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

Yes, HumeLink. All these places have become part of the battle for our rights in regional Australia. If the member for Fremantle had been present in the halls that we go to, he would hear people say that they feel that they've been completely usurped of their rights, where billionaires have come in and basically schmoozed their way to take the rights away from individuals. If they had the temerity to say, 'Well, we're going to put these swindle factories off the coast of Fremantle,' we could do that. We could have the Fremantle doctor come in, but, no, they won't do that. When you say, 'Well, you could put them off Bondi. They'd work perfectly well there,' no, they won't do that. When you say, 'You could put them in Middle Head. They would work well there,' no, they won't do that.

These swindle factories and these fields of photovoltaic black have all the aesthetic pleasure and the electronic efficacy of a dog fouling your lawn in the morning, yet we have to put up with them. You talk about what happens with nuclear. If you gave us the conditions that you propose for them, then we would have so much more to say and people would be able to ventilate these issues. What you have done in places such as St Arnaud and what you are doing is schmoozing your way and saying how good and how virtuous it is. But, when we say, 'If you believe it's virtuous, why don't you underwrite the dismantling and rehabilitation of the land? Why don't you look after the environment and underwrite their dismantling and rehabilitation, like you would have to if it were a coalmine?' they say: 'No, we're not doing that. That remains with the farmer.'

It's $600,000 a tower. Where does that come from? Their own former ombudsman Andrew Dyer. What farmer do you think has $600,000 a tower? None. So what's going to happen to the countryside? It will become a wasteland. What happens before that? The banks turn up and say, 'We're going to have to impair this asset because you have a contingent liability resting against it.' If you believe that's wrong, do something about it. Come in here and pass the legislation that says you will underwrite the dismantling. But, no, you won't do that. This is a swindle. This is a rip-off. This is wrong.

I'll tell you why it's wrong. It's because at the end of this are billionaires collecting this money and these multinational companies ripping off the Australian citizen. They are being underwritten in secret agreements and capital investment schemes, which we can't get the details about because of commercial in confidence and them not telling us. Basically, it is a free kick in front of the post. You underwrite a billionaire from overseas to build a swindle factory. You underwrite it; you pay for it! But guess who does pay for it? At the end of this is a pensioner. At the end of this is a person who can't afford their power bill. At the end of this is an economy—

Honourable members interjecting—

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