Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The honourable member opposite has become mute about his seat because he doesn't want it mentioned on record, because he does not want wind towers and new solar farms in his electorate.

What about the people in Middle Head? There's a great site there. You could have a few wind towers, just a few—three or four—and maybe three or four at North Head down in Sydney, and we'd just run a few transmission lines across Mosman. It's alright—it's showing your virtue! It's being authentic about your virtue. Quite obviously, and I understand, that would be an abhorrence. But why do you think we would want them? Why do you think we would want them in our electorates, if you don't want to be staring at one for the rest of your life?

It's something that will ultimately be out of date. It's static technology in a dynamic environment, and, ultimately, static technology goes out of date. And then you're stuck with them. You're stuck with this filth. It just sits there and, like in other countries—in California and other parts of the world—they just rust. It costs about $350,000 to put one up and about $750,000 to pull one down. When you've got something that's out of date, do you need transmission lines to something that's out of date? No. This is the problem that we're creating in this sort of Wizard of Oz 'wear green glasses' environment which we've created.

I believe that we will look back at this time in about—it won't even take that long—five years and say: 'They were proposing 82 per cent renewables by 2030? They never got there; it was ridiculous.' I'm not saying for one second that renewables are not part of the plan, not for one second, but there's a difference between saying, 'I need carrots for dinner,' and, 'I'm going to live on a diet of carrots.' It's an entirely different concept. There's a difference between saying, 'I like sugar in my tea,' and saying, 'I want to drink a cup full of sugar.' This is the sort of logic that we've got from the Labor Party and the Greens.

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