Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Indi for moving this motion. It's a very important one. The energy transition is Australia's moonshot moment, a window of opportunity to not only transition our country to a low-emission economy but revitalise our industrial base, with our cities and regions the beneficiaries. I had a glimpse of the future on a visit to Mt Gellibrand Wind Farm, just outside Geelong, recently. Operated by Spanish wind giant ACCIONA, 44 wind turbines are co-located on a sheep farm—climate action and agriculture in harmony. The blades were turning, and the only sound was the crunch of our footsteps on gravel and the baying of sheep and cattle. The wind farm has created 40 kilometres of access roads, enabling the farmer to move his gear and animals around, improving his productivity.

The financial benefits of wind farms are enticing. With landlords earning between $5,000 and $7,000 per turbine, this tidy little earner has brought farms back from the brink, providing a buffer against the vagaries of climate or economic downturns. Wind farms have helped build resilience on multiple fronts—for our farmers, who are on the front line of climate change; for communities, who support these farms; and for the energy grid, which is retreating from coal. It is in no-one's interest to have people who know the land leave the land. After all, we can't eat iPhones. Wind farms are helping farmers stay put.

Aside from the environmental and economic benefits, there are cultural benefits of wind farms. When scoping the land, it is not uncommon to find ancient human remains or artefacts like stone tools. Companies work with local First Peoples and farmers to manage these scenarios without blocking economic progress. The juxtaposition of cutting-edge technology rooted in ancient land is striking. Remote sensing allows continuous monitoring in Spain, which enables workers to fix any issues that have arisen overnight. The whole operation is geared for efficiency.

Sadly, this wind farm was delimited, like a fast car, to half its capacity, because of congestion in the grid. This is why the Albanese government is investing $20 billion in modernising our electricity grid so that renewable energy projects can operate at full capacity. We need the same communities who are benefiting from wind farms to support the build-out of transmission, or net zero will elude us. A diverse workforce is required to set up and operate wind farms, ranging from civil engineers to planners, IT specialists, electrical engineers, people with industrial ropes expertise and turbine blade repairers. I met workers who start at 7 am and clock off at 3 pm to pick up their kids and take them to after-school sport. This is a level of work-life balance many of these men have not experienced.

'Australia is open for business' is what our Climate Change Act declared, but we have some catching up to do. In terms of installed wind energy capacity, in 2021, China leads the world with 329 gigawatts, then the US at 132 gigawatts, Germany at 63, India at 40, Spain and the UK at 27, and France at 18. Australia is currently at 11 gigawatts of capacity but has the potential, according to the Blue Economy CRC, to produce 2,233 gigawatts from offshore wind alone, far more than we need domestically, pointing to its huge export potential. Arguments for nuclear are blown offshore by wind.

The winds of change have started blowing since the Albanese government came to power. We announced the release of two offshore wind zones in the Bass Strait, off Gippsland, and in the Hunter as part of six proposed regions. In November last year, after a wasted decade, we announced that Australia was joining the Global Offshore Wind Alliance, which aims to achieve at least 380 gigawatts of global offshore wind capacity by 2030. This is no small feat, considering that the IEA expects that offshore wind capacity will need to exceed 2,000 gigawatts in 2050, from its mere 60 gigawatts right now, to limit a rise in temperatures to less then 1.5 degrees.

There is no getting to net zero without wind energy, and Australia has a box seat thanks to its natural endowments and policy certainty. But, like farmers who have sniffed the wind, we need communities to help us cut delays and support transmission so that we can turn wind into green electrons and greener dollars.

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