Property Rights Australia (PRA) has been advised that signage displaying anti-Powerlink messages have been removed in Kilkivan.
I have significant concerns regarding the development of renewable projects and the roll out of high voltage powerlines and those concerns have been made public.
What is alarming is the removal of corflutes with the word ‘Powerlink’ written on them.
Have locals upset senior bureaucrats in the Department of Transport and Main Road (TMR)?
It seems locals have and these communities will continue to have my support and that of fair-minded Australians.
PRA has been advised that the following has taken place:
• The signs were removed without consultation with the owners of the signage;
• The signs have been officially confiscated and were taken to a TMR depot in Gympie;
• No compensation has been paid to the owners of the signs for their removal; and
• A senior official within TMR ordered the signs removed.
How does this happen in 2023? Have we upset senior management at TMR?
If so, tough luck, as it seems that the roll out of a utopian renewable energy future is to be built on the backs of rural and regional communities.
A Kilkivan local made the following observation, “Everyone in the community is walking around gobsmacked. Some even saying they cannot believe that something like this would happen here in Queensland.”
On behalf of PRA, I call on Minister de Brenni to respond to the following questions – did you or your office authorise the removal of signage or was the action taken by TMR alone and under what head of power?
– Jim Willmott
Interim Chair of PRA