Powercor: do the right thing

Residents from Ardeer and Sunshine West gathered this morning at Ardeer Station to travel to Parliament House to protest against high Voltage powerlines throught their suburb.

Geraldine had this to say at the rally: I am here today because, like you, I care about our neighbourhood and the future of our children. I want our government to listen and make powercor put the powerlines underground. And I want them to sort out how it is going to be paid for without expecting our community to pay for it

When powercor started to put up high voltage powerpoles through our neighbourhood without consulting us. They showed contempt for the impact on our families, and they gave no thought to the health of our children and the eyesore they were creating

They have thought only about the cheapest and most convenient construction method for themselves

Unfortunately when Powercor came back to us last week with a proposal to put the lines underground after we told them we would not accept their overhead powerlines, instead of being an offer in good faith, it seems it was a proposal full of deceit.

It sounds grand. $2million. But there is a catch…there is a $900,000 shortfall, making it worthless if the money can't be found somewhere.

This makes us ask: is this really a genuine offer to put the power lines underground, or is this a plan cooked up by the government and powercor to buy us off and make us think we are getting a good deal so that the embarrassing problem of us go away before the election


This government needs to listen because while it was the Kennet liberal government that sold the SEC for a quick buck, Brumby was part of the opposition that did nothing to fight it, so instead of the electricity company being owned by us , accountable to us, and acting in our best interests, we now have a multinational conglomerate who is answerable first and last to their shareholders

This multinational group that now owns Powercor ,Cheong Kong, posted a ½ yearly profit of over $1600 million this year. They can well afford to do the right thing

Our community want s these powerlines and any others planned for our area put underground. And we want this done at no cost to our council or our community.