Clean Teals seem to like muddying the waters

How could a man, who chained himself to an excavator to stop harm to the Pilliga scrub, show no such passion for environmental damage when renewables cause it, asks Vikki Campion.

How could a man, who chained himself to an excavator to stop harm to the Pilliga scrub, show no such passion for environmental damage when renewables cause it?

Climate 200-backed Senator David Pocock has voted five times against an inquiry into regional Australia’s most contentious issue – seeking to examine what transmission lines and wind and solar electricity installations do to the local environment.

You have to question whether it’s because of his affiliation to Climate 200 and its founder Simon Holmes a Court.

Climate 200 quickly complains if you suggest it is a political party.

Holmes a Court is investing in foreign-owned renewables.

David Pocock and farmer Rick Laird attach themselves to an excavator at the Maules Creek coal mine, shortly before being arrested. Pocock pleaded guilty but no conviction was recorded. Picture: Twitter

Parliamentarians’ spouses are subjected to greater scrutiny for more minor issues.

Last year, Holmes a Court told The Australian his renewable energy investments were mostly foreign, with Australian holdings comprising less than 2 per cent of his assets.

Most ownership of wind factories and solar power in Australia is foreign-owned and foreign-made.

In the New England region alone, White Rock Wind is owned by China, Bendemeer Energy Wind and Solar is owned by Singapore, Winterbourne Wind is owned by the Dutch, Middlebrook is owned by the French, Doughboy Wind by Korea, while Hillgrove and Olive Grove Solar are owned by Saudi Arabia.

Do the wealthy in Riyadh want to save the planet, or do they want to make as much money as fast as possible? Are those in Beijing and Singapore tormented about whether Australia can get to net zero?

Big wind and big solar is massive business.

David Pocock holds a press conference in Canberra regarding the Office of National Intelligence's Climate Risk Assessment Report. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Before Climate 200, Holmes a Court spent years lobbying politicians in Parliament House on pro-renewables policies.

Now he has the most brilliant lobbying firm in Canberra – Members of Parliament and Senators.

Simon Holmes a Court’s father, did not become Australia’s first billionaire by being a naive simpleton, and the apple has not fallen far from the tree.

In a 46-minute podcast about himself, Holmes a Court is described as a “long-term energy analyst and renewables investor”. He describes how Climate 200 did all the Teal polling and says Climate 200 was formed to address “climate and integrity”.

So why won’t Pocock, elected on this integrity platform, shine light on industrial renewable installations smashing biodiversity?

What we do know is this – a man who was so passionate about the environment that he was arrested before he joined the Senate – appears to show little curiosity in the loss of hundreds of hectares of biodiversity, slaughtered endangered wedge-tailed eagles and dismantling and rehabilitation costs for each tower.

When confronted with Victorian farmers losing access to their generational business, superannuation and retirement as they have land compulsory acquired for transmission lines, Pocock listened to their concerns with forensic intensity, taking notes – and then walked into the Senate and voted against them.

He cared more about getting up a senate inquiry on “impacts and management of feral horses in the Australian Alps”.

Instead, the Senate is holding inquiries into head trauma in contact sports and why kids don’t want to go to school.

The Senate has agreed to report on human rights violations in Iran but refuses to consider the rights of Australians.

In the past few months, Climate 200 has surveyed its donors on the Voice and asked them to name the three MPs it backed that were most effective and hosted a panel featuring four Teals and Simon Holmes a Court. In the 179 divisions of the 47th parliament, all seven lower house Teals attended 122, voting together in 96 divisions – or about 79 per cent of the time.

In another, all abstained.

Labor is voting against the inquiry because it fears giving a megaphone to those devastated by the “rewiring the nation” plan.

The Greens vote against it because they believe the way to save the planet is to strip Australian earth for foreign-owned renewable industrialisation.

At least they admit they are political parties.

It’s time for Pocock and his political backers to admit the same and be subject to the scrutiny that comes with it.