'Acquiring Social Licence for Electricity Transmission' is an important policy paper that advocates for much-needed reform and makes recommendations to better facilitate delivery of electricity transmission projects. Unless addressed, the current framework will continue to erode opportunities to acquire social licence.

External costs should be considered in transmission planning to rebalance the true benefits, this will lead to greater market efficiency and environmental sustainability. The evaluation of the external costs could be of great help during the cost-benefit analysis, allowing the negative impacts to be considered in the process to identify the optimal transmission development path.

The transition to renewable energy generation must be harmonised with broader environmental goals to enable the exploitation of co-benefits and minimise negative socioeconomic and environmental impacts. Underground HVDC options should be deployed, using existing rights-of-way where technically feasible.

The transition to renewable energy generation in the name of climate change must not degrade the environment and biodiversity we are striving to protect. It is critical that electricity network planners seriously consider Wedge-tailed Eagle nesting, territory and habitat requirements.

Energy Grid Alliance have developed a paper that focuses on Engineering Bushfire Resilience - Best Practice Approach to Transmission Line Routing. This paper recommends that good engineering design will ensure any new infrastructure route does not lead to unsustainable deterioration in grid resilience.