Glen Innes Severn Council is calling for a fairer funding model to ensure communities across the New England Renewable Energy Zone share in the benefits of the region’s energy transition.
Mayor Margot Davis is urging residents, businesses and community organisations to have their say on EnergyCo NSW’s Community and Employment Benefit Program before consultation closes on September 18.
Council has lodged two related submissions with EnergyCo, advocating for a transparent and locally accountable approach to distributing benefits from the New England REZ.
The first submission, addressing the Draft New England REZ Access Scheme Declaration, focused on the rules and funding structure underpinning the REZ, including transmission infrastructure, access scheme fees, administration costs and transparency around community benefit funding.
The second focuses on how Community and Employment Benefit Program funding should be distributed across the region.
“The Declaration submission was about getting the rules right. The CEBP submission is about making sure the benefits are then distributed fairly and transparently,” Davis said.
“Glen Innes Severn is not hosting the major new transmission project, and we are not suggesting our impacts are the same as communities that are.”
“But renewable energy is not new to our community. We have been living alongside renewable energy development for many years, well before the New England REZ was established.”
Council is proposing a 30/70 funding model, with 30 per cent of available funding reserved for local government areas assessed as being most affected by new REZ transmission infrastructure.
The remaining 70 per cent would be distributed across all LGAs wholly or partly within the New England REZ.
Davis said the proposal was designed to recognise communities facing greater impacts while ensuring others involved in the REZ were not excluded.
“This is not about every community receiving the same amount,” she said. “It is about having a fair system where communities experiencing greater impacts receive greater recognition, while every participating LGA has a clear pathway to benefit.”
Council is also calling for a guaranteed base allocation, with additional weighting based on factors including transmission infrastructure, renewable energy development, housing and workforce pressures, impacts on roads and local services, geographic dispersion and the scale of development relative to population.
It wants EnergyCo to publish the criteria, data sources and weightings used to determine allocations.
Council argues communities should not have to compete against each other for their share of REZ funding.
Instead, it wants geographic allocations determined first, followed by local processes to decide how eligible funding is spent within individual communities.
“Communities should not have to win a regional grant competition just to establish whether they receive a share of the benefits,” Davis said. “EnergyCo should set the eligibility, probity and accountability requirements, but local communities should have a genuine say in determining which eligible investments will deliver the greatest long-term benefit.”
Council is also supporting direct allocations to councils, with existing Community Strategic Plans, Delivery Programs, Operational Plans and community engagement processes used to determine local priorities.
Dedicated community funding would remain available within each LGA allocation.
Council is seeking assurances that Community and Employment Benefit Program funding would be additional to normal NSW Government investment and would not replace infrastructure, services or funding normally provided by the state.
Davis encouraged Glen Innes Severn residents, businesses, farmers, community groups and young people to take part in the consultation before it closes.
“The Access Scheme Declaration consultation has closed, but the Community and Employment Benefit Program consultation is still open, and this is the opportunity for our community to have a direct say on how these benefits should be shared.”
“If you support transparent funding, recognition of different levels of impact, local decision-making and a fair pathway to benefit for participating communities, I encourage you to take a few minutes to complete the EnergyCo survey.”
“This framework could shape community investment across the New England REZ for many years, so it is important that EnergyCo hears directly from the communities that will live with and alongside the energy transition.”
“Our position is simple: impact should determine allocation fairly, local communities should determine priorities, and competition between REZ communities should determine neither.”
The Community and Employment Benefit Program consultation closes on September 18.
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