Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

The truth hurts. Senator Grogan came in here making the point, 'Please let me know which ministers wouldn't meet with the 60 farmers that travelled all night to talk about the concerns they have about an entire new grid and power lines being put through their lands.' There was dispute from Senator Grogan that this open and transparent government was so keen to meet with constituents to understand their issues about the 22,000 solar panels needed every day, the 40 wind turbines that are going to be required every month, all those new transmission lines over productive farming land, and communities that are about to be divided because of some pipedream being chased. We know that the department, in estimates, couldn't even answer the question, 'How many solar panels have been installed since, over 250 days ago, Minister Bowen said we needed 22,000 solar panels per day and 40 wind turbines per month to meet their renewable energy target?' The department had no answer. And they have no answer, but they did say, 'We know we're a little bit behind.' They're that far behind—we know the 22,000 solar panels per day are going to be a lot more than 22,000 now because we're way behind schedule.

We also, today, heard Senator Hanson-Young come in very upset about environment minister Ms Plibersek's approvals of coalmines, because they upset koala habitats. I'm desperately waiting to hear from Senator Hanson-Young and her concerns about the 22,000 solar panels per day, the 40 wind turbines per month and this entire new grid that is going to be placed over farming land—and guess where else, for those at the end of the chamber—or through koala habitats. But we don't want an inquiry into it, with the Greens and Labor bubbling up again, making sure there's no transparency, no investigation, no surety and no care for those in rural and regional Australia. Quite frankly, most of them couldn't even find it on a map. They don't leave the coast, they wouldn't know where anything is, and they don't meet with constituents.

We hear it, all of us. I'll cast my mind to which minister has been hearing from so many groups about concerns, but we hear all the time, over here, frustrations from constituents, from farming groups, from those in rural and regional areas, from business groups, from those that are concerned about the impacts on their small businesses, from people that represent groups that manage families, from Christian schools—they were here today, very concerned about the activity over Calvary Hospital; we know you're coming for them next. Don't believe the same as Labor; they'll come for you. We hear from them regularly how it doesn't matter who they write to, who they call or how many times they try and get in touch. We know that every single Labor minister's door is shut. On top of that, Labor backbenchers—we know they hide in their offices when the Pharmacy Guild walk around here because all their businesses are about to be closed and impacted. We're about to see shortages of drugs. We're going to see a reduction in services, especially to aged-care facilities, by pharmacists, because those opposite don't believe in consultation. They believe in saying: 'This is what we're doing. We'll tell you all about it and you'd just better get on board.'

This is an inquiry to make sure that farmers' views are represented and that rural and regional communities are represented. People in rural and regional communities—they're smart enough to not vote for you lot!—deserve to be listened to. You are an absolute disgrace with the activities to block the vote from going ahead tonight. It will come back tomorrow, and guess what? You will all get together on this side of the chamber and say: 'No, we don't want to hear from farmers. We don't want to know how much farmland's going to be destroyed. We don't want to know how many koala habitats are going to be destroyed, because, in the scheme of things, we have renewable energy as the Almighty God! We used to care about the whales and we used to care about koalas'—but they're lower down on the triangle of left-wing ideology. If koala habitats are destroyed and if whale migration is absolutely upset by offshore wind, those opposite will say, 'That's not a problem for us anymore, because—guess what?—it's renewable energy.' The absolute apex of the left-wing woke ideology triangle strikes again. Once again we'll see a denial of transparency and a denial of consultation, with no information provided and a message that says: 'Take what you get. You don't vote for us, so we don't care.'