Tuesday, 3 February 2026

 Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (20:33): (1493) My adjournment matter is to the Minister for Energy and Resources. I ask the minister to immediately pause further onshore and offshore wind approvals in the South-West Coast, to undertake a genuine face-to-face community consultation process and to provide a transparent and enforceable plan for turbine decommissioning and full land remediation before any further projects proceed.

This matter goes to the heart of a community that contributes enormously to this state yet continues to be taken for granted by this Allan Labor government. Our community recognise the importance of transitioning to a low-emissions future. However, for more than a decade our region has borne a disproportionate share of the renewable energy burden. Productive agricultural land has been increasingly blanketed by wind farms, often approved with inadequate consideration of the cumulative impacts on farming operations, local communities and the environment. Now the government is proposing to push even further, with offshore wind projects imposed on a community that has made its objections abundantly clear.

Let me be clear: this is not an opposition to renewable energy. My community supports environmentally responsible and well-planned renewable projects. What we do not support is reckless decision-making that places irreplaceable environmental assets at risk. The proposed offshore wind zone sits within a recognised whale migratory pathway and a nursery for the southern right whale, a species that was driven to the brink of extinction and now, remarkably, is returning in growing numbers. There is nowhere else in the world where an offshore wind farm operates in active whale calving zones. The risks remain unknown, and when the risks are unknown, rushing ahead is the greatest danger of all. This government is rushing because it has failed Victorians on energy affordability and reliability. Instead of a credible, balanced energy plan, we see panic-driven targets and communities pushed aside. Consultation has become a box-ticking exercise, not genuine engagement. The proposed Garvoc wind farm is a perfect example. During a so-called 28-day consultation period over December and January, a farmer submitted questions only to be told the department was closed for the holiday period and the email would not be addressed. This is no voice, no choice. It is not consultation, it is contempt.

And it gets worse. Projects continue to be approved without any meaningful end-of-life planning. At Codrington, some of the first wind farms in the region are now being decommissioned. Because of government failure to plan, around 500 tonnes of concrete per turbine will be left buried in productive agricultural land. New turbines are far larger. We are now talking about hundreds of thousands of tonnes of concrete permanently entombed in prime soil. That is environmentally irresponsible by any measure. Our community deserves respect, transparency and honesty, not to be railroaded.