Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, they're not; all the blades end up in landfills. I've spoken to the proponents of different wind turbine projects, and they've said they're simply not—same as all the concrete on the bottom of them. I said, 'Can you put another tower on top of that?' They said, 'Absolutely not, because everything moves them around and they've got to be totally replaced.' It is a cost of $600,000 to replace one of these wind turbines; that is the cost now.

When you compare these costs to nuclear, which is going to last 80 years, you need to compare all the capital and do the sums on all the capital. You keep talking about renewables being the cheapest form of energy, but you can't just take through the middle of the day a solar panel between 10 and two—I've got solar at my house, a 15-kilowatt system. For those opposite, that would probably run a couple of mid-sized air conditioners. The other day I was having a look at my system, and it was putting out 600 watts. That's not enough to drill a hole; that won't even run a power drill. This is what happens when you have unreliable, intermittent technology. What's their answer to the intermittent, unreliable technology? 'I know; we'll double down on it. We'll build twice as much, three times as much, so that we have more and more intermittent, unreliable electricity.' What other components could you actually buy anywhere else, where you can go and say, 'I want to buy something,' and get told, 'Oh, no, we're not selling you that today'? It's very important that we have power 24/7 in this country, and power we can afford.

What's currently happening with power costs? In my electorate they're getting so expensive. I went to an animal shelter the other day, and I said, 'How are you going with this?' They said, 'We have never been so busy.' People are being forced to give up their pets, their children's pets, their loved pets, because they can't afford to pay the energy bill. I think that is absolutely disgraceful, and I think those opposite should be doing something about that.

Have a look at what's currently happening with manufacturing. You talk about manufacturing. You're never going to get manufacturing in this country until you get energy under control. Energy prices are going through the roof, and you need energy 24/7—otherwise the capital expenditure on manufacturing simply does not work. My recommendation to those opposite is: do the actual numbers. Have a look at what's happening to your power bills. Have a look at the 28,000 kilometres of power lines you want to build—not telegraph lines; that's actually for phone things. Even your energy minister has no idea— (Time expired)

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