National Leader David Littleproud claims wind farm workers club injured koalas

In the middle of talking up nuclear energy and the wonders of natural gas, Nationals Leader David Littleproud repeated a long-debunked lie.

David Littleproud has claimed wind farm workers are clubbing koalas.

Nationals Leader David Littleproud launched his re-election campaign by repeating an already debunked lie.

Standing in the Glenvale Room at the Toowoomba Showgrounds, while rain poured outside, Littleproud said wind farm workers clubbed koalas to death that were displaced during construction.

“For the Conservation Council, what worries me, if they want to go out here and see what is happening with the wind farms that are being put up and the trees that are being knocked over, they actually club the koalas that survive when the tree comes down,” he said.

“Literally we are knocking over the natural habitat, when you ask them to rate the renewable companies on their performance of protecting the natural environment, it’s natural-neutral apparently.”

The line about koala being clubbed to death by construction workers first surfaced in 2023 and has often been used to attack the renewables sector.

Littleproud is not the first to use it.

National MP Keith Pitt made the claim during an interview with 2GB while United Australia Party national director Craig Kelly said Labor was “a demented cult” that believed it was saving the world by “smashing the skulls of koalas with a hammer”.

It seems the politicians have drawn conclusions from the Queensland Nature Conservation Act and the Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, which regulate how animals should be disposed of if they are mortally injured.

The act states that the best practice is for mortally injured animals to be chemically euthanized.

If a vet is not on site to administer the drugs then the animal should be shot.

The last resort is for the animal to be bludgeoned to death.

Importantly, this is the same regulation that covers what farmers should do if stock are morally wounded.

A combined ABC and RMIT investigation fact-checked the claim in 2023 and found it to be false.

The Chronicle contacted several wind farm operators to ask if any of their contactors had clubbed a koala to death.

They included Acciona, CSS Energy, Squadron Energy, Ark Energy and Stanwell.

The Squadron Energy spokeswoman said the company had a zero-harm policy for native animals and held itself to the highest environmental standards.

“Independent ecologists work onsite throughout construction to ensure these standards are met at all times,” she said.

“At Clarke Creek no koalas have ever been harmed.

“We are committed to ensuring no koala is put in harm’s way.

A spokesman for Stanwell, the Queensland Government owned power provider building the Wambo Wind Farm, also dismissed the claims.

“We adhere to strict environmental procedures which are in place for the management of vegetation and fauna at all of our sites,” he said. 

Originally published as National Leader David Littleproud claims wind farm workers club injured koalas