INDUSTRY, Energy and Resources Minister Lily D'Ambrosio has applauded the Northern Grampians Shire Council's moves to issue a planning permit for the Bulgana wind farm.
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In Stawell to discuss numerous issues including renewable energy last week, Ms D'Ambrosio said the $465 million project was an exciting development for the municipality.
"It is an exciting development," she said.
"It is a half a billion dollar project that is going to provide hundreds of construction jobs and 20 ongoing jobs into the future.
"I commend the Northern Grampians Shire Council for making a terrific decision."
Ms D'Ambrosio dismissed concerns the council had showed haste by moving to issue the permit at a specially convened meeting last week.
"The local council is the planning authority for that project and I imagine that they undertook all of the relevant and appropriate consultation processes to reach the decision that they have reached and I certainly welcome that decision," she said.
"Renewable energy is an important growth sector and jobs creator for regional Victoria, so I am very pleased to see that the Northern Grampians Shire also supports that."
The State Government had just days earlier announced that from Thursday (April 2) Minister for Planning, Richard Wynne would become the responsible authority on renewable energy permits.
"The announcement was that we would change the planning regime to allow a greater number of wind farms to be approved in Victoria," Ms D'Ambrosio said.
"The Planning Minister will become the planning authority for new proposals for winds farms and we believe that is an important step to generate, attract and facilitate investment in renewable energy here in Victoria and grow those jobs."
Ms D'Ambrosio said community consultation will continue to be an important part of any future wind farm proposals.
"We believe that people will continue to have opportunities to input into the Planning Minister's consideration of any proposals that come before him," she said.
"Importantly, renewable energy projects of the scale that we've seen supported by the Northern Grampians Shire are of state significance.
"These are projects that generate hundreds of millions of dollars worth of economic benefits, investment and jobs.
"It is imperative and appropriate for the Planning Minister to become the planning authority for such projects."
