Senate debates

Monday, 11 September 2006

Questions without Notice

Renewable Energy

2:18 pm

Photo of Judith AdamsJudith Adams (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell. Will the minister inform the Senate of action the government is taking to encourage renewable energy in Australia? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

Photo of Ian CampbellIan Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank Senator Adams for the question. Can I say for the benefit of our Chinese friends in the gallery that not only are we backing multibillion-dollar efforts to support renewable energy development within Australia but, through the Asia-Pacific Partnership, of which China is a very important part, and through our bilateral climate change partnership, we are working to ensure that the Australian renewables industry partners more and more strongly with China. China is obviously an economy that is growing rapidly, as is its greenhouse gas emissions footprint, and Australia’s renewables industry has a phenomenal role to play in helping China provide reliable, secure power with much lower emissions. It is a very valuable partnership and it is built on a very strong renewables industry that has been underpinned by the Howard government’s renewable energy policies.

We have spent billions of dollars on our climate change response, many hundreds of millions of dollars of which goes to the renewable energy industry. The wind energy industry has seen a massive upsurge in rollout under the coalition government. There were something like 20 wind turbines in Australia under the previous Labor government; we now have 660 wind energy installations, turbines, either installed or being built—a phenomenal growth. Just this month the Prime Minister announced the extension of the Remote Renewable Power Generation Program, which substitutes and replaces fossil fuel burning facilities around the remote parts of Australia with renewables, quite often wind.

I was told at a meeting of my roundtable today to develop a national wind energy code. I was told by a representative of Verve Energy that one of those turbines, on Rottnest Island, has just had its first full month of commissioning, and the results show that they were able to use wind energy for 70 per cent of the time during the last month. Over a full year that will replace 450,000 litres of dieseline and mitigate about 1,200 tonnes of carbon emission from just one facility. The Prime Minister has extended that program with a further $123 million. That is on top of the recent extension of the solar homes program, the Photovoltaic Rebate Program, which will roll out solar cells to in excess of 11,000 homes. That will build on the Solar Cities program, which provides $75 million to transform entire suburbs.

Today was an important day for the renewables industry. I hosted a roundtable. As we know from recent controversies around the Bald Hills wind farm and the Dollar wind farm, approval for which has been sitting on Minister Hull’s desk for coming up to 500 days at the end of this month—on the eve of the grand final the approval for the Dollar wind farm will have been sitting on Rob Hull’s desk for 500 days—there is total confusion in the community and in the wind energy industry about policy and planning approvals. A Labor state minister is saying they should roll over local communities and not show any interest in what local communities think.

The roundtable, I can report, has agreed on a national wind code supported by the wind industry. The president of the association, Andrew Richards, has backed it; the local communities have backed it; the local councils have backed it. The Commonwealth government is showing leadership in making sure not only that future wind farm processes are clear, transparent and create a good basis of investment for the industry but also that local communities play a part in the process. Labor opposes local governments and local communities being engaged in the siting of wind farms; the coalition will ensure that their views are part of the process. (Time expired)