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

There's a pandemic across this country, and this time it's a real one. As we speak, thousands of hectares of land are being cleared for millions of solar panels, wind turbines and transmission lines. Lines are being cut through family backyards, rainforests and prime agricultural land for the tens of thousands of kilometres of powerlines the UN's net zero pipedream demands. The net zero pipedream demands that towering gum trees be ploughed over, grasslands be slashed to nothing, fences be erected and all animals killed inside, and wetlands for migrating birds be decimated, and there's not a peep from the supposed Greenies. In fact, there's encouragement.

Every day, we hear from a new community under threat from a wind, solar or powerline project turning people's lives upside down. On my travel through Queensland, farmers from Smoky Creek approached me. They're nervously awaiting a decision on that solar project from the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, on 27 September. Unless the environment minister is a hypocrite, the project should be rejected on environmental grounds.

We could make a speech every day for the rest of this parliament about a supposedly green project turning yet another Australian's life and land upside down, inside out and back to front. Ben Fordham reported another story yesterday morning, with farmer Greg Bennett in Callide, Queensland. The first stage of a solar power development is going to cover the entire valley on the way to his property. Imagine driving past that every day. It is 2,700 hectares for just the first stage. That is over 4,000 football fields of scorched solar panels. Greg will have to drive through nine kilometres of sterile, scorching solar panels to get to his property. It's reported that the final project will stretch over 6,500 hectares of land, millions of solar panels filled with toxic heavy metals at risk of feeding into the Calliope River and straight on to the Great Barrier Reef. What do we hear from the supposed protectors of the environment? Crickets.

Two weeks ago I was in Chalumbin, North Queensland, near Ravenshoe, where old wind turbine blades have been dumped and left to rot. They have just been dumped in the bush. They are aluminium that could have been recycled, but it's too expensive to recycle them. They were 20-metre blades. The modern blades going up now are 87 metres plus and made from composite materials that cost far too much to recycle, so they won't be recycled. They'll just be dumped in the bush in wind turbine graveyards.

The UN's net zero is the enemy of the environment. This parliament keeps on refusing to look at the facts—all for nothing. Listen to this from yesterday's the Australian newspaper: 'New South Wales is to seek a deal to keep Eraring open.' This was reported yesterday, but the very first thing the New South Wales environment minister said when the New South Wales Labor government got into power in the March, was that they were going to look at extending Eraring. It was the very first thing the New South Wales government did, because they know they're heading into a catastrophe. The Australian said yesterday: 'New South Wales will seek a deal with Origin Energy to prolong the life span of the state's largest coal generator beyond 2025 after the state government said it had accepted the recommendations of an independent report that Eraring coal power station would need to stay open to safeguard electricity supplies'. To safeguard electricity supplies, we need to keep a coal-fired power station running. That's from the Labor Party minister. 'Origin's Eraring station was set to retire in 2025', the article goes on, 'but an independent report said such a closure at that time would expose the state to possible black-outs and further price increases'. Expose the state to back outs and further price increases. See these lights? Coal. NSW Premier Chris Minns said affordability in guaranteeing electricity supply is paramount, and it is. Mr Minns said:

One of the biggest challenges facing NSW is ensuring we can keep the lights on while managing the biggest change in energy mix and consumption in the shortest period of time in our nation's history.

This is insanity. You cannot keep the lights on—