Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that industrial scale reckless renewable energy proposals, and their associated transmission lines are economically, socially and environmentally untenable for the following reasons:

(a) they involve significant land clearing and invasive construction, destroying prime agricultural land, native bushland and wildlife habitats;

(b) the location and proximity of transmission lines lead to the devaluation of land and the interruption of agricultural businesses;

(c) the proposals divide communities and cause mental anguish; and

(d) the costs of these proposals are prone to blow out; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) impose a moratorium on industrial scale renewable energy projects until the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is amended to require the automatic referral of such projects for assessment under the Act;

(b) support a Senate inquiry into the economic, social and environmental impacts of industrial scale reckless renewable energy projects, and their associated transmission lines;

(c) conduct a thorough and transparent feasibility study into the alternative development of next generation zero-emission nuclear technology as a future sustainable energy source;

(d) require state and territory governments to avoid the use of private land for projects and transmission lines where such projects attract Commonwealth funding; and

(e) work with state and territory governments to review energy and transmission line project evaluation processes to ensure that environmental, social and economic impacts are given full consideration as part of the assessment process.

The genesis of this motion calling for greater scrutiny of industrial-scale, land-intensive intermittent electricity generation projects lies in the distress and despair that are leaving lives in tatters in my seat of Wide Bay. Not much is more sacred than the family home, and in regional Australia that family home also includes a block of land. It's part of our vernacular: the great Australian dream.

That dream involves a block of land for business, to garden, to farm, to keep as native bush or to do whatever you like with because it's your land. Unreliable energy and associated transmission lines are taking the great Australian dream for many of my people and turning it into a nightmare. What people have worked their entire lives or for generations for is under threat by Labor governments intent on making electricity bills more expensive and energy unreliable.

One constituent bought her rural block for the trees, but the transmission lines, when finished, will leave her no mature trees on her block whatsoever. Another spent $9,000 planning their dream family home, and the transmission lines would run right through her living room if she built that home; it's completely unviable. People fight for years, writing submissions and enduring meaningless bureaucratic consultation sessions thousands of hours away from their family and work after being channelled into stopping massive transmission lines and industrial-scale energy projects from destroying their homes and communities.

Last week, climate change minister Chris Bowen announced subsidies for another 32 gigawatts of unreliable energy. That is equivalent to half the national energy market. He has yet to release the cost, how much land will be required for the projects or how many properties will be acquired to connect them to the grid. For example, a single solar farm in my electorate at Munna Creek requires 460 hectares. The Lower Wonga Solar Farm will require up to 600 hectares. Forest Wind, between Maryborough and Gympie, spreads 226 wind turbines over 226 hectares. Borumba Pumped Hydro will inundate up to 1,500 hectares. At this rate, Wide Bay will be inundated and carpeted in solar panels to achieve Labor's policy.

Professor Simon Bartlett, the former COO of Powerlink, says the $14.2 billion Borumba scheme will need to be switched off during an El Nino weather event. This Thursday will be another dark day, when Powerlink reveals which properties will go under the proposed Borumba transmission lines to Woolooga, which will involve ripping up between 54 and 83 kilometres of forest. A farmer can't cut down a tree, but foreign developers can flatten thousands of hectares to build wind factories, solar plants and hydro-impoundments, with their transmission lines cutting scars across Wide Bay. Labor's policy is fundamentally flawed and will ultimately be unnecessary, and the landowners are rightfully distressed. So-called renewables supply about 30 per cent of our electricity. As it is, to meet the Albanese government's targets, these renewables must supply 82 per cent of the electricity by 2030.

Land-intensive, intermittent power generation projects will cause irreversible damage to homes, communities and prime agricultural land while destroying the environment and natural wildlife habitats. The same people who are so strongly advocating this 80 per cent target and espouse the social virtues of countries like Canada and Norway are conspicuously silent when those countries' embrace of nuclear power comes up. For families facing diving property values and places they can't farm or build their homes on anymore, the stress, anguish and mental health toll is rising.

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