Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed, and thank you for the interjection. We are now still waiting for a management plan to arrive. When the minister considers it, it is a possibility—as Senator Ray so wonderfully predicted—that it may be approved, as is the case with every one of these processes. If it is not, we would encourage people to look at some other way of ameliorating the situation and to make another application. As I said, it took several applications for the albatross, the turtle and the dugong, and the amelioration processes regarding the orange-bellied parrot and the turbines may well involve a series of steps.

I wonder exactly what we are doing here. What is the notion behind having this censure motion? This is the big issue of the day for the Labor Party. I wondered what the big issue for the Labor Party would be today. It has been the orange-bellied parrot and wind farms for the first two days we have been back after the recess. As I mentioned yesterday, I think there is probably a little bit more to this. The key should have been when Senator Carr—the love child of the Victorian government—stood up. This is just a cover-up of the complete hypocrisy of the Victorian government and its complete failure to deliver any environmental outcomes.

Wind energy, which we are talking about with the Bald Hills project, is actually being developed simply because this government, the Australian government, has provided the mandatory renewable energy targets program. That is why it is being developed in the first place. As was mentioned earlier, the Bald Hills wind farm would actually have only mitigated about 175,000 tonnes of carbon every year. Talking about the benefits of wind farms, Senator Carr stood in this place and thumped his chest and said, ‘What a great job the Labor government is doing in Victoria.’ That is what this is about, isn’t it? It is about talking up the wind farms. Only a cynic like me would think about the Victorian government’s very recent decision to extend the life of the Hazelwood coal fired power station, which is going to see another 445 million tonnes of carbon going into the atmosphere. That has nothing to do with this debate at all—nothing at all! If you want to talk about a conspiracy, I think this is just trying to divert the public’s attention from the complete inadequacy of Victoria’s Labor government to provide a single environmental outcome in this matter.

The renewable energy target will put another 400 turbines into the Gippsland area and yet the net benefit will be only 27 million tonnes of greenhouse gases. Today’s sham of a censure motion is an absolutely pathetic attempt by Senator Carr to assist the Victorian government in diverting the public attention away from its abysmal record on both climate control and environmental protection. Instead of censuring the minister, we should congratulate him for holding to the process, for making sure that he was not influenced by development and for ensuring that we continue to deliver consistent outcomes and continue to protect our environment.