Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. I've had practical experience in the outcomes that the honourable member is referring to. The Chalumbin Wind Farm was on the front page of the Spectator magazine. It was a national issue, and the outrage of the people in the heartland of the electorate I represent concerned the last remnant jungles on earth. There's a little bit in Africa, there's a little bit in South America and there's a little bit in Australia—and that's about it. There are hardly any jungles left in the world. They were putting Chalumbin Wind Farm right alongside a remnant jungle on earth. So when the myriads of flying foxes and birds flew out—chop, chop, chop. But the suggestion is outrageous because it's on top of the Great Dividing Range, and you have to clear a 100-metre-wide path where you're going to put these wind farms. So now we have no ground cover—because you have to clear the grass away, too, because of fires—on top of the Great Dividing Range, with what the World Heritage declared, quite rightly, some of the last remnant jungle on earth. That was the proposal for Chalumbin!

It was spectacularly fought in the national media—on the front page of the Spectator magazine, to quote but one example—and among numerous national media outlets. Eventually, Minister Plibersek quite rightly put the mocker on it. She took a risk because the greenies think this is the answer to all of their prayers—a wind farm. The ridiculous nature of the costs alone would prohibit any sane person from proceeding down this pathway. And I speak with authority, because I was the minister for electricity in Queensland. I put in the first standalone solar system in Australia in 1982 or 1983. Before most people in this House were actually born, it was put in. But I had to do my homework on the alternative proposal for wind farms. Would you believe that, for the solar proposal that we implemented on Coconut Island, the incoming Labor government put in wind farms—I mean, a wind farm on a tiny little island of about 10 acres! You go to bed every night with 'whoomp, whoomp, whoomp', desecrating and polluting paradise.

A wind farm only lasts for about 20 years. The wind farm at Ravenshoe has to be dismantled by law when it comes to its end of life. They just dumped all of the fan blades on the ground, on properties owned by the Kidners, a very prominent, well-loved and popular local family. They just dumped them on the ground and walked away. When people proceeded to take legal action on it, the company had vanished. It didn't exist anymore. There was no-one you could sue or take action against. So here we are desecrating paradise. This is some of the last remnant jungle on earth. They just dumped the stuff in the middle of the jungle. Again, it attracted national publicity, but this House and the state house in Queensland have taken no action upon this. So I commend the member for bringing forward this matter of very great importance to the people of Australia.

Why they go to put it in national parks is because you can't be far away from the grid. So you've got to find somewhere near the grid, and a lot of people live near a national electricity grid. National parks are a place where people don't live, so we'll put it in the national parks. Of course, people live adjacent to the national parks. But why do you have a national park? It's to keep it as it is, or as it was for 100,000 years or whatever! We want to keep a little bit of Australia the way it was, and I think every Australian would agree with that concept. Well, now you are doing the exact opposite. You're putting wind farms in there.

The cost of electricity generated by wind is about three or four times the cost— (Time expired)

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