The Victorian Coalition, if elected in November, will scrap the Victoria to NSW Interconnector West project (VNI West).
But the Coalition’s plan to replace the 240km high-voltage overhead electricity transmission lines with more gas doesn’t stack up, according to the Grattan Institute’s Alison Reeve. She argues the supply of gas doesn’t exist.
Only opposition? There are 220 landholders on the “preferred easement” (the route of the lines) for VNI West, but it is unknown how many of them oppose it.
The project has not reached the stage where consent is tested by the number of people willing to host lines on their properties. Vicgrid, which is overseeing the project’s planning and development, says one-third of the properties have granted access for surveys.
Craig McIntosh is a sixth-generation sheep, cattle and crop farmer at Tragowel, near Kerang in Victoria’s north-west. He became interested in hosting lines after an earlier proposed route had met with resistance from some of those impacted.
🗣️ “[VNI West] was [initially] going to go through a route through Tragowel, and me and a few neighbours said, ‘Well if they’re against it, we both think we should be doing it, why not bring it up through our farms?’” McIntosh told the Brolga. “And so we proposed another route for them to go through.”
He reckons the split between locals in favour of the project and those against it is about 50/50.
🗣️ “I think the ones that are forward thinking and looking for the future can understand that it's projects like this that we need to do because it's been at least 60 years since we've done a project like this.”
Not enough info: McIntosh was critical of the Coalition’s decision to scrap the project without a detailed plan, adding “they’ve had four years to think about it”.
🗣️ “There’s so many benefits for towns along the way. We’re not just supplying Melbourne, we’re hooking up South Australia to Melbourne, to Sydney, to everywhere. We’ve got to look bigger than just our back paddock.”
Groups weigh in: Farmers for Climate Action has 1,900 farmer members in Victoria. The group conducted a survey with those members in early 2026, asking them the biggest pressures facing their day-to-day operations.
The farmers who responded listed dealing with natural disasters driven by climate change and water security as their main struggles - transmission was listed last.
Farmers Fightback have been running a national campaign strongly opposing the project.
Founder Ben Duxon told the Brolga the group was created in February for “exactly this”.
Shut it down: “One purpose. Stop VNI West … Six months later both the Coalition and One Nation have committed to scrapping the project. That is the campaign doing precisely what it was built to do. None of it was an accident,” Duxon said.
The Opposition and One Nation say they would cancel VNI if elected. But what would this mean for the state and its power supply?
The background: VNI West would run from Bulgana in Victoria’s west to Tragowel in the north before connecting with the NSW section north of Kerang. It would connect Victoria to NSW to increase electricity flow between the states.
Director of Energy for the Grattan Institute, Alison Reeve, told the Brolga energy prices would be lowered if Victoria had access to surplus solar generation from NSW, particularly during cloudy periods when Victorians relied on expensive gas-fired power.
Gas shortage: The Liberals and Nationals have said more permits for gas exploration would be made available to increase the state’s supply, but Reeve questioned the logic behind this.
🗣️ “I don’t think there would be enough gas there for a significant new development to significantly change the supply for Victoria. You can explore all you like, but if the gas isn’t there, it’s not there. This is one of the things about a finite resource, and gas is a finite resource, is that once you’ve burned it up, it’s gone.”
Around 90 percent of Victoria's commercially-viable gas reserves have already been consumed, according to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water of Australia’s 2025 Australian Energy Statistics and Geoscience Australia's 2025 Energy Commodity Resources.
What about coal? If the project is cancelled and Victoria runs out of gas, the other option is coal-fired power.
🗣️ “The thing is all coal-fired power stations in Victoria are privately owned, and the people who own those power stations have been very clear about how long they want to run them for,” Reeve said.
Gippsland’s Yallourn Power Station is set to shut down in mid 2028 and owner Energy Australia has repeatedly confirmed the station will close on schedule.
If coal is extended as a result, Reeve said, “it will be more expensive, and you’ll either see that on your electricity bill, or you’ll see it as a taxpayer”.