Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the outset I wish to thank the people of the Riverina for sending me back here to represent them for a sixth term. It is a great privilege, duty and honour to represent the Riverina in the federal parliament.

The Riverina these days, according to the Australian Electoral Commission, extends from Matong to the Illawarra. The boundaries are vastly different from the ones I inherited when I first stood for and won the seat in 2010. There were changes made in 2016, and we saw another huge alteration again this election. We lost the local government areas of Bland, represented by Mayor Brian Monaghan; Forbes, where Phyllis Miller OAM is the mayor; and Parkes—Neil Westcott is the mayor of that fine council. I want to thank each of those mayors and, more importantly perhaps, the people in those councils for their wonderful contribution to Australia. They very much contribute mightily to this nation's fortunes—in West Wyalong, Forbes, Parkes and other areas in between—and I loved representing them.

But the boundaries changed. The eastern end of Hilltops, taking in Boorowa, was added to the electorate, as was Snowy Valleys. The mayor of that LGA is Julia Ham. There's the Upper Lachlan, where we have Paul Culhane, and Yass Valley, where the indefatigable Jasmin Jones is the mayor. I have very much, in the short time I have been representing those three-and-a-bit shires, enjoyed that experience because they are wonderful places.

Coolamon, Corowa, Cootamundraand Gundagai just emerged, and that will be happening very, very soon. Hilltops, Junee, Lockhart, Temora, Wagga Wagga and Whitton have remained in the Riverina electorate boundaries, and I will do everything I can every day to give them the representation they need, expect, want and deserve. It's a great honour to be in this place, whether you are on the backbench or the front bench, and I've been in both places. I've been everywhere, man! I still very much love this job and this role. Whilst the electorate is now more than 52,410 square kilometres—and it is a lot more driving—the people are indeed just the same. They have the same aspirations.

We've got everything from heavy industry to farming. We manufacture a lot. We grow a lot. It's a great area to represent. Interestingly enough, the new parts of the electorate have come with some challenges. There are proposals by multinational companies to place a lot of wind towers, solar factories and battery energy storage systems in many of the new parts of the electorate and indeed many of the parts of the electorate that have been there for quite some time. The people—particularly in Bookham, Bowning and Binalong—are very, very concerned by a proposal from Wing Prospect to place 90 wind towers, 260 metres high, across their arable farmland. They are very much looking to me and indeed to others to support them in their cause to say that they don't want to see this spoiling their vista and, more importantly, taking up valuable, beautiful countryside that would otherwise be used for farming. In recent times, I've met Emma Webb, a sheep farmer who is married to Lachie, has three young children and is the daughter of Angus Oberg. They are very concerned, in Bowning, at this proposal to place this number of wind towers in their beautiful backyards, and I will support them every step of the way.

Elsewhere in the electorate, battery energy storage systems are being put in place at Gregadoo, Mangoplah and Talbingo in the Snowy Valleys. The difficulty there is that the local rural fire services say that they absolutely will not go and put the fires out because of the potential toxicity of the flames. When you've got volunteers who have lived in and around those districts for many, many years, and they are pushing back and saying, 'Enough's enough,' you have to listen. If you're not listening and acting then you're not doing your role as the member sent here to Canberra to do a job for them and on their behalf. I will stick up for these people, and I will represent them. I hear their concerns, but, moreover, not only will I listen to their concerns; I will act on their concerns.

This reckless rollout of renewables is having such an effect in my electorate. As Jasmin Jones, the mayor of Yass Valley, so correctly points out: why do we have to keep doing the heavy lifting for our metro mates who are not carrying their share of the renewable burden and are not carrying their share of the heavy lift when it comes to this supposed fairytale of net zero? I will fight every step of the way for and on behalf of the people who are pushing back and saying, 'Enough's enough.' Whether it's up at Crookwell, the Yass Valley or the Snowy Mountains, people are pushing back, and they don't want the 28,000 kilometres of transmission lines, much of which is going to end up in the Riverina. They don't want these BES systems, which could potentially be a fire hazard. They don't want their view and, moreover, their arable farmland taken up with these monstrous wind towers. People can fact check this all they like, but councils are not taking some of the blades from the wing towers and many of the solar panels for recycling.

Some of it's recyclable, yes, but a large lot of it's not. The councils do not want to have their landfill used up with these, which leach into the soil and which get in the waterways. They are saying that enough is enough.

Debate interrupted.