Federal Member for Capricornia, Michelle Landry, is bringing regional Queenslanders fight against reckless renewable energy projects to the city to make her country constituent’s voices heard in state parliament.
On Tuesday, 22 August from midday at Queensland Parliament House, Michelle Landry MP will be joined by community action groups from across Queensland for a ‘Rally Against Reckless Renewables’.
In Labor’s rush to meet their targets of 82% renewables by 2030, they are ignoring the legitimate concerns of residents, whose lives and businesses are being impacted by these hasty decisions.
It won’t only hurt families directly impacted by these projects, but all of Australia with more pain on the hip pocket to come.
The cost of construction of just one kilometre of transmission wires is a staggering $8 million. Australia will need 28,000km of new high voltage transmission lines, carpeting regional communities and farms to be able to connect the renewable energy projects to the grid. The consumer will ultimately be the ones to pay for the gold-plating of our electricity network. More money spent on transmission, the higher your electricity bill.
Central Queensland is set to become the backdrop to irresponsible renewable planning, with Queensland Labor funnelling $17 billion into the ‘worlds largest’ pumped hydro scheme.
The Pioneer-Burdekin Pumped Hydro scheme will be located 75km west of Mackay. It is set to flood the rainforest ranges of Eungella, home to endangered and threatened wildlife. At the bottom of the range, the township of Netherdale will be completely inundated and prime agricultural land decimated.
Families have been pushed to their limits, with many properties well into multiple generations living on the same land since the first pioneers came to the valley.
West of Rockhampton, over $212 million has been put on the table to build wind and solar farms. One wind farm, Moah Creek Project, will see 20 to 30 metres of the mountain tops demolished to erect 275 metre tall wind turbines. A known area for koalas, the remnant vegetation will be bulldozed to make way for renewable energy.
The sheer hypocrisy of renewables is astounding. Farmers and other heavy industries are required by law to meet strict legislative guidelines. Yet, if a project is deemed as ‘good’ for the environment in the form of clean energy, companies are able to forge ahead and develop in clearly unsuitable areas.
Regional Queenslanders will be taking their fight to parliament to demand more action be taken to ensure renewable energy projects must meet the same stringent criteria that natural resource and agricultural industries have to meet.
Details of rally:
Tuesday, 22 August – Midday
Queensland Parliament House – Speakers Corner (located between George Street and QUT Campus)
