Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to commend the member for Bonner on her address to this House today. I rise to rail against the major desalination plant planned for the Gippsland coast near Wonthaggi, in my electorate of McMillan. This $3.1 billion project was announced by then Premier Bracks as the answer to Melbourne’s water supply problems. From day one it has met strong community opposition because of concerns about the impact on the environment and the amenity of the area and because of a total lack of communication on the part of the Victorian state government. Today there are fears for the future as one farm will be torn asunder not by the plant itself but by the power line that is going to go from the plant all the way through west Gippsland. That will not be the only scar on the environment of west Gippsland. There will also be the pipeline. Only if you are a landholder in that area are you being advised where that pipeline is going. I may have a pecuniary interest here. These people are close friends of mine. Their farm will be torn to pieces. I do not even know whether the pipeline may go through the property of Russell Broadbent, Gembrook Road, Pakenham. There is a possibility that the pipeline will rip through my little farmlet too.

This is a very sour issue for the people of west Gippsland. They were not consulted. The siting of this plant has been unfair from the beginning. I believe it is political. It was sited in a Liberal held federal seat and in National and Liberal held state seats. The state government has not taken into account the care and concern of the people who built their lives around the amenity of that area and the beauty of the coastline. This will be a monolithic, huge industrial development right on the coastline of west Gippsland. I have fought against the destruction of these coastlands by wind turbines. I am not against renewable energy. But people have concerns about where we site major industrial projects such as wind turbines and, as in this case, massive desalination plants. You have to consider the amount of emissions that will pour out of the plant, and it is going to take two per cent of Victoria’s power. Importantly, this is an issue that has not shown the state government in a good light at all.