Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I will not take the interjections from those opposite because Senator Madigan does deserve an answer in this area. The Waubra wind farm is a significant local investment in rural Victoria and it is having a positive effect on the regional economy.

The Waubra wind farm was accredited under the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 on 10 March 2009 by the Renewable Energy Regulator. Like all applications for the accreditation of a power station, it was required to submit extensive documentation and to demonstrate compliance with state or territory planning laws. The regulator then takes that information into account in accrediting power stations and gets regular information from power stations about a range of issues, including ongoing compliance. However, it is important to remember that the Clean Energy Regulator is not there to enforce state and territory planning requirements. States and territories do have a wide range of powers to ensure power stations comply with the wide-ranging requirements that they are subject to under state and territory laws. To require, as seems to be the premise of the question, the Clean Energy Regulator to enforce state and territory legislation would undermine the proper allocation of jurisdictional responsibility between state and federal governments and add unnecessary red tape to clean energy investments. A duplication of regulation and confused lines of responsibilities would in fact ensue. Clearly, there are—(Time expired)