Andrew Gee (Calare, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the private Members' business order of the day relating to the Stopping Wind Farms in State Forests Bill 2025 being called on immediately and given priority over all other business for final determination of the House.

I'm moving to suspend standing orders because this matter is urgent. It can't wait. The Stopping Wind Farms in State Forests Bill 2025 needs to be debated and brought on for a vote. The major parties have all let our local residents down. It's been a failure of politics and politicians. When the National Party passed laws that allowed wind farms into state forests, it abjectly failed to properly regulate it. That's the cold, hard truth, and the result has been chaos and conflict. Communities are divided. You've got family members pitted against family members, neighbours fighting neighbours, broken friendships, extreme mental health anguish as residents worry about the property values of their homes, fear and uncertainty. It's the same story with the creation of renewable energy zones in New South Wales. The National Party created them and it totally failed in its duty to control them.

It would've been a very simple thing to clearly set out where the developments can and can't go, to protect the rights of local residents so that they have a say, their rights are protected and their voices are heard, and that there was genuine consultation, not just tokenistic tick-a-box consultation. They could've mandated that, but the National Party failed to do so. So, rather than pretending to ride around on white horses, the National Party should apologise. It should own up to its failures and come into this House now to support this bill. All of the major parties have had a hand in this. They are all guilty of failing these residents. It's been an ongoing failure across the political divide and all parties need to bear responsibility for it, including the Labor Party in New South Wales.

Across the political spectrum, it's been a sad case of politicians not doing their jobs and letting down their local residents and their local communities. This bill is a chance for them all to redeem themselves. We need to give them the opportunity to come down into this House, into this chamber, and vote for this bill. I would expect National Party members to be in here, and we want government members too. I went and saw the Minister for Climate Change and Energy about this bill and I think he does understand that there are developers doing the wrong thing. So we want him and all members down here to support this bill, because our residents are demanding urgent, immediate action.

I've been working with local residents in impacted communities for many years and, while I've had some success in getting wind farms moved or modified for local residents, such examples are sadly few and far between. This is because the consultants from these companies come out from the city, Sydney or Melbourne, and say that they're going to do things differently and that they'll consult in a meaningful way, and then they fail to do so. That's because the truth is that the decisions about turbine heights and placements are for the most part made in foreign boardrooms over oceans and far away from our local residents. Moving turbines away from impacted residents and reducing their height actually costs money, and compromising with local residents means they just don't make as much of it—the profits are less. It's a business decision. A lot of developers come out into our area and say soothing words like, 'We're going to sponsor the local footy team and that will make it all right,' but it doesn't. I've had constituents in tears worried about the value of their homes when they have turbines slated for 700 metres from their homes.

I asked the House to look at what has happened in the Oberon area with the Pines Wind Farm proposed by Tag Energy and Stromlo Energy. They have failed to carry the community with them. People have rebelled against the pseudoconsultations. Residents have, quite frankly, felt duped. The developer claimed to be putting turbines only in state forests and then started shopping them around outside of these boundaries, and now they're hitting up the community of Trunkey Creek. These residents are in shock—it's a small farming community—to have this suddenly foisted upon them. The whole thing has been deeply traumatic for the whole area. They were supposed to be only in state forests, and now they're shopping them all over the place. Over at Portland, where Someva is developing the Sunny Corner Wind Farm, there's just a tick-a-box consultation without genuine compromise. Now we have a Spanish company releasing its plan for the Canobolas state forest near Orange.

Our communities are sick of this patronising, disingenuous and, frankly, bogus approach to consultation and community engagement. Out at the Boree Solar Farm near Geurie it's the same old story—a shocking lack of consultation in the face of prime agricultural land being threatened. The Kerrs Creek Wind Farm is another example. That's being run out of the United Kingdom by the McAlpine companies. There's terrible consultation and only tokenistic compromise.

My bill steps in to fix the failures of the state governments and all political parties, and enables the federal government to use its Constitutional powers to make laws to stop turbine developments in these state forests. This federal legislation would override failed state legislation. Clause 3 of the bill uses the corporations power of our Constitution to provide that a corporation must not construct, install or commission a wind farm in a state forest. To put it beyond doubt, it includes the Sunny Corner State Forest near Portland and Lithgow, the Vulcan State Forest, the Mount David State Forest and the Gurnang State Forest—they're all in the Oberon area—and also the Canobolas state forest near Orange. The bill is not limited to those state forests; it's for any state forest. It's now up to all parties to get behind this bill.

The folks impacted by the Sunny Corner State Forest wind farm proposal want action on this, as do those folks around Oberon, Orange and wherever these state forests are. It's now up to all parties to back it in, including the National Party—they need to stop the infighting, the bickering and the plotting, start being an effective opposition and come in to support this legislation.

I look at these benches over here and I see the opposition imploding before our eyes. We've had the attempted forced retirement of the members for New England and Riverina—they are trying to rissole them out. That seems to be going pretty badly. The member for New England looks set to hit the eject button on his seat in the party room. They've already lost a senator, and it looks like the member for New England, if the state dinners are anything to go by, is the next to depart. Anyone who is a leadership threat is moving on, or they're trying to move them on. Then you had the ham-fisted attempt to break away from the Liberal Party, which lasted 48 hours when they realised that they would lose pay, lose staff, lose positions, and they would have Liberal Party members running in their seats in three-cornered contests. This bill is the crossbench getting the job done in the face of, let's face it, a shambolic opposition. And because they're so busy trying to tear each other down in their own, misguided quests for personal glory, and because they're no longer truly standing up for country people, the crossbench and the Independents are answering the call of our communities. We are doing the heavy lifting in the face of political failure in this House. It is not just the chaotic opposition; it is also the government that needs to be answering the call on this bill because our communities are tired of the failure. They are tired of the false promises and the empty words. They want their voices heard and they want these wind farms in state forests stopped, so I would urge all members of the House to heed that call and listen to the communities and what they are asking for.

We need to put an end to the anguish and the pain that our communities are experiencing. We need to put an end to the bogus tick-a-box consultation which is not genuine and is basically fly-in fly-out tick-a-box consultation. We need to bring those voices into this parliament and this bill is a way to do it. It is widely supported in our area and it is widely supported by our impacted residents, who have had enough; they have had a gutful. I urge all members of this House to come into this chamber and support the Stopping Wind Farms in State Forests Bill 2025. I commend this to motion to the House.

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