‘Complicit with slavery’: Barnaby Joyce slams green light for new solar project

Barnaby Joyce says Australia is ‘complicit with slave labour’ after the government approved a solar farm in NSW operated by a Chinese company linked to human rights abuses.

Barnaby Joyce has raised allegations of forced labour with multiple renewable energy developers. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Federal MP Barnaby Joyce says Australia is “complicit with slavery” after a Chinese solar company linked to human rights abuses in Xinjiang was given the green light to build a 300ha renewables project in northern NSW.

Jinko Power Australia, a subsidiary of Shanghai-headquartered solar giant Jinko Solar, received approval from Environment Minister Murray Watt for its 1.4 gigawatt Garoo solar-plus-storage project south of Tamworth in September.

Jinko Solar has repeatedly been linked to human rights breaches in China’s Xinjiang province.

A landmark Sheffield Hallam University report published in November 2023 found Jinko Solar had “high exposure” to the Xinjiang Autonomous Uyghur Region (XUAR) for all of its solar modules.

“Jinko’s revised supply US market chain map largely corroborates sourcing relationships that can be gleaned from publicly available disclosures. However, it eliminates the China sourcing that is visible through customs records, and it does not account for the full amount of inputs required for the production capacity of the company’s ingots,” the report by academics Alan Crawford and Laura Murphy reads. “Without further disclosures, it is not possible to exclude XUAR exposure in any of Jinko’s supply chains.”

Environment Minister Murray Watt. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

An earlier Sheffield Hallam University report, published in 2021, contained evidence of Jinko Solar participating in forced labour transfers through its Xinjiang facility, which was closed in 2023.

A separate report by Horizon Advisory, also published in 2021, found Jinko Solar, along with a slew of other Chinese solar companies, showed signs of using forced labour.

Mr Joyce, whose electorate of New England encompasses the Garoo project, told The Saturday Telegraph he had raised allegations of forced labour with multiple renewable energy developers.

“It’s something I’ve actually brought up with other intermittent power companies, in what I call the intermittent power swindle”, he said.

“This is not the only example, it’s only the most recent example.

“This whole thing is coming unstuck. People will wake up to it. It’s a swindle.

“It’s destroying our power grid … the hypocrisy of people lauding the virtue of intermittent power while relying on slave labour.”

Jinko Power Australia has also lodged an application to build a large-scale solar farm and battery storage system near Goondiwindi in southern Queensland.

In response to questions put by The Saturday Telegraph to Environment Minister Murray Watt, a government spokeswoman said environmental assessments are “limited to environmental considerations”.

“A delegate for the Minister for the Environment determined Garoo Solar Farm and BESS was unlikely to have a significant impact on protected matters and did not require further assessment under national environment law.”

The Saturday Telegraph sent multiple requests to Jinko Solar for comment.