Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd certainly like to join the member for Dunkley in her campaign to reduce plastic waste in our environment because I think what she spoke about has a lot of support in the wider community across Australia. Indeed, when you consider what she said about the amount of plastic in our ocean environment, it is such a shame and a pity, and we need to do more. That huge whirlpool of rubbish, of debris, in the Pacific is a modern disgrace. There is absolutely no question.

But I will take her up on one thing. This is a grievance debate, so let's be egregious about something, and that is her claim that if you put solar panels on your roof top, you will be paying less for your bills the following day. That is not the case; that is fanciful; that is folly. You have to pay for the solar panels. Whilst there might be some recompense in the long term, in the long run, it will not happen overnight, as she suggested. Don't just take my word for it; let's ask anybody who currently lives in Broken Hill. On Thursday 17 October, a severe storm knocked over seven TransGrid transmission towers in the far west of New South Wales, and that caused a power outage which lasted a full fortnight. It wasn't until 31 October that power was restored. People were being encouraged to reduce their power, to turn off unnecessary implements, but at the same time they were being told to turn off their solar panels because they didn't want to put more energy into a grid that was already reduced severely by the impact of these storms and reduced substantially by the fact that seven towers had been knocked over.

It brings home very much the folly of being reliant too much on renewable energy, on just solar and wind. I appreciate that Broken Hill is connected via that big interconnector, that big transmission line. I appreciate that's how they get their power. Broken Hill should be an energy superpower. Goodness knows BHP had its genesis in that far-flung New South Wales town. So much wealth for this nation has been produced from that community, and yet, in this day and age, it can be knocked out for a fortnight. It is just so hard to believe.

We talk about having a national, rational discussion about nuclear, and we have to. We have to, because if you place all of your eggs in one basket—and this is the rush to renewables that those opposite would want us to do—you are going to see more power outages of the like that we saw in Broken Hill last month. Labor's approach requires imposing 58 million solar panels, 3½ thousand new industrial wind turbines and up to 28,000 kilometres of new transmission lines across the country. That might all be well and good for those city electorate types, because they are not going to have their vista disturbed by these massive transmissions lines. Energy experts have warned that the cost of Labor's rollout will be between—wait for this—$1.2 trillion and $1.5 trillion. That is a lot of money.

Of course, Labor comes to this argument and says: 'Well, what's nuclear going to cost? How long is it going to take?'

Yes, it will take some time—some considerable time—but the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme wasn't built in a day, nor was Rome. It took a good quarter of a century to get that magnificent hydro-electricity project completed. Let's also consider that Snowy hydro wasn't necessarily a power project; it was first and foremost an irrigation project, and a lot of people forget that.

The word of warning from what happened at Broken Hill last month should be very much on the towers. If we are going to build, as the energy experts suggest, 28,000 kilometres of transmission lines, why shouldn't we make the extra investment of undergrounding those lines to prevent such calamities as having the towers knocked over and having communities the size of Broken Hill all but out of power for up to two weeks? This created such an impost on community members. Indeed, one person was administering his own at-home six-hour-long dialysis treatment three times a week. Try doing that when there's no power, but this was the case for kidney patient Leroy Johnson. He was trying to manage his medical condition amid rolling blackouts. You have to feel sorry for this fellow, but he wasn't alone. There were businesses completely knocked out of operation because of the situation, and it just went on and on. There is great folly in that.

What we're also seeing across rural and regional Australia is situations where prime agricultural land is being taken up with these massive solar farms. Again, city types won't understand. They won't get it. They won't care, because it's not their vista that is being destroyed by these massive solar farms. Take the case of Maxwell residents Don and Lesley Kirkpatrick and their daughter Emily. Maxwell is on the Holbrook Road, on the way to Mangoplah, south of Wagga Wagga. The Kirkpatrick family are quite concerned about the solar farm that is going to be plonked—and, yes, I mean plonked—right in front of their farm, and there's another one now slated for approval at The Rock. A development application was submitted to Wagga Wagga City Council by Green Gold Energy Pty Ltd. Don't you love the name? 'Green Gold'—let's be patriotic! They might be a very good company; I'm sure they are, but all too often these are foreign companies that have no substantial link to or understanding of the local area. They come in with these wonderful names and these very articulate community liaison people. They talk up the project and then off they go; you never see them again. The fact is they're putting forward plans for a $5.9 million solar farm to be constructed at 1,000 Burkes Creek Road. Again, it's prime agricultural land, and the Kirkpatricks are quite concerned.

One thing I am really desperately worried about, as the Kirkpatricks and so many others are, is the fact that they are considered state priority projects. What happens is that the state government rides roughshod over the local council. It doesn't matter whether the development application has even been put in. The state government just takes control of the project. They say it's 'state significant' and then the project gets the tick of approval by the New South Wales government. Local councils don't get a say. They don't get any input into what is a major eyesore, as many would have it, on the local environment. That is the case on Holbrook Road, and the Kirkpatricks are rightly upset. You've then got projects right in Upper Laughlan, Yass Valley and Snowy Valleys, with the transmission lines going from Bannaby and Big Hill right through.

I appreciate that we have to build nation-building infrastructure. I get that. I get that the energy grid is in more demand. I understand that. But there is a great folly in rushing to do this project and not taking into account what happened at Broken Hill, not taking into account the fact that undergrounding these power transmission lines might be the better option, albeit at a far greater cost. But we have to consider the local environment, we have to consider the implications of what happens in a complete knockout of the power system when you've got people on dialysis treatment and we have to consider the future.