Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

():  I bring the House's attention to a piece by Charlie Peel, that intrepid reporter from theAustralian: 'Fears for habitat on the rise … alongside the turbines'. Mr Peel outlines that the Clarke Creek wind farm, which is in the Broadsound Range, just a few years ago was an island of eucalypt forest in a region surrounded by cleared farmland, forestry and coalmines. Now what have we got? A hundred kilometres of gravel roads and raised pads for the said turbines, which are over 210 metres high. And what was required? The clearing and levelling of 350 hectares of pristine koala habitat. That's almost 900 acres. It is absolutely extraordinary.

Clarke Creek claim that there have been no koalas harmed in the building of the said wind farms and roads, yet they've absolutely destroyed their environment. They might not have run over one yet, but there's still time. And who's done a deal on this? The former Queensland Labor government signed the contract for the supply from Clarke Creek.

And what are we missing? What can't we see for the trees—or the cleared trees? The Greens. There are no Greens here. Where are they? No-one is tying themselves to a bulldozer. No-one is chaining themselves to a tree. No-one is out there trying to protect the habitat of these koalas, and this is pristine habitat. They'll show up in a city or on a bay where there might be one tree where someone's grandfather saw a koala 10 years ago, perhaps, but here, with actual destruction, the Greens are nowhere to be seen, because their only focus is the Middle East.