Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to take note of Senator Ian Campbell’s contribution in question time today. If there were any remaining doubt that Senator Ian Campbell has disgracefully abused his position as Minister for the Environment and Heritage, that doubt was buried today under the pile of parrot droppings that the Senate has been subjected to. For months, Senator Campbell has spuriously claimed to be the defender of the orange-bellied parrot. Today, he effectively gave the Senate the bird. He denied the undeniable. He refused to accept that he has been caught out abusing his powers under environmental laws to protect a Liberal Party mate. The facts are now plain for the whole world to see. He has distorted the scientific evidence, he has squandered taxpayers’ money and he has undermined valuable investment in renewable energy.

In the run-up to the 2004 election, the minister, Senator Campbell, made it clear that he would do all he could to protect Russell Broadbent, the endangered Liberal Party candidate for McMillan. Senator Campbell told the voters of McMillan that he had ‘undoubted powers’ to veto the wind farm. He made no mention at that time of the orange-bellied parrot. Nevertheless, Senator Campbell was confident that he would find some legal basis for intervening. He gave voters a nod and a wink—‘Elect Mr Broadbent and I’ll stop this project.’ The problem for Senator Campbell is that the law actually requires the minister to have a reason for intervening that stands up to scrutiny. The need to win a marginal seat for the coalition government just does not cut it. One of his advisers may have told Senator Campbell that he needed an excuse that would fly. Senator Campbell appears to have taken it literally. He latched on to the orange-bellied parrot.

Following the election, Senator Campbell spent 16 months shopping around for some scientific evidence to back the decision he had already made to stop the wind farm. We now know that this evidence was very hard to come by. In December 2004 Latitude 42 Environmental Consultants told the minister ‘any impacts on bird populations appear to be negligible’. Of course, this was the wrong answer for Senator Campbell, so he commissioned another study, from a firm called Biosis. Biosis concluded that blocking the Bald Hills wind farm would have ‘extremely limited beneficial value to the conservation of the parrot’. Biosis modelling found that there could be one parrot killed by the wind turbines every 1,000 years—one parrot every 1,000 years. In March, the minister’s own department told him that the wind farm at Bald Hills posed a ‘negligible threat to the parrot’. The department states that ‘no orange-bellied parrot has been recorded there’, ‘there appears to be no suitable habitat on site’ and ‘it is not considered to be a major migration passage’.

Despite the weight of evidence, Senator Campbell blocked the wind farm. Understandably, the backers of the wind farm instituted legal proceedings against the minister to overturn the decision. Last week, the minister had his day in court—and he was caught out. His parrots came home to roost. The court ordered that the minister’s decision should be set aside and that the minister reconsider the decision according to the law. It also ordered the Commonwealth to pay the costs of the proceedings. That is right: taxpayers will be asked to underwrite Senator Campbell’s blatant political favouritism. Senator Campbell talked today about these being consent orders. The Senate should have no doubt that the minister was well advised by the Australian Government Solicitor on this matter. Senator Campbell agreed to the consent orders because his lawyers knew that his case was doomed.

This case has exposed the corrupt way that environmental law is administered by this minister. This minister’s administration of the portfolio is like something you could expect in a tin-pot Third World country—or from the Western Australia Liberal Party. If you are investing in wind farms in this country, you need not only an environmental impact statement but also a political impact study. It is about time that Senator Campbell paid the price for this. Senator Ian Campbell is not yet a dead parrot, but he is a very naughty boy! (Time expired)