demonstrates a government that is closing ranks. She is a Minister who will “assist” with the paperwork while the state government clears the land.
For the landholders who have been in the trenches for half a decade, this appointment confirms the worst: the “loyalists” are being rewarded for their silence, and the community is being treated as an obstacle to be cleared, rather than a partner to be heard.
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EUREKA: MAKE THE WRL THE MAIN TOPIC. ALL ELSE PALES IN COMPARISON!
THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO CONFRONT THE POLITICIANS. REGISTER NOW AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
The Western Renewables Link (WRL) is not just another election issue. For the communities in its path, it is a fight for our homes, our farms, our environment, our safety and our fundamental rights.
And Labor must be made to answer for it.
For more than six years, our community has fought against this project. We have witnessed what we believe to be an extraordinary disregard for landholders, serious questions over bushfire safety, escalating costs, government secrecy and the use of extraordinary powers to force this project forward.
Where is the transparency? Where is the accountability? And why should any Victorian trust a government that refuses to release critical project costings before an election?
These are questions Labor must face publicly, not hide behind another government press release.
On Tuesday 27 October, candidates for the seat of Eureka have been invited to a public election forum in Ballan.
WE NEED THE ROOM FULL. WE NEED THE WRL FRONT AND CENTRE. AND
WE NEED EVERY CANDIDATE TO STATE CLEARLY WHERE THEY STAND.
Do not allow the WRL to become a footnote in another election discussion. The consequences for our region are too serious, too permanent and too far-reaching.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A VFF MEMBER. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A FARMER.
You simply need to care about the future of our community.
EVENT DETAILS
- Tuesday 27 October 2026
- 7:00 pm
- Ballan Recreation Reserve
- Hosted by the Victorian Farmers Federation and Ballan & District Chamber of Commerce.
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.
This is an opportunity to demand straight answers, challenge the decisions being made in Melbourne and insist that those seeking to represent Eureka listen to the people who will live with the consequences.
DON’T LEAVE IT TO SOMEONE ELSE TO ASK THE QUESTIONS. BE THERE.
HOLD THE LINE. MAKE THE WRL IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE.
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THE $3 BILLION WARNING: WHEN SOCIAL LICENCE COLLAPSES, THE CONSEQUENCES FOLLOW
NEXTDC has discovered the financial cost of community opposition. Victoria’s Labor Government now confronts the political consequences of an unresolved battle over the Western Renewables Link.
In Melbourne’s inner west, a community fought back against industrial infrastructure being imposed near their homes.
The consequences were extraordinary.
Energy infrastructure delays, partly arising from community opposition, forced data centre giant NEXTDC to slash its earnings forecasts. Its shares plunged approximately 40 per cent, destroying billions of dollars in market value.
The message was unmistakable: ignoring community opposition can carry an enormous financial price.
Now consider the Western Renewables Link.
For more than six years, our farmers, landholders and regional community have challenged the project. We have raised concerns about property rights, bushfire risks, environmental impacts, agricultural livelihoods and the justification for the transmission infrastructure.
Yet the project has continued through successive planning and approval processes.
The Victorian Government maintains that new transmission infrastructure is essential to the state’s energy transition. Premier Ben Carroll has ordered an independent review of Western Renewables Link costs and promised greater transparency.
But that review is not expected to conclude until the end of 2026, after Victorians go to the polls on 28 November.
The financial cost of NEXTDC’s confrontation is already visible. The political cost of the Western Renewables Link remains to be determined.
Even Labor acknowledges the problem
The government’s own MP for Ripon, Martha Haylett, has publicly acknowledged that the project does not have social licence in her community.
That is not simply a criticism from opponents of the project. It is an admission from within the governing party that community acceptance remains unresolved.
There is a fundamental distinction between obtaining regulatory permission and earning public trust.
For affected landholders, consultation that does not produce meaningful changes may offer little reassurance, particularly when the consequences for their properties and livelihoods are permanent.
From shareholder confidence to voter confidence
The NEXTDC collapse offers a compelling comparison, but also an important distinction.
Investors respond to changing financial risks by buying or selling shares.
Voters assess governments across a far wider range of issues, including economic management, public services, policy decisions and trust.
Western Renewables Link is one of those issues, particularly in the regional
communities directly affected.
The opposition to the project has endured for years, and the November election provides a direct opportunity to test the political significance of that opposition.
The question is no longer simply whether Western Renewables Link can secure the approvals required for construction. It is whether a government can retain public confidence while proceeding with infrastructure that affected communities continue to reject.
In West Footscray, the absence of social licence became a costly commercial problem.
Across western Victoria, it has become a question of democratic accountability.
The financial markets have already delivered their verdict on NEXTDC’s downgraded expectations.
On 28 November, Victorians will deliver theirs on the government’s broader record.
And for Labor, the unresolved question of social licence will be part of that judgment.
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SHARE THIS NEWSLETTER – THE WRL WILL BE STOPPED. THIS FIGHT IS FAR FROM OVER!
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