Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To make a comment on the member for Hunter's speech, I find it quite unreal that a fellow boilermaker would make such a speech. Having said that, you're entitled to your opinion, Sir.

Last week, I visited Kalapa graziers in Central Queensland with the Leader of the Nationals, David Littleproud, and the member for Capricornia, Michelle Landry, to see firsthand the impact unreliable energy projects will have on the local region's environment and community.

It comes amid concerns over a planned 11,000-hectare Moah wind factory project 30 kilometres west of Rockhampton. One of these graziers was sixth-generation beef grazier Glen Kelly and his wife, Nikki. The wind factory, along with other nearby projects, including Clark Creek, Mount Hopeful and Boulder Creek, would involve extensive clearing of land, much of which has never been touched, on steep mountain ranges.

Another grazier who I've known for many years and who's been battling unreliable projects is Cedric Creed and his wife, Therese. Cedric and Teresa are producers who live and work in the Callide Valley of Central Queensland in the region of Smoky Creek. They have been raising concerns about the impact of a massive solar factory—3,000 hectares—that has been approved on their boundaries, on A-grade, sloping, heavy, black erosive soil, above their food producing properties on the watershed. Unfortunately, there are many people not only in the Flynn electorate but across this country who are fighting similar battles against these unreliable energy projects.

This all directly correlates with the fact that the unreliable energy sector is producing huge infrastructure projects to meet Minister Bowen's 82 per cent unreliable energy target by 2030. This target involves 22,000 solar panels to be installed every day between now and 2030, 40 wind turbines every month between now and 2030, and a proposal to build 28,000 kilometres of high-voltage powerlines to connect these projects to the grid. These projects are now seen to be having an enormous impact, particularly in rural and regional Queensland, which I outlined in my maiden speech approximately 12 months ago.

This will cause environmental damage, and the unreliable sector does not have to comply with any current regulations in Queensland, including tree-clearing guidelines, reef legislation or environmental protocols that have been imposed on every other industry. This is simply outrageous. It's time the Queensland government implemented legislation around the unreliable energy sector that will apply governance over the unreliable sector regarding how these projects are getting built and their impact on the farming sector and, more broadly, rural and regional communities.

Already we've seen the Clarke Creek wind factory, owned by Mr Andrew Forrest, come to a complete standstill, with contractors told to stop work and demobilise, and the project manager Windlab dismissed. According to the Financial Review, Forrest's Squadron Energy will take up the management of this project, which raises many questions as to why this has happened, and will the moneys owed to the contractors be paid, and what are the reasonings surrounding this debacle? The Port of Gladstone has hundreds of wind turbine components waiting for transport, with now no confirmation of a destination.

In terms of legislation, there is nothing to make the unreliable energy sector comply with all other environmental protocols imposed on other industries, such as agriculture and the mining and resource sector. Why is there no legislation stipulating who will clean up, rehabilitate and dispose of these projects once they reach their end of cycle?

Last week, I held a nuclear energy forum in Gladstone with the member for Lyne, Dr David Gillespie. The event had in attendance over 70 people, with plenty of positive discussion about nuclear energy and the critical role it could play in Australia's energy market in the future. The forum discussed the misconceptions surrounding nuclear energy, small modular reactors and how nuclear energy produces zero emissions but does have significant energy output.

The scientific reality is that we must firm up the energy grid when unreliable energy does not provide affordable and reliable base load power. To distribute unreliable energy, more than $1 billion will have to be spent on the 28,000 kilometres of transmission lines and the establishment of unreliable energy— (Time expired)