Group challenges Victorian energy policy after pledge to cancel major grid
RE-Alliance has challenged One Nation to identify which regional Victorian communities it expects to host nuclear reactors after the party unveiled a state energy policy that would overturn Victoria’s nuclear ban.
On 2 September 2026, the advocacy group said regional residents were being told which energy projects One Nation would cancel, but not what would replace them. The policy, released on Monday, would cancel VNI West, the Western Renewables Link and other major transmission projects, scrap net-zero targets and remove the state’s prohibition on nuclear energy.
Andrew Bray, RE-Alliance’s national director, said communities deserved a credible and costed alternative. He said One Nation still had not named where reactors would go, what they would cost or when they would produce electricity.
“You cannot claim to defend regional communities from unwanted infrastructure and then refuse to identify the communities that would carry the impacts of your alternative,” Bray said.
Bray also said Victoria needed an honest debate about how ageing coal generation would be replaced and how regional communities could benefit from the infrastructure built next.
Regional concerns focus on planning and benefits
He said anger over parts of Victoria’s renewable energy rollout was real. However, he argued that cancelling essential infrastructure would not solve the concerns communities had already raised.
Those concerns include earlier engagement, fairer benefit sharing and better planning for pressure on housing, roads, local services and local workforces when several projects arrive at once. Bray said that was different from rejecting renewable energy outright.
Regional Victorians had not been asking parties to tear up years of planning, he said. Instead, they wanted better consultation and management of local impacts.
CSIRO and AEMO back transmission build
CSIRO estimates Australia’s first nuclear generation would take at least 15 years after legal restrictions were removed. Its latest GenCost work also found solar PV and onshore wind form the basis of Australia’s least-cost electricity generation mix.
Meanwhile, AEMO’s 2026 Integrated System Plan says VNI West is needed and will help connect more renewable energy in western Victoria. AEMO also found that building new transmission as coal-fired power stations close is the lowest-cost way to keep the electricity system reliable.
Bray said every party contesting the Victorian election should commit to implementing and enforcing VicGrid’s requirements for community engagement, benefit sharing and management of local impacts.
One Nation had not identified any proposed reactor towns, project costings or a start date for electricity generation in the policy cited by RE-Alliance.
