Shared leases for Silverton windfarm

Barrier Daily Truth
Saturday 3/5/2008 Page: 5

The Silverton Wind Farm looks likely to go ahead under shared lease arrangements between the developer and four local graziers, according to one of the landholders involved. Nigel Lawrence said the State Government has changed direction from originally wanting to resume parts of their Western Lands lease holdings for the Epuron wind farm. The Government had argued resumption of the land was necessary to ensure the $2 billion Epuron wind farm had security of tenure.

It is now proposed a parallel lease arrangement be established under a legislative change to the Western Lands Act, Mr Lawrence told BDT yesterday. It would mean Epuron gets offered a sub-lease arrangement by each leaseholder to erect wind turbines on their land. The project involves up to 500 turbines, located across four properties. "We still retain the land and the Government retains an interest in the land, like a shared occupation," said Mr Lawrence.

He said it appeared a positive move providing the graziers don't lose their Western Lands lease rights. "I prefer this option, it's simple and the government doesn't get so much control of it. "There is a couple of issues with it, which we will analyse legally (when it arrives). "(But) we're heading in the right direction," he said. Mr Lawrence added the Government has assured them that any decision must have their consent first. A spokesperson for Minister for Lands, Tony Kelly, said no decision has been made yet and negotiations are continuing with the leaseholders. "We're not making any comment and have nothing to say until a decision is made," he told BDT.

"Any deal has to first go to Cabinet and I can't preempt what Cabinet is going to say." Mr Lawrence said Epuron and Macquarie Bank (its financial backer) have indicated they would be happy with the parallel lease proposal. Epuron did not return BDT's calls yesterday. Compensation, however, remains a grey area, said Mr Lawrence. "The Government would have the power to say how much revenue they get, but I would like to sit at the table and get that issue sorted." He said the graziers also aim to keep the government accountable to directing its compensation towards the local community.

"It's a good thing the community gets a benefit and we have objections to the Government taking the money out of the community. "We'll make sure the money stays here" Mr Lawrence said the Government's stance on resuming the land had been swayed by a submission they presented in March. "We were able to reveal a few things the Government is unable to legitimately do and we argued withdrawing the land would have legal ramifications." He said a particularly "sensitive" issue was also pointed out, but would not reveal details.

The Government responded with a number of alternatives, some of which didn't please everyone, said Mr Lawrence. One was to grant Epuron a licence to use the land, which Mr Lawrence said would have been good for the leaseholders, but which Epuron was not happy with. "They would have lost security of tenure... and their bank (Macquarie) wanted more security." He said this option demonstrated the Government's initial move to withdraw the land was a grab for revenue.

"It's contradictory, because the Government intervened in the first place to give them security of tenure" Another was to resume land in "pods" around each turbine. "That's not practical, it would be an administrative nightmare... the only ones to gain out of that would be the surveyors," said Mr Lawrence. Mr Lawrence said the graziers are now waiting to meet with Department of Lands' representatives to discuss the details of the parallel lease plan.

He said he had also recently visited other wind farms and considered the impact on the environment from a wind farm would be minimal. "There's little disturbance from noise, but there's obviously a visual affect... that's one of the reasons we are getting compensation" He said the Silverton community will benefit if Epuron established a community fund to be spent on town facilities. "You can't stop this project going ahead. "So you may as well get the most out of it."