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

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the following from occurring immediately:

(1)   the Stopping Wind Farms in State Forests Bill 2025 being called on;

(2)   debate on the second reading of the bill proceeding immediately for a period of no longer than one hour; and

(3)   any questions required to complete passage of the bill then being put without delay.

This bill requires the urgent attention of this House. In the last parliament, I introduced a game-changing bill which would stop the building of wind farms in softwood pine plantations which are state forests. I've brought it back again. I introduced this bill in the first place because of the continuing pain, anguish and anger that many of our local residents are feeling over wind farm proposals in these areas. The pain is real, and the anguish is real. Since bringing this bill to the House, the situation on the ground for our communities has not improved, and the House needs to hear it. The pain and the anguish have not gone away. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to act. They've let our communities down. So I'm once again bringing this bill to the House. It needs to be passed into law, and I'm giving all members the opportunity to vote on it again.

I'm not against renewable energy, and neither are our communities. But our communities are crying out for reasonable and commonsense balance. I've attended many community meetings and consultations over these proposals, and what residents are experiencing is really concerning. I have to tell you, bogus consultation is a major feature of these windfarm companies moving into our area. It's fly in, fly out tick-a-box consultation from developers, without meaningful engagement and genuine dialogue, and this has been a feature of our residents' experiences. These developers fly into our communities, and then this elaborate charade of consultation commences. The companies assiduously tally up all the contacts with community members so that this can appear in documents to support their development approvals.

I have to tell you, there's a strong feeling in our communities that they are being played for mugs by people with no real stake in the local area besides the businesses operated by their bosses. These windfarm companies are overseas for the most part. Many of the companies are foreign, and the decisions made about turbine placement are made in foreign boardrooms with little regard to the impact on residents. It's all about the money, and it makes a mockery of the consultation process. The people on the ground from the turbine companies say they feel the pain of local residents, but this rarely translates into meaningful change.

City people may think putting turbines in state pine forests means they're out in the back blocks, far from having impacts on local residents. Some people in our area think that, as well. But that is not the case at all. The developers are putting them close to the powerlines and to road access, which means they're extremely close to towns, villages and community members. They are literally surrounding some of our communities and some of our isolated farmhouses, for example—and not-so-isolated farmhouses.

In the case of the Sunny Corner Wind Farm, some residents were given maps that showed 300-metre turbines less than one kilometre from their homes—just a few hundred metres. I had one resident approach me to tell me he'd sunk all his super into his house and land package and that he can't sell it now because of the proximity of the turbines, which he pointed out, one being just 700 metres away. People in the cities don't understand the anguish and the stress this causes for our local residents. I've been contacted by many constituents who've spoken of the mental toll this takes on them. There's a real human cost to this that is too often lost, overlooked and ignored.

In the case of the Sunny Corner Wind Farm proposal the developer, Someva, has clearly placed turbines in locations that will cost them the least yet impact residents the most. It's all about the money, and, sadly, profits are being put ahead of people. It's appalling. People have had enough of it. In the Oberon area, the developers of the Pines Wind Farm, TagEnergy and Stromlo, have managed to turn a whole community and region against it. The backlash in and around Oberon has been extraordinary.

Here is an example of the doublespeak of these companies. The developers told me they would be putting turbines only within the boundaries of the state forests. They made that very clear when I first spoke to them. This has turned out to be blatantly false. They have been shopping turbines outside the boundaries of the state forests, after giving those assurances that have proved to be false, and they're moving into the Trunkey Creek area, a small, close-knit farming community that just want to get on with their lives without this hanging over their heads. The community is in shock. So I say to TagEnergy and Stromlo: Move on. Read the community and move on. Just leave the area.

As I've said, for all of the so-called consultations and the calming words of the city based consultants on the ground, decisions about turbine placement are, for the most part, made in foreign boardrooms far, far away. It's a business decision, and moving turbines away from impacted residents costs money. It's the same with the Kerrs Creek Wind Farm near Molong. I spent months and months trying to work through the community concerns with the developer, Res, which is controlled by the McAlpine Group in the United Kingdom, and, after all of that, there's been hardly any movement at all—no meaningful movement. This whole consultation process has been a waste of time. Does anyone really think the United Kingdom boardroom of the McAlpine group of companies is going to care what the people in the Molong area want? I don't think so.

How did we get here? It's a failure of politics and the result of politicians doing nothing. The problem is that the wind farms are regulated by state planning laws and, in 2021, the New South Wales National Party passed a law to put wind farms into state forests. And, when they did it, they did not properly regulate and set out the rights of impacted residents and neighbours. It was exactly the same with the creation of the renewable energy zones, which the National Party created, and they again abjectly failed to properly regulate them. Look at what has happened with EnergyCo and ACEREZ in the Merotherie Road area near Gulgong. They basically bulldozed a centuries-old wildlife corridor and have wrought significant and devastating destruction on that local community, all in the name of saving the environment. It should not have come to this and it would not have come to this if the National Party had done its job. But it has failed.

What this bill will do is use the corporations power within the Constitution to provide that a corporation must not construct, install or commission a wind farm in a state forest. And, to put it beyond doubt and without limiting the definition of state forest, 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 are all in the Oberon area. And there is also the Canobolas state forest near Orange. I've had many constituents contact me about the Spanish company Iberdrola's planned wind farm in the Canobolas state forest, known as the Four Mile Creek Wind Farm, and they are very upset about it—and this bill would stop it. The bill and the operative clause are not limited to those named state forests. They are for any state forest.

It's now up to all parties to get behind this bill, because our communities want action. Given that the National Party has brought this unregulated mess onto our communities, this bill aims to clean it up. Our communities need support and they need their voices heard. They want their voices heard and they want these wind farms in state forests stopped. So I commend this bill to the House, and I urge every right-thinking member in the House of Representatives to come down and support it. Our communities and our residents need this bill, and they need the support of members in this place.

See this speech in context