19 September
2006 - Australian Environment Minister Senator
Ian Campbell has received a new submission from
the proponents of the Bald Hills wind farm.
The submission has been made
following the agreement between Senator Campbell
and the wind farm proponents in August this year
to withdraw from legal action to allow a new proposal
to be put forward.
Senator Campbell said the information
would be assessed thoroughly and as promptly as
possible.
"I want all stakeholders
to have the opportunity to have their say. Public
submissions will be accepted for 21 days from
20 September (tomorrow). The submission from Bald
Hills Wind Farm Pty Ltd can be seen on my Department
website www.deh.gov.au from close of business
tomorrow," he said.
"As part of this consultation
process, I will be seeking a vital missing piece
of information and that is the full report by
the Victorian Government Department of Sustainability
and Environment into the wind farm proposal, a
report which found the proposed facility would
increase the level of threat to the critically
endangered orange-bellied parrot.
"The Bald Hills wind farm
proposal will increase the level of threat to
the Orange-bellied Parrot…A conservative approach
is therefore required which acknowledges that
this proposed development will increase the cumulative
risk to the species posed by the wind farm industry"
(The Age, 29 July 2006, quoting the Victorian
Government Department of Sustainability and Environment
report)
"This report has been kept
hidden by Victorian Planning Minister Rob Hulls
for 1005 days - the same Minister who has for
490 days been sitting on information about the
proposed Dollar wind farm, just 30 km from the
Bald Hills site.
"The hypocrisy of the Bracks
Labor Government over this issue has been breathtaking,
with Mr Hulls making cheap political capital out
of my decision on Bald Hills while he choked off
the approvals process for a similar facility just
down the road and kept secret advice warning about
a real threat to a critically endangered species.
"My original decision to
reject the Bald Hills wind farm was based on the
Biosis cumulative impact study, which found that
one orange bellied parrot a year could be killed.
This report concluded that while the impact of
wind turbine collisions on the parrot - of which
there are less
than 50 breeding pairs left in the world - may
be small, almost any negative impact on the species
could be enough to tip it into extinction.
"I have made this report
publicly available - unlike Mr Hulls, who has
hidden the similar advice he received from his
own department. It's about time the Bracks Government
stopped playing political games and started putting
good environmental outcomes at the top of their
agenda."
Rob Broadfield
