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

Labor's obsession with climate change is giving birth to one of the world's biggest white elephants in my home state of Queensland. I refer to the infamous Borumba Pumped Hydro Project, centred on Imbil. We're told this is central to the plan, supported by both major political parties in Queensland, to ensure 75 per cent of energy produced in the state by 2035 is from unreliable renewables. It's estimated to cost more than $14 billion and will not add a single watt of energy to the grid. It's an eye-watering amount of taxpayers' money being burned on the altar of the climate-change cult. And I'm confident that costs will blow out much further.

It's also another clear example of Labor destroying the environment in order to save it. Huge areas of plantation pine forest will need to be cleared, just to transport the components of the 226 wind turbines that will reach 290 metres tall, creating a major erosion problem that will impact waterways throughout the region. Yet more pristine native forest will end up under water. There will also be thousands upon thousands of solar panels.

Queenslanders will need One Nation in state parliament in force, to prevent this disaster from going ahead. Neither of the major parties can be trusted on energy policy as long as they remain wedded to the net zero fantasy. One Nation is the only party contesting the state election that is committed to protecting the environment by repealing legislated emissions-reduction targets in Queensland and delivering an independent energy policy prioritising affordability and reliability. In doing so, we will be able to deliver the power that industries and manufacturers require, instead of closing down and going offshore, and to give cheaper power to those homes that need it to bring down the cost of living. This is costing the state and federal governments billions of dollars of wasted taxpayers' dollars. It's another white-elephant, pie-in-the-sky scheme.