Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the wind-farm industry, which is taking a large hold in my electorate of Grey. In the next 10 years South Australia will generate 20 per cent of its electricity by wind power, much of this within my electorate. I was recently at the opening of the Snowtown wind farm by TrustPower, a New Zealand group which has invested heavily in the area. There was a fantastic crowd at Snowtown that day for the opening. The crowd gathered around one of the blades off a generator which the company has put on permanent display there. For anyone who has never been anywhere near a wind farm, it is quite an eye-opener and an awesome experience to walk underneath this blade and see how big it is. I encourage people in my electorate to drop in and have a look. It will become a great tourist drawcard for Snowtown.

Wind farms do not come without some penalty. I have quite a bit of contact about this in my office and there are people who believe that they mar the landscape, but I think that is something we should live with. There are others who believe that the lighting regime on the wind towers is an extreme interference to their lives. I have quite some sympathy for this. In some places around Hallett, Yankalilla and now around Snowtown, we are seeing wind farms go up on both sides of a valley. People sit outside on summer evenings, as they have always done, on their back porches looking out. The lights are quite strong. They flash in unison and are in full view. If you are down in a valley below a wind farm, they are at about 10 or 15 degrees on your horizon. Some people claim that it interferes with their mental health. However I think it is something that they should not have to put up with. I would not say that if I could not think of a solution, and I can.

The Commonwealth Aviation Safety Authority are currently looking at the guidelines on wind farms. The simple solution is that the wind towers should be shielded below the 180-degree plateau from the top of the tower—this means about 400 feet for the wind tower, so it is still under the lowest safe flying altitudes. Anybody flying an aircraft at night would clearly see these lights as they approached the towers, but those who sit below the level of the tower will not see the lights.

We also have extreme intensity on these lights and they are situated on every second tower, at least. I think both of those regulations should be considered, in so much as many of these wind farms are very remote from aerodromes. As modern aeroplanes all now fly on a GPS navigation system, there is really not much excuse not to know where the hills are and to be flying below a safe altitude, which certainly anyone flying at night would not be doing. As a holder of a private pilots licence with a night endorsement I can certainly tell you that is not my practice.

While this may seem to be an issue that might not concern a lot of people, it is a concern for those who live around the wind towers. The wind farms are unashamedly good. They are good for our economy, they are good for the environment and they are certainly good for regional employment. They are a great example of regionalised industry, of taking industry out of the cities into the regions and supporting local communities. So I fully support them. But I do think those that take issue with the lighting have good grounds for complaint. I have written to CASA about this and I have spoken to the local media in my electorate, and I am following it up.

There is also some interest from the Broken Hill region. Most of you would have read in the paper a plan for a 600-tower wind farm at Silverton. If this regulation should come back before the federal parliament I hope that members of this House would not just push it away and say, ‘What are they worried about a few red lights for?’ I think it is an issue of importance to these people. As I said at the beginning, it is an issue that we can do something about. It is not hard to fix and we should do so.