Tyron Whitten (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to speak to the Environment and Communications References Committee's report on the offshore wind industry consultation process. I rise to speak on behalf of the members of my community in Western Australia who were not given the opportunity to have their voices heard in this inquiry. This inquiry came about, thanks to Senator Cadell, due to the utterly disgraceful manner in which my constituents were treated by this government. The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water was responsible for community consultation processes in Bunbury, Busselton, Harvey and Mandurah. These are all in my home state of WA, where the community is demanding a moratorium on the construction of offshore wind turbines until a precautionary principle can be applied and proper due diligence can be carried out.

The offshore wind zone in Geographe Bay is a whale superhighway. Whales are migrating through the zone for nine months of the year. Well over 50,000 humpback whales are migrating through the deeper waters of the offshore wind zone, and a number of these can be observed nursing in Geographe Bay. These huge numbers of whales are migrating through waters further than 20 kilometres offshore at depths of 30 to 60 metres right in the offshore zone. Our pygmy blue whales and southern right whales are endangered and using Geographe Bay as a birthing and nursery area. The southern right whale has a gestation period of 16 months, not 12 months, as has been recently discovered. This is the worst possible place to be considering the construction of a wind farm.

This offshore wind zone is being fast-tracked and greenlit in this Labor government's reckless pursuit of net zero, a pursuit that is costing Australians $1.5 trillion. Western Aussies have every right to be outraged about the threat to our pristine Indian Ocean and our fishing and tourism industries. This is why the Senate inquiry came about—because the sham community consultation event held in Western Australia and hosted by our federal department of environment involved public officers of the department manhandling, pushing and shoving members of my community and an employee of a member of the state legislative council.

When my constituents came forward to present the details and photos of this physical confrontation to the committee in their submission, they were asked to make the submission confidential. It appears the committee and the department of environment did not wish for the details of this physical altercation to be made public. Then the public hearing at which my constituents would have been offered time to have their voices heard was cancelled. This is the utterly disgraceful way in which my community is being treated by this government, and it doesn't stop there.

The department of the environment has then given a green light to a marine survey of the Bunbury continental shelf.

They did this by declaring that the marine survey was not a controlled action under the EPBC Act 1999. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is there to protect our environment in situations such as this. Our public servants and the department have blatantly disregarded the risks involved with marine survey mapping, which uses sound levels that cause harm and death to whales, in their rush to support the building of an offshore wind farm in the middle of a whale super highway and birthing zone.

When an activity is declared not a controlled action, it means that no-one will be held accountable for the harm done. Whales and dolphins use echolocation to navigate the ocean, and the sound levels recorded in this type of proposed marine surveying has been shown to cause deafness in whales and dolphins, which results in their death. They cannot navigate their surroundings. Reports on the marine-surveying methods used recorded noise levels that exceed the whales' spectrum of hearing, meaning that the whales are not aware they are going deaf from the underwater noise until it's too late. Whales cannot avoid a damaging noise level that is outside of their hearing frequency.

The WA reef system of the Bunbury continental shelf is as unique as the Great Barrier Reef area and is also home to the famous WA rock lobster. The ocean substrate is home to many species of fish, shark, squid and octopus. The risk to the WA rock lobster industry from marine surveying in this area is extremely concerning. I've asked the Minister for the Environment and Water, Minister Watt, to review the decision made by the department of environment so the precautionary principle can be applied. I have not received acknowledgment of my letter or a reply to my request. I submitted an FOI request asking for the documentation involved in making this critical decision, and it was refused last week. It was refused by the same public officer that made the decision that the marine survey is not a controlled action. This is another utterly disgraceful act to avoid transparency and accountability. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.