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

I want to tell you about the consultation process. Last year I got home and there was a black plastic bag—a possibly decomposing plastic bag—on my front gate, telling me that we were going to have a one-kilometre-wide transmission zone going over our house. But it wasn't just my house; it was also the other houses in the valley, and this was the process of consultation.

Then we had the sneaky process where they took people down into halls; EnergyCo had everybody sitting in different corners, and you weren't allowed to talk to each other. We had these swindling overseas multinational wind companies, saying: 'We'll do you a deal, but you've got to keep the confidentiality clause. You can't tell anybody what you're doing, and we're going to put a caveat on your title once you do it.' This is the process that's happening.

Then we had the sneakiness of Minister Bowen, the minister for this, who's giving these overseas companies a deed-rate return but won't tell the parliament what it is. We hear that it could be around 15 to 18 per cent. They borrow the money at four per cent and they pocket the difference, whether they produce power or not. It is an absolute swindle, and who pays for it at the end? The taxpayer. What's happening to our power price? The price is going through the roof, the reliability is going through the floor and the money is going overseas. The money's going overseas.

We hear about the virtue of these renewables, yet who's responsible for the decommissioning and the rehabilitation when they get to the end of their life on the land? Has that problem been fixed up? Who's going to deal with these rusting pieces of filth on people's places? That's what they will be: rusting, decomposing pieces of filth, like they are in other parts of the world. Well, the farmer is responsible for the decommissioning. If those opposite believed it was virtuous they would underwrite the decommissioning, but of course they don't. Do the overseas companies, the multinationals, underwrite the decommissioning? No, they don't. This is all part of the swindle that's happening to us.

I want to give credit to the people who turned up today. The movement has started. The movement is growing, and we're going to go all the way with this. We're going to go all the way. I'd also like to acknowledge that it's not a National Party thing. There were Greens there today. There were people who are supporters of the Labor Party there today. You should've come out. There were a lot of Labor Party supporters, and they don't like being dismissed. Overwhelmingly they said the same thing: 'We can't see our local member.' Whether it's in Shortland, Paterson, Whitlam, Gilmore, Dobell or Eden-Monaro, these local members won't see their own constituents. And I can tell the member for Shortland that that ain't working for him.

We see this furphy of the 3,000 jobs. Where are these jobs? Where are they? I can tell you the towns that are put under threat, whether it's Cessnock, Kurri Kurri, Singleton, Biloela, Gunnedah or Muswellbrook, where there are workers. Where's this renewable town? Where's this town where all the renewable jobs are? They're fly-in fly-out contractors. A lot of them come in from overseas. You're also ripping off your own union members. You are ripping them off. Actually, when you look at it, the vast majority of you have never done a job. You haven't done any labouring in your life. There's not a labourer amongst the Labor Party.

They've said, 'You want have an election based around this.' Yes, I do—you got that one right. You've got that one absolutely right, because, when I went to Port Stephens and there were 3,000 people there, I got a sense that I wouldn't mind having an election on this issue. I've got a real sense of comfort about that. It was the same in the Illawarra, and when they're turning up here and at Martin Place. You are so conceited that you don't realise what's before you.

Now, Minister Conroy said he hadn't had one person contact his office. I'm sorry about that, so I'm going to help him out. Minister Conroy's phone number—and listen to this—is (02) 49479546. You should write that down, and I say to you, give him a bell. Give him a call. Ring him up because he's so lonely. He hasn't heard from you but, by gosh, he's going to hear from you now.

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