Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about Drynan Drive in Calliope and the Widgee 'say no to the powerlines' rally that was held recently. After years of advocacy, I welcome the start of the construction of the upgrade Drynan Drive and Dawson Highway intersection in Calliope. The intersection has daily high-traffic flows, including frequent truck movements, with the road often crossed by schoolchildren. Many locals I have spoken to have told me how dangerous this intersection is, especially during morning and afternoon drop-off times. Unfortunately, I have had to drag the Labor government kicking and screaming to commit to this project. Labor's own Minister for Transport and Main Roads, Mark Bailey, in 2021 clearly did not consider the project a priority, replying to one of my letters that this 'must compete against statewide priorities'. It took 97 days for the minister to reply to this letter. I consider the safety of the Calliope community paramount and I am glad the upgrade of Drynan Drive is finally underway.

On March 17, I attended the community rally at Widgee near Gympie, where over 200 people are vehemently against high-voltage transmission lines crossing their land. They came out to protest and seek help from their government representatives. This is exactly what I spoke about in my maiden speech. The impact of renewable energy projects, including transmission lines, will be enormous, and this is just the beginning. The virtue-signalling inner-city population do not have a clue of what massive renewable projects are meaning for our local communities.

If the Labor Party are to achieve their 82 per cent renewable energy target by 2030, their own estimates require 22,000 solar panels to be installed every day between now and 2030. This will equate to some 40 million solar panels. There will be 40 wind turbines required to be built every month between now and 2030—approximately 4,000 in total. All this goes along with 28,000 kilometres of high-voltage transmission lines to connect these projects to the grid, and with metropolitan Australia having an understanding of the impact that this will have on rural Australia.

Next month Liddell power station will close, and in 2025 it is proposed that Eraring power station close, and I predict that the lights will go out in metropolitan Australia. Only then, when it's too late, will the inner-city zealots understand the energy fiasco that has been created by this sensible, unachievable rush to renewable energy. I say: do not close any power generation resources until equal generation capacity has been built. To do so will have consequences for business, industry and the householder that will not easily be fixed.

I feel like I'm the lookout on the Titanic, screaming, 'Iceberg! Iceberg!' and nobody's listening. So I say once again that I believe we as Australians are on the road to an energy-generating crisis.