– Thomasen Knight, Regional Programs Manager, RE-Alliance.
The Western Australian State Government recently released its Community Benefit Guideline.
The guideline is designed to support communities to realise the opportunities of the state’s energy shift. It covers large-scale renewable energy projects connected in the state’s main electricity network.
Leaders on the ground are expressing relief – they’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of the community benefit guideline since the state government’s consultation period ended mid-last year. They’re now all keen to roll up their sleeves and get stuck into developing the detail, through the pilot program.
We’re seeing significant interest in this guideline from further afield too. Many eyes across the country are watching closely as this system rolls out, with the regional approach to community benefits management standing out as a novel development in the Australian context.
Key features of the new guideline include:
- They’re voluntary: the expectation is that developers make in-principle commitments to community benefits, before applying for development approval.
- They’re geographically restricted for the time being, to large-scale renewable energy projects connected in the South West Interconnected System.
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A regional approach is built into the structure:
- Regional Development Commissions will take on an administrative role, acting as fund ‘custodians’.
- Community Benefit Plans, which are localised regional strategic roadmaps for benefit expenditure, will be developed through independent facilitation, funded by PoweringWA.
- Community Benefits Advisory Groups are to direct how funds are spent, based on what’s in the Community Benefit Plans. They will be representative of the communities they cover, made up of local government organisations, community groups, Traditional Owners, local Aboriginal organisations and more. PoweringWA is funding an independent organisation to develop and establish these groups.
- This is a pilot program, which will include four Shires from the Wheatbelt region, the Wheatbelt Development Commission and other stakeholders.
From our conversations with leaders in the Wheatbelt, we’ve also heard:
- Shires don’t want regionally-significant legacy projects at the cost of localised community legacy projects; they want both, they want the latter to be prioritised.
- Regional collaboration could be a new way of working for some Shires and organisations, and it’s important we recognise the effort and support needed to make this work.
- Detail is needed around governance and inclusive processes, to ensure that both Community Benefit Advisory Groups and Community Benefit Plans are truly representative of their communities, and that communities are truly directing community benefit fund expenditure. The pilot program will help progress this.
A question for us is how WA First Nations communities and organisations feel about their inclusion as per the new guideline. Is participation in Community Benefit Advisory Groups useful, or is a different approach needed — one where First Nations communities hosting large-scale renewable energy infrastructure have their own dedicated pool of funds, for example?
To wrap up, the guideline is a strong step forward. We believe that the concerns we’ve heard expressed, and remaining questions, can be successfully addressed with real collaboration from all stakeholders involved. We’re looking to the pilot phase as a shared opportunity to refine the approach, so communities end up with strong, clear, fair and practical guidelines across the whole state.
You can read more about the new guideline on the WA State Government’s webpage.