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

I would like to commend Senator Van for bringing this motion to the Senate today. I think most of us in this place know we have had seven goes at 'transmission Tuesday' where we've tried to get an inquiry on the transmission lines, where they're going and particularly the impact on communities and fatherland that will be overtaken by these powerlines going through their land, so devaluing properties. We also know that there will be significant Indigenous cultural heritage sites that will be impacted and that those opposite have absolutely no regard for those people. They were supposedly proponents for an Indigenous voice to parliament, but they're not proponents for an Indigenous voice on our cultural heritage sites when it comes to transmission lines.

The Greens have also opposed our 'transmission Tuesday' inquiry. How much can a koala bear? Well, we know a koala bear can't handle a transmission line through its habitat. They cannot handle transmission lines going straight through koala habitats. I feel like this is a theme today, but we know about the only chlamydia-free koala habitat—don't worry about that. There will be transmission lines straight through the middle of it. 'Don't worry about an STD, we will get rid of you with a transmission line. You're chlamydia free, but you won't be alive for much longer anyway, thanks to the transmission lines that this government is determined to ram through, across and over every single community it can find—but, of course, only those in rural and regional Australia, because it wouldn't dare elsewhere.'

The nimbys all want the renewable energy, but they say, 'Don't, please, put a battery in my back yard.' We've seen that in the teal seats. In Waverley and in North Sydney they say, 'No, we can't have a battery covered in Indigenous art in a park out of the way, out of sight.' They all went teal because they're climate people. They're all so concerned about climate change, but they say, 'Please don't upset the amenity of my suburb with anything so abhorrent as one battery,' let alone what the poor people in rural and regional Australia are going to have to go through with eyesores of transmission lines going right through their communities and farms and contributing to bushfire issues. Senator Van talked about it, and I know he's very well aware through his inquiry work of the danger that transmission lines pose when it comes to bushfires. We're headed into a really hot summer. Everyone is saying it. It's going to be really hot. No-one will be able to afford, with the power bills, to put their aircon on. We know that we're going to face more issues when it comes to transmission lines, blackouts and bushfires. But, again, the bushfires don't really impact those who live in Potts Point, Claremont or, perhaps, Glenelg. They don't upset them. Bushfires don't affect them. Sometimes it gets a bit smoggy. The air is not great as the bushfire comes over. The air quality can decline, but it's not your home or earning capacity that's in the firing line; it's the farmers'. It's those in rural regional Australia who are directly impacted by these threats.

Senator Van, I would like to thank you for bringing this motion to us. We now enter 'transmission Thursday'. Maybe this will become a regular thing. It should become a regular thing, because I can guarantee—for all those who are excited—that 'transmission Tuesday' will be coming back. The T-shirts are on order: transmission Tuesday. We might have to update it. We might get a little TT. We'll get a nice logo made—'TT'—so we can run them out for transmission Thursday as well. We would get a double usage. Look at us recycling. We're so conscious on this side of making sure we get maximum value with a 'TT' on our T-shirts or our buttons for transmission Tuesday and transmission Thursday.

I note, Senator Van, that in your comments—through you, Acting Deputy President—you talked about how, as an Independent, you could talk about issues without necessarily having to put a political lens over them. I hope, as an Independent, Senator Van, you may have more luck working with your fellow crossbencher Senator Pocock and with your fellow crossbenchers who sit on my far left, in more ways than one. Perhaps you can work with them. Maybe you can even convince the Labor Party, because they're probably going to want your vote on a few things. Maybe you can have a little word with them and say, 'We'd really like an inquiry into these transmission lines.'

I'm really concerned about what's happening with these transmission lines powering through communities and upsetting rural and regional communities all across this nation—all except for WA. I'm sorry, Senator Smith; in WA you have your own thing going on over there. But all the states on the eastern seaboard are going be impacted by these transmission lines. You are right when you say the $100 billion—which I think is probably an undersell of the figure—is for transmission lines over the top of the land, when we know that, if they were underground, it would be much safer from a bushfire perspective, would look prettier and might not upset as much arable farmland. But the $100 billion, which is a lowball figure, is only delivering transmission lines. It's not delivering, as you say, any storage. It's not generating anything. So think about all the costs that are going to be required to actually generate the power that's got to go on these new transmission lines. No-one's thinking about that. No-one's talking about any of those sorts of things.

Senator Van, I do wish you luck as an Independent who doesn't need to put a political lens over things and whose vote every now and then will be required or requested from a certain side of the chamber. Perhaps you, with all of your powers of persuasion and negotiation skills and your keen understanding of what the energy needs of this country are and how the energy sector works—I note Senator Van has a history of working in the sector, unlike, probably, what many sitting on the other side would have ever experienced, let alone being on a farm or working in a business.

In fact, I was interested to learn the other day that Senator Chisholm apparently worked for Santos. I'm sure it was a union delegate role, but he did work for a company that has a bottom line and a board and doesn't just recycle union reps. So there is one person that sits opposite that's actually worked for a business that's concerned about generating a profit, and it was in the energy space, so perhaps Senator Chisholm could speak to his mates, too. But, Senator Van, I wish you all the luck in trying to get some inquiries, movements and acknowledgement that Australian communities, particularly those in rural and regional areas, deserve to be listened to, to be heard and to hear their concerns raised. Social licence doesn't exist for this program, and it is about time that this government put its big-boy pants on, went out, spoke to these communities and heard what they had to say.