But, they do not meet the landowners concerns regarding maintenance of the corridors and the liability that falls on the landowner because of the presence and upgrading of power lines on their properties. Federated Farmers preferred position was to see Clause 8 rejected in total. The changes to Clause 8 now proposed by the government allow line companies to upgrade power lines so long as there is no injurious effect on the environment and health of the landowners. This does not take account of the increased liability faced by landowners. The general public and Ministers do not understand that once a power line goes across a property the landowner is expected to maintain the corridor.
Costs can amount to many thousands of dollars a year.
Landowners have no way of recouping those costs. Landowners are also being forced to take out substantial public liability insurance to protect themselves from liability of outage and fire that may result from those lines. The costs of maintaining the corridor are part and parcel of the costs of distributing and transmitting electricity and must be included in the price of electricity.