House debates Statements by Members
Petition: Renewable Energy
Dan Tehan Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
1:42 pm
I rise today to speak on an issue which is causing grave concern to large parts of my electorate: the way that wind farms are running roughshod over local communities in their efforts to get these wind farms up. With the Mount Fyans wind farm—and I have a petition here with over 400 signatures to it—the company is not listening to Indigenous owners and community groups. In the Shire of the Moyne, where all these wind farms are going, there is not one household which is benefiting from cheaper power. I say to all those people: think what it would do to your local communities if they were being industrialised by transmission lines and by these wind towers.
Most recently, we have seen a proposed wind farm at Garvoc, where they put the planning application in and then went to the communities and told them what they are doing. My communities have had enough. That is why I will be tabling this petition, with 400 signatures, to say: do your consultations properly. Don't plant your transmission lines right across our patch. Don't industrialise our electorates. Do it, do it properly, and do not see all the benefits go to the cities, where, if this were happening there, they would not tolerate it.
Sharon Claydon Newcastle, Australian Labor Party
Member for Wannon, has the petition been approved by the Petitions Committee?
Dan Tehan Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
It hasn't been approved by the Petitions Committee, but I seek leave to table it.
Andrew Leigh Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury
If it hasn't been approved, leave is not granted.
Dan Tehan Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
Oh, so you won't even—
Sharon Claydon Newcastle, Australian Labor Party
I suggest the member for Wannon proceed to have the document—
Stop disrupting, Member for Wannon. There is a process that you well know in order to get petitions approved, and you can table it when you have it approved.