Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, Mr Acting Deputy President Leyonhjelm, I congratulate you on your initial turn in the chair in the role of Acting Deputy President. I am very delighted also, as Senator Urquhart has said, to rise to comment on the first annual report of the National Wind Farm Commissioner and to congratulate Mr Andrew Dyer on what I believe has been an excellent first report, no doubt laying the foundation for many more into the future.

As my colleague said, there are no statutory powers conferred on the National Wind Farm Commissioner and, in some ways, that is probably the strength of the role. This gentleman, as we know, had been an ombudsman associated with the telecommunications industry, so he has a wealth of experience in this space. The greatest attestation to the role has been the wide acceptance of the commissioner's role and, I understand, the positive reports that have come back as a result of his first annual report from, pretty well, everyone associated with the industry and many who exercised their right to raise complaints. This is bearing in mind that he has no statutory powers.

It is the case, nevertheless, in the face of what could have been a high degree of angst from the wind-farm industry, that he has been able to cause them to review complaints procedures, to make recommendations on a formal complaints procedure, and to get acceptance of most in the industry to adhere to a complaints procedure by people who believe they are affected or likely to be affected. As Senator Urquhart quite rightly said, the range of complaints relate, in some instances, to existing wind farms and, in others, to wind farms yet to be developed. That forum, which has not existed before in Australia, gives a voice to people's concerns about either existing wind farms or proposed wind farms.

I go back, then, to the guidelines. The commissioner has recommended national guidelines that could be adopted by all states and territories. You, Acting Deputy President Leyonhjelm, were a member of that select committee that consulted widely, as were Senator Urquhart and I. One of the issues that came up immediately was the stupidity of the fact that there were not consistent planning guidelines across state boundaries. We had a situation, for example, in which recommended distances from the closest wind turbine to a home differed from South Australia to Victoria to New South Wales to Queensland. We are now seeing an accepted standardisation across all jurisdictions, not by the heavy hand of legislation, direction or mandatory requirement but by the persuasion of a very sensible person.

One critically important element to come out of this report relates to an anomaly in which, in advance of a wind turbine being approved or an application going forward, an acoustician, an acoustics expert, so-called, would lend their support to what they believed was going to be the acoustic level, the sound and the infrasound that might come from that wind farm. After it was constructed, guess who got the job of going back afterwards and seeing whether or not those predictions were, indeed, accurate? Acting Deputy President, you and I recall the angst associated with this. It was exactly the same acoustician or firm of acoustics specialists.

One of Commissioner Dyer's recommendations is that, for transparency, integrity and probity—and all those other reasons—it should not be the party that made the original suggestions, recommendations or predictions as to the level of sound coming out of that wind farm, it should be a totally different and independent firm on which our decisions are based. Yes, not all parties are going to be satisfied. They never are, in a complaints process. But I am aware that through his good industry, commonsense and negotiation there have been some settlements between wind-farm operators and people stating they have been affected. And he has not got himself involved in the issues associated with health or otherwise. They will, no doubt, be the subject of future scrutiny.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted. Debate adjourned.