Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the interim report of the Senate Select Committee on Wind Turbines. The first thing I would like to note is that there is absolutely no need for this interim report. The scheduled reporting date of 3 August allowed ample time for the committee to properly scrutinise the evidence and make considered recommendations. It is clear that, in releasing this interim report, the majority committee members have determined to use committee processes to influence political outcomes, with the broader goal of undermining and destabilising Australia's wind energy industry. This report is not an attempt to share the results of a legitimate inquiry; it is a political stitch-up designed to bring the wind industry to its knees. Clearly, this is nothing but an unashamed attempt to manipulate renewable energy target outcomes, with the explicit goal of targeting the wind industry.

The committee has received no new compelling evidence that would suggest that the multiple reviews, inquiries and studies into this matter have been wrong. But, of course, the report is not about the evidence—and the report is not about the truth. The report is about the opportunity to do a dirty deal with the government to shackle the wind industry with layers of unnecessary red tape in return for supporting the terrible biomass inclusions in the RET. The majority members found a willing ally in our Prime Minister. This is a man who has spent his life in politics blissfully unshackled by any imperative to tell the truth and supremely unapologetic when it is revealed that his comments stand in total contrast to the evidence.

This was the report that it was always going to be, because this committee has never been about a legitimate inquiry but rather about how to shackle, undermine and ultimately destroy the wind industry. Before the inquiry even started, the game was rigged. Before a single submission was received, the outcome was determined. You just need to look at the terms of reference, which read like a poorly articulated list of longstanding furphies about wind energy that have been debunked again and again. However, what is more telling about the terms of reference is not what is in them but what isn't, and I encourage senators to take a look at those terms of reference. If you do, you will see no mention of the environmental benefits of wind energy, despite the fact that wind power reduces carbon dioxide emissions by millions of tonnes each year in Australia. You will see no room for consideration of the significant benefits of wind energy to regional economies, where an individual wind farm can generate hundreds of jobs in construction and inject hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy. And you will not see anything that allows for scrutiny of the health, planning and environmental impacts of existing fossil-fuel-powered energy sources. Any consideration of wind's place in our energy mix that completely ignores every other form of energy is little more than a stunt. Labor believes that any serious consideration of wind energy must consider the role it might play in Australia's broader energy mix now and into the future. This is especially important in light of AGL's recent statement that about 75 per cent of Australia's existing thermal plant 'is already beyond its useful life'.

The recommendations in this report are brazen, they are not well considered and they are unsubstantiated. Most of them are based on the implicit assumption that wind farms are dangerous to human health. This is not what the evidence says. In fact, in 25 reviews that have been undertaken into this matter across the globe, not one has found a credible causal link between wind turbines and health. For the record, I will go through some of the findings of these reviews. The NHRMC review in 2014 said:

There is no consistent evidence that noise from wind turbines―whether estimated in models or using distance as a proxy―is associated with self-reported human health effects. Isolated associations may be due to confounding, bias or chance.

This mirrors the words of the organisation in 2010, which were:

There are no direct pathological effects from wind farms and that any potential impact on humans can be minimised by following existing planning guidelines.

In 2009, the Colby review said:

The Massachusetts review said:

There is insufficient evidence that the noise from wind turbines is directly … causing health problems or disease.

The Knopper and Ollson review said:

To date, no peer reviewed scientific journal articles demonstrate a causal link between people living in proximity to modern wind turbines, the noise (audible, low frequency noise, or infrasound) they emit and resulting physiological health effects.

And on it goes: 25 reviews and no credible evidence of health impacts. In fact, the committee is yet to hear from one national medical or scientific organisation, one national health regulator or one acoustics body that holds the position that infrasound from wind farms is dangerous to human health. But the senators on this committee, who are neither medically nor acoustically trained, seem to think they have discovered something that the AMA, the NHMRC, the Association of Australian Acoustical Consultants, and researchers across the globe have missed!

While the majority report recognises 'the importance of research that has a rigorous methodology, a level of independence and the outcomes of which are peer reviewed', it is outrageous that this same report ignores that very research in favour of the subjective testimony by individuals. The majority report asks:

Why are there so many people who live in close proximity to wind turbines complaining of similar physiological and psychological symptoms?

Labor senators note that there is actually enormous variance in recorded claims. In fact, ongoing research by Simon Chapman, Professor in Public Health at the University of Sydney, has found 244 symptoms that individuals have attributed to wind farms. These include asthma, arthritis, autism, bee extinction, brain tumours, bronchitis, cataracts, diabetes, dolphins beaching themselves, epilepsy, haemorrhoids, leukaemia, lung cancer, multiple sclerosis and parasitic skin infections.

The majority report suggests that health impacts from wind turbines occur through the low-frequency infrasound. Again, the evidence is not on their side. In its Position statement on wind farms, peak industry body the Association of Australian Acoustical Consultants states:

Investigations have found that infrasound levels around wind farms are no higher than levels measured at other locations where people live, work and sleep. Those investigations conclude that infrasound levels adjacent to wind farms are below the threshold of perception and below currently accepted limits set for infrasound.

This is echoed by the findings of an Environmental Protection Authority of South Australia study which looked at infrasound at houses in rural and urban areas, both adjacent to a wind farm and away from turbines, when the wind farms were operating as well as when they were switched off. The study concluded that the level of infrasound at houses near the wind turbines assessed is no greater than that experienced in other urban and rural environments and that the contribution of wind turbines to the measured infrasound levels is insignificant in comparison with the background level of infrasound within the environment. The report also noted that the lowest levels of infrasound were recorded at one of the houses closest to the wind farm, and that some of the highest levels of infrasound were found in the EPA's own urban office building.

This report and the dirty RET deal that has been done are shameful. Labor will be responding to the recommendations made in the final report of the committee at the scheduled reporting date in August. In the meantime, I urge the government not to make rash commitments or legislative changes based on the poorly informed and unsubstantiated recommendations of this committee.