Too late, too brief, too short-term? Temporal (in)justice in planning for electricity transmission in regional Australia

While energy justice scholarship has theorised distributive, procedural and (increasingly) recognition aspects of justice in energy transitions, temporal dimensions of justice – which apply across these three aspects – remain comparatively under-developed. Temporal injustices manifest, for example, when communities are engaged too late to influence key project decisions, inadequate time is allocated for meaningful deliberation, planning horizons privilege short-term delivery over long-term social and environmental consequences, or shifting project timelines generate uncertainty and failure to address climate change. These temporal injustices negatively affect regional communities hosting energy infrastructure and undermine public support for the energy transition, yet they have received limited attention and are rarely framed as matters of justice. Achieving a fair and effective energy transition entails a temporal paradox: urgent climate action demands rapid infrastructure deployment, yet democratic governance requires adequate time for participation. Transmission lines represent an under-studied case for temporal justice analysis, that intersects with their distinctive spatial dimensions: these (geographically and temporally) long infrastructure projects affect multiple communities over long planning horizons; they generate concentrated local costs for diffuse national benefits realised over decades-long asset lifespans; and their planning involves multi-level governance processes that unfold across the different temporal rhythms of federal, state, and regional decision-making. Australia's current efforts to expand electricity transmission infrastructure – driven by the imperatives of connecting renewable energy zones and retiring coal-fired generation – involves highly contentious energy infrastructure conflicts, with community opposition frequently centring on procedural and temporal grievances, not just material concerns. In this paper, we ask three interrelated research questions: How do current Australian policy and regulatory frameworks for transmission planning address (or fail to address) the temporal dimensions of energy justice? How do communities affected by transmission infrastructure in regional Victoria conceptualise temporal (in)justice, and what temporal dimensions are most salient to their experience of energy transition governance? What institutional and regulatory reforms could better integrate temporal justice into transmission planning processes in ways that are democratically legitimate and practically viable? To answer these questions, we first analyse how temporal dimensions are considered in Australian federal and state policy documents, regulatory frameworks, and consultation guidelines governing transmission planning in Victoria, a state that is undergoing an intensive transmission buildout. Next, by analysing public submissions and previous studies, we review documented perspectives of regional communities in Victoria who have been – or stand to be – directly affected by planned transmission projects, including landholders, community organisation representatives, local government officials, and Traditional Owners. Through thematic analysis, we explore how participants experience and articulate temporal aspects of transmission planning processes, and what they identify as temporal injustices. We pay particular attention to three critical temporal dimensions: temporal horizons for transmission planning; timing of community engagement; duration of community deliberation. By foregrounding community perspectives alongside policy analysis, this paper contributes both to energy justice theory and to practical debates about how Australia can pursue a more temporally just energy transition.