Wind farm ‘free for all’ must stop, says Bob Brown

Bob Brown has turned on sections of the wind industry, accusing some developers of ‘profiteering’ from climate change, while warning the wind rush risks accelerating extinctions.

Former Greens leader Bob Brown said better planning and environmental regulation were needed to ensure the nation’s wind rush did not have perverse outcomes. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Veteran conservationist Bob Brown has turned on sections of the wind industry, accusing some developers of “profiteering” from climate change and not caring about the planet, while warning the wind rush risks accelerating extinctions.

The former Greens leader told The Weekend Australian better planning and environmental regulation were needed to ensure the nation’s wind rush did not have perverse outcomes.

“Wind power is an essential part of the answer to global warming but at the moment we have a free-for-all and whenever that happens there are reckless casualties,” Dr Brown said.

“And the (Albanese) government is way behind industry on this. There are international as well as national (wind farm developer) interests looking at anywhere the wind blows. They’re not doing it in the service of the planet.

“I do see a small number of those wind farms that are environmentally unjustified because the detriment is far greater than the benefit. That’s not being properly safeguarded at state or federal level.”

Dr Brown’s foundation has ­opposed a wind farm proposed for Robbins Island, at the northwestern tip of Tasmania, and Dr Brown is opposed to another inland from Cairns, in Queensland.

Robbins Island, in Tasmania's far northwest, is a haven for thousands of migratory and resident bird species, but also the proposed site for a 100-turbine wind farm. Picture: Bob Brown Foundation

He said he was being ­approached to help fight wind farms across the country and had to make a case-by-case decision.

“(Some of these wind farms) are going in the end to be negative – the overall environmental offer is false because the impact on the environment is going to be bigger than the benefit,” he said.

Dr Brown, who famously led opposition to the damming of the Franklin River for a hydro-electric scheme in the 1980s, agreed the wind rush, if mishandled, could create as many environmental problems as it solved.

He was concerned the Tasmanian government’s pursuit of a 200 per cent renewable energy target – to allow surplus power to be exported to the mainland – was driven by “profiteering” under the guise of climate action.

The Bob Brown Foundation continues to fight the 100-turbine wind farm proposed for Robbins Island by ACEN Australia.

“The real driving reason for that (200 per cent renewables target) is profiteering by people like ACEN, moving into a lucrative new market which is being forced by the exigencies of climate change,” Dr Brown said.

He said the federal government was still talking about improving environmental regulation of wind farms, while developers moved into inappropriate areas.

“There’s an appalling wind farm being built inland at Cairns on the top of the range there, to the west of the Daintree National Park, and this one on Robbins ­Island,” Dr Brown said.

“I’m afraid we’re going to see more of this with massive wind farms lined up across the Australian environment to sell at profit renewable energy into Asia, either directly through cables or for ­hydrogen.

“We’re in a calamitous situation for the environment and nobody in this is much discussing energy efficiency, which is the cheapest and most environmentally sound (source of new power).”

ACEN said it had worked hard to address potential impacts of its Robbins Island wind farm on endangered Tasmanian devils and orange-bellied parrots, and that such impacts would be negligible.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek declined to comment but her department said the government was committed to “strengthening and streamlining … national environmental laws, including for renewables projects”.

“The reforms will improve the system for business and ensure we have faster, clearer, more efficient decision-making that enables economic development, while at the same time ensuring we better protect our environment and heritage,” a spokeswoman said.