Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Choice in Childcare and Early Learning) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Western Australia is in the midst of a significant and rushed energy transition driven by the Albanese government's net zero agenda. Projects like the proposed 250-megawatt four-hour Baldivis battery costing around half a billion dollars show how quickly developers are moving to position themselves within the government's policy settings, as coal-fired power stations at Collie and Muja are forced into closure by 2030. While Labor governments talk about transition and investments, communities are being left to deal with the consequences.

It can be easier today to advance a proposal for a massive utility-scale battery than it is for an ordinary resident to obtain approval for something as simple as a backyard shed. Families can spend months navigating local planning rules for a small outbuilding, yet a 250-megawatt industrial installation can move forward at remarkable speed. That is the regulatory paradox that Labor governments have created. Communities are also entitled to ask what this means for their neighbourhood amenity. A battery facility of this scale being proposed for Baldivis audibly humming away day and night with lighting, fencing and increased activity is not a minor development. These are significant industrial projects that should be treated as such.

Last Friday night, I attended a meeting of concerned Baldivis residents. This project is being proposed for an idyllic semirural area just south of Perth. It is dividing the community, and the emotion there was palpable. Residents feel they have been steamrolled by a top-down transition being imposed on them without genuine consultation. They believe—I've seen the properties for myself and I agree—that this is no location for a project of this nature. I call on the local federal member, the member for Brand Ms King, to front up and listen to her community. Don't allow this community to be divided and its amenity destroyed.