Putting the wind up the resources and energy sectors

Mining Chronicle
September, 2006, Page: 34

YOU COULD be forgiven for thinking that John Cleese has made a comeback as the Senator for Western Australia, the Honourable Ian Campbell, Minister for the Environment and Heritage. Indeed, his recent performances rival Cleese's best performance as the "Minister for Silly Walks" in the famous Monty Python television series. However, all of Senator Campbell's recent gyrations and sideways-stepping has been to no avail, but has certainly engendered great mirth from the media and the Liberal Party's political opponents. However, his antics are not funny at all and reflect an intrinsically unhealthy tendency in resource politics that has given Australia some very bad reviews in the last 10 years.

At a time when Australia desperately needs as many renewable energy developments as possible that are as environmentally friendly as possible, we see the most ridiculous performance by any political portfolio in the Cabinet. In February of this year, Senator Campbell admitted that the Government's own research clearly demonstrated that Australia' greenhouse emissions would increase by 50 per cent by the year 2050.

At that time, when talking about reducing greenhouse emissions, he said, "I think we'll play a bigger part than most countries, because we have very good policies to do that and we also have a very large energy footprint".

Then, in April 2006, Senator Campbell, fulfilling his ministerial duties, vetoed the $220 million Bald Hills wind farm development in South Gippsland, Victoria, on the basis that the windmill's turbines might kill one orange-bellied parrot per year.

This single action endangered far more than one orange-bellied parrot per year, as there were a series of wind farm projects proposed across four states and millions of dollars had already been invested by "green power" companies answering the Federal Government's call for renewable energy developments. wind power Pty Ltd had invested $1.6 million alone on the Bald Hills proposal. A strange call, but perhaps there were some serious environmental considerations here?

It did not take long to work out exactly what were the real considerations in this decision to veto the wind farm. In 2004, the electorate of McMillan, the site for the putative wind farm, was a recently won marginal Liberal seat whose voters were in a serious debate about such a project in the midst of their idyllic surroundings. The local Liberal candidate, David Broadbent, was keen to appease them by canning the wind farm proposal; a mere two days into the election campaign, Senator Campbell stated that the wind farm proposal was a problem. Three days after David Broadbent won the seat, Campbell suspended the development.

Despite the Minister's own departmental advice that this decision could endanger similar coastal developments in four states, Senator Campbell vetoed the wind farm and further exacerbated matters by commissioning ongoing studies in a wild attempt to prove his point. Finally, the Bioses Report in January 2006 seemed to comply with his prerequisites, despite stating that the impact on the parrot population would be "very small". Considered in light of another curious decision made by Senator Campbell regarding a wind farm proposal in Denmark, Western Australia which was also unpopular with local voters, this is ominous. Located in Liberal member Wilson Tuckey's electorate of O'Connor, this proposal was also vetoed by the Honourable Ian Campbell.

We can only be thankful that wind power Pty Ltd had the bottle to challenge the Minister in Federal Court, successfully arguing that nobody could have issued such a ban based on the Bioses Report. The Howard Government smelled disaster and cut a deal with wind power Pty Ltd to drop the court action in favour of a ministerial rethink. The outcome should be interesting.

But the implication that a Minister of the Federal Government would be making decisions on approvals of resource projects on the basis of getting the boys re-elected" sounds the alarm across the entire resources sector. Australian resource companies already demonstrate a strong responsibility to environmental considerations and spend big bucks on rehabilitation and ongoing environmental programs. They don't need to contend with the added burden of political "goosestepping".

On a lighter note, and to quote "Minister Cleese of the Silly Party" while reflecting on Senator Campbell's political future: "It's not pinin'! It's passed on! This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to the perch it'd be pushing up the daisies! It's metabolic processes are now history! It's off the twig! It's kicked the bucket, it's shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible! THIS IS AN EXPARROT!" Stay safe.