Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about my very strong support for the environment. Over the last 18 months, since I was elected, I have been a passionate defender of the environment. I represent Corangamite, a beautiful part of Australia with many wonderful environmental assets. So it was with great pride I announce the recipients of the Surf Coast Solar Towns program rolled out in Corangamite. There were $300,000 of community grants, showing our government's very strong commitment to renewable energy and our very strong commitment to communities that are working so hard to deliver clean, green power to their community.

I say to the Torquay Surf Lifesaving Club—and to Noel Dubberley—a very warm congratulations. Noel has been a great advocate of this program. The Torquay Surf Lifesaving Club incurs an electricity bill of about $25,000 a year. This $20,000 grant they have received will help drive down their electricity costs by about $5,000 a year. This is a wonderful grant and this saving will occur year after year. It is really wonderful to support surf-lifesaving clubs with these grants. The Anglesey Surf Life Saving Club has also received a grant.

There is a list of 20 and I want to read them all out because I know how much they are appreciated right across the Surf Coast. They are the Torquay Early Learning Centre, the Connewarre Gun Club, the Grand Pavilion, Civic Community Precinct—an application made by Surf Coast Shire—and local CFA stations have done really well, putting in some fantastic applications to support the wonderful work of CFA volunteers. CFA stations at Wurdale, Aireys Inlet, Bellbrae, Deans Marsh, Torquay, Winchelsea and Freshwater Creek have all been recipients of our grant under the Surf Coast Solar Towns program.

In addition, there is St Luke's Hall, the Saint Aidan's Anglican Church, the Torquay bowls club, the Anglesea Golf Club, the Modewarre's football and cricket club, the Lions Aged Care Village, the Salvation Army in Torquay, and the Mount Moriac Tennis Club. This is wonderful program delivering real results to my electorate of Corangamite.

I have spoken often in this place about my strong support for renewable energy. I am very pleased to see that the issue of the Renewable Energy Target has been settled, with an agreement in principle of 33,000 gigawatts per hour, which is well above the true 20 per cent. I am a very strong advocate for certainty in the renewable energy industry. This will deliver certainty. It will give the industry the confidence to invest, and I am looking forward to that investment and those jobs being rolled out in my electorate of Corangamite and across the nation. I will reflect on one fabulous company in Geelong, Backwell IXL, which is now producing solar frames for panels for large solar farms. It is a traditional manufacturer who has moved into this area. I know that the Renewable Energy Target is a very important part of this particular company's capacity to invest in this new venture.

I also do want to reference my strong opposition to onshore coal seam gas exploration in Corangamite. It is very disappointing that the Labor candidate in Corangamite has not spoken out strongly on this. I can only assume that she does support some sort of coal seam gas exploration. I have been very strong. I have stood up for the communities that have said, 'We do not want CSG exploration in our part of the world. We need to protect our farming areas. We need to protect our precious environmental areas.' Mount Moriac, Paraparap, Freshwater Creek, Deans Marsh, Bambra, Boonah, Birregurra and Warncoort have all spoken out very strongly against CSG exploration, and I stand firmly by them.

I am also calling on the people of my electorate to go onto my website and sign my petition to ban the Geelong Star. This, of course, is not something that is shared by some of my colleagues, but I do feel very strongly about it for the environment. I am strongly standing by the recreational fishing industry, which has very profound concerns about the activities of this particular trawler. So I say to my constituents: please go onto my website and sign my petition.