Thursday 27 July 2006

Interest high in wind-farm challenge

The Examiner, Page: 14
Thursday, 27 July 2006

Tasmanians should watch a Federal Court challenge over wind-farm development in Victoria carefully. Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell has created political problems for himself with his decision to block a Victorian wind-farm project. The Federal Court is hearing a legal challenge by the Victorian Government and the wind-farm developer against Senator Campbell's veto of the project in South Gippsland. In April, Senator Campbell's argument for rejecting the project was that he needed to protect the endangered orangebellied parrot.

However, that decision is being challenged and further questions have been raised that mere politics, not the fate of an endangered species, had the most influence. The court heard that Senator Campbell's decision had been made against the advice from his own department, which said the Gippsland wind-farm development would have posed no threat to the parrot. Even the report that Senator Campbell did use to support his action said there had been no confirmed sightings of the parrot at the wind-farm site. To highlight the inconsistency in this decision, the Victorian site was seen as having even less potential impact on the parrot than the existing Tasmanian wind farm at Woolnorth.

Critics say the biggest influence on this decision was political, after the Government used local opposition to the project to win a seat off Labor in 2004.Treasurer Peter Costello has weighed into the debate on Senator Campbell's side, saying he thought wind farms "looked ugly" and he would not want them in his street. It was a clumsy argument. Coal-fired power stations aren't exactly a good look either.

The Federal Government line should not be surprising since it has effectively backed coal-fired power over genuine incentives for renewable energy. That move has torpedoed further wind-farm development in Tasmania. This State has an interest in seeing Senator Campbell do more to explain his decision.

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