Parrot a late factor

Herald Sun
Friday 8/12/2006 Page: 54

A WIND farm built near a habitat of orange-bellied parrots was approved before risks were revealed, Environment Minister Ian Campbell has said. In April, Senator Campbell overturned Victorian Government approval for a 52-turbine farm at Bald Hills, Gippsland.

He used his discretionary powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Despite a departmental report indicating there would be negligible harm to the parrots, an independent Biosis report found more serious concerns about parrot deaths.

The minister blocked the $220 million project.

In a question on notice to Senator Campbell in September, Labor frontbencher Kelvin Thomson asked whether the Woolnorth and Musselroe Bay wind farms in Tasmania posed greater risks than the thwarted Bald Hills project.

The Woolnorth project is expected to have 79 turbines when completed.

Senator Campbell replied this week, stating that the Woolnorth installation and another wind farm near Portland in Victoria, which are both known parrot habitats, were early approvals under the EPBC Act and both were based on the best information available at the time.

"The Biosis report was completed in February 2006 and contained new and relevant information that I was required to take into account when considering the Bald Hills Wind Energy Installation proposal," he said.

"The Musselroe Wind Energy Installation was approved in 2005 and is not located within the known distributional range of the orange-bellied parrot." Senator Campbell denied he had vetoed a recommendation from his department that the Bald Hills project go ahead, saying that was merely one of several conclusions.