Around Australia a small group of people are doing some of the heaviest lifting in the country's energy transition. They do this work without any recognition and with very few resources. If we want the transition to succeed this needs to change.
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The new energy infrastructure required in our regions is unprecedented in its scale and complexity. The latest Integrated System Plan estimates the cost of the transition as $122 billion. In each state there are regions that will host multiple local projects including transmission, wind, solar and storage. These projects are at various stages of development and within the next decade they all need to be completed if Australia is to meet its climate targets.
State and federal governments, energy regulators and agencies, and a whole suite of industry players have an army of professional people working to make the transition a reality.
In communities that will host the projects, the situation is very different. Here the work falls on the shoulders of just a few people either in local government or community groups. Their organisations are generally strapped for cash and capacity and their work is either voluntary or well beyond the scope of their day job.
Every regional leader working in these roles that I have spoken to identifies four common challenges.
The first is understanding what is going on. In the energy transition the range of industry players and government agencies working in the space is vast and confusing. As the Dyer review revealed, the quality and level of community engagement conducted by government, developers and utilities can vary enormously. This makes it incredibly difficult for local leaders to grasp what is actually being proposed and how it will impact their community.
The second challenge is managing community views and the inevitable local division that change like this creates. Most regions have a social media-fed, mini culture war on energy raging as well division between those who will benefit from projects and others who will get little or nothing. Building local consensus, and representing local views, in this environment is incredibly difficult.
The third challenge is negotiating benefits and resolving issues with government and industry. Being called - usually at short notice - into consultation sessions, these local leaders are expected to have sophisticated views on a wide range of topics. This includes the specific benefits their community wants from hosting projects and solutions for complex issues in housing, essential services access, workforce, land use and so on. For the most part, no one genuinely understands these issues at the local scale.
Overcoming these first three challenges is a difficult task but it's also possible given the talented and passionate people who take on these roles.
A prime example is in Hay in New South Wales, where the local council, led by economic development officer Ali McLean, has embraced the investment that's coming to their area. Working effectively in the local community, and with government and industry, Hay has defined a clear pathway for the community to benefit from hosting renewables and built community support.
As well as Ms McLean's exemplary leadership, a key difference in Hay was access to some additional resources and independent support.
Accessing these resources is the fourth challenge for local leaders. All feel stretched and overwhelmed by what's expected. None have a decent budget or a professional supporting team.
A project called Striking a New Deal is starting to change this. Led by a collaboration of not-for-profit organisations, the project is providing peer support for leaders like Ms McLean and currently has funding to provide one community with a year of tailored support to negotiate a good deal for their community.
Developed as a response to requests for support from communities, the project has rapidly built a network of local leaders. Interest in the community support component has come forward from regions and leaders in every state.
Striking a New Deal can show the way to independently resource communities to navigate the transition but it's not big enough to change the wider situation.
What's urgently needed is investment at scale. A very small part of the $122 billion transition budget provided as independent resources and support would be transformational for the community leaders being asked to bear so much responsibility with so little.
It would be transformational for progress in the energy transition and for the benefits that flow to places, like Hay, who play host to this massive change.
- Jack Archer is founder of ProjectsJSA, an adjunct research fellow at James Cook University and a former CEO of the Regional Australia Institute.
