It has unfortunately become standard practice for public corporations to maximise profit above all else, so it should perhaps come as no surprise that ACEN fought hard in its Supreme Court battle to build a $1.6 billion wind farm on Robbins Island – and won.
What should, however, raise eyebrows and be a source of great concern is that the Tasmanian government is just as eager to cover much of the island with turbines, and is pushing the Environment Minister to approve the project faster.
It’s all being done in the name of reducing CO2 emissions, to prevent global warming. But the idea that it’s necessary to install a bird-killing wind farm on Robbins Island in order to save the world from climate change seems counterproductive to the ultimate goal: preventing species extinction.
The government ought to know better. Our elected leaders should be a source of protection against self-interested corporate greed. If even they do not defend Tasmania’s most precious locations from industrial development, who will?
One could hardly imagine a worse site for an unsightly, environmentally damaging wind farm than Robbins Island, a place of wild beauty and a haven for endangered species. It’s a stronghold for one of the last remaining facial tumour-free Tasmanian devil populations in our state. Yet, even these devils are destined to become collateral damage once a bridge is built to the island.
This bridge, by the way, along with a required wharf, are an environmental mistake in their own right and were only made legally possible when the government hastily pushed through changes to State Coastal Policy – retrospectively! – while the Supreme Court case was still underway. If wind turbines and associated infrastructure are permitted in a location as special as Robbins Island, where will they be allowed next? Nothing, it seems, is sacred.
Considering the destructive nature of wind farms (especially compared with environmentally gentler forms of energy like solar), they should not be allowed anywhere except after the most careful consideration.
For that we would need a wise, benevolent government committed to transparent decision-making based on expert advice, and willing to properly involve the people in genuine public consultations. When was the last time we had a government like that? And where does that leave us?
Unfortunately, wind farms and Renewable Energy Zones are being proposed in the most inappropriate places, including fragile eagle habitat, on prime agricultural land or else uncomfortably close to towns like Tomahawk, sparking community opposition, division and possibly devaluation of homes.
Are we to put up with the destruction of our wild habitats and best farmland? And then, to add insult to injury, must we help pay for it all with subsidies to foreign-owned wind projects that cannot stand on their own two feet? Robbins Island just goes to prove that something must change.
In a press release applauding the court’s decision on Robbins Island, Energy Minister Nick Duigan bemoaned the lengthy approvals process for the wind farm, saying, “Enough is enough”.
We, too, have had enough, Minister. Enough of our democratically elected representatives letting corporations have the final say, of economic benefit to shareholders ranking higher than the good of our nation as a whole. T
The government alone has the power – nay, the duty – to restrain corporations from heaping up riches at our expense. It is time the interests of the Tasmanian people and the environment were put before corporate profit.
Carran Doolan is the author of this piece. She is part of a loose group of north-western residents concerned about the Robbins Island project.
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