Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I need to start by saying that this MPI is yet another MPI about trust, and it shows that the Labor-Greens alliance, destroying energy, cannot be trusted. The dictionary defines investment as 'the investing of money or capital in order to gain profitable returns as interest, income or appreciation of value'. Investment in intermittent energy sources is a waste of money. It is not an investment; it is a scandal. Let me illustrate by quoting from an exercise on Greg Combet, who was Labor's and environment and climate change minister in the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government. Journalist James Delingpole, on 3 May 2012, identified what he claims is a scandal involving wind farms and guaranteed government subsidies:

At the heart of this scandal are the union superannuation funds that are using the wind farm scam as a kind of government-endorsed Ponzi scheme to fill their coffers at public expense. One of the biggest wind farm developers, Pacific Hydro—

Remember that name, Pacific Hydro—

is owned by the union superfund Members Equity Bank. To meet its carbon reduction quotas, we're told—

by then Labor ministers—

Australia needs to build about 10,000 new wind turbines like the ones that have destroyed Waterloo (and dozens of communities like it from NSW to South Australia).

The figures are mind-boggling. Each of those turbines will cost about $3 million, which means $30 billion even before you've started building the power lines. And where's this money coming from? The consumer, of course—mostly via tariffs whacked on to the price of conventional, fossil-fuel energy prices, in the form of payouts called Renewable Energy Certificates.

Note that wind turbines produce very little power. Because wind is intermittent, they operate at between one-fifth and one-third of their capacity, meaning they are erratic, unreliable and have to be fully backed up by conventional 'black' (mostly coal-fuelled) power. Where the money is to be made is through the REC subsidy. A 3MW wind turbine that generates (at most) $150,000 worth of electricity a year is eligible for guaranteed subsidies of $500,000 a year. A ridgeline hosting 20 or 30 turbines generates very little power—but an awful lot of free cash for those lucky enough to get their snouts in the trough.

If the unions were merely exploiting government environmental legislation to milk the taxpayer it would be bad enough …

Industry Super Holdings Pty Ltd's annual report for 2007 states that Greg Combet was Director of Industry Super Holdings Pty Ltd until the middle of 2007, the year he was parachuted into parliament. It owned Members Equity Bank and Pacific Hydro. He shovelled tens of millions of dollars into this scam. That's why we're going to be standing up, beside the people of Lakeland on Cape York—where we met with them under the poinciana trees—a people concerned about these bird chopper eyesores, the hurt energy supply and the health risks that are well documented by the Waubra Foundation and any number of peer-reviewed medical and scientific papers. This is a scam!