Page 2551 - Week 08 - Thursday, 14 August 2014
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independent planning process. But I am surprised that Mr Wall is concerned about the impact of powerlines in this area, because how does Uriarra Village get its electricity at the moment? It gets it from a powerline that travels through exactly the same landscape that is proposed in relation to the solar.
Madam Speaker, if this is such a dastardly bushfire risk, why isn’t Mr Wall saying that the existing powerline should be undergrounded, for example, between Cotter and—
Mr Wall: There’s a big difference between 11 kilovolts and 22, a substantial difference.
MR CORBELL: Not a big difference when it comes to starting a fire; not a big difference at all. One spark can start a fire. It does not matter about the power of the line. Madam Speaker, if Mr Wall was so concerned about bushfire risks associated with an electricity supply, perhaps he should have reflected on the fact that right now Uriarra Village is supplied by an overhead above-ground electricity line.
This project is important for our city’s future and it deserves to be properly assessed and considered in that context. It will have to go through a very rigorous process and ultimately a decision will need to be made as to whether or not it should be approved. That will be a matter for the provisions set out in the Planning and Development Act.
We should not underestimate the significance of this project in Australian terms, at a time when the message that the federal Liberal Party is sending to companies and countries around the world is that Australia is not interested in renewable energy generation, Australia is not interested in making the transition to a clean energy future, and Australia is not interested in supporting investment in this new form of technology which is transforming power and electricity systems around the world.
That is the pedigree of the federal Liberal Party and of their counterparts here in the ACT. They are not interested in renewable energy generation. They are not interested in protecting our community from the vagaries and ongoing price increases that we will be held hostage to if we continue to rely on fossil fuel generation for our electricity supply. They are not interested in any of these things. They are instead only interested in opposition for the sake of opposition. They have no vision for the future growth and development of clean energy technology in our city or indeed in our nation.
This government has a clear program and a clear agenda. We support a transition to a clean energy future. We support investment in large-scale renewable energy generation that will help to decarbonise our electricity supply. Whether or not the OneSun proposal is part of that picture is yet to be determined and will have to be determined through the planning and assessment process. But to characterise it as some ghastly intervention is simply to overstate the case.
There are rural producers in the ACT who see renewable energy generation as a very effective way of diversifying their income and providing security for their ongoing agricultural operations. That is why rural producers, rural lessees, are interested in
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