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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-06-05 Daily Xml
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STARFISH HILL WIND FARM

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (14:21): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure. Will the minister advise the house of the amount of power as a percentage of installed capacity that the Starfish Hill wind farm is currently providing to the grid and how many of the turbines are inoperable? The Liberal opposition has received advice that there are chronic design faults in the turbine gearboxes and that a number of the turbines are currently offline and have been for an extended period.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON (Elder—Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure, Minister for Energy) (14:22): This is the difference: a government that has encouraged the wind industry to the extent that we are world leaders and an opposition which, when it was in government, did not have a single turbine—

Mr PENGILLY: Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. My point of order is relevance.

The SPEAKER: Order! I do not uphold the point of order. The minister has barely begun his answer. I will listen to it.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: The point I make is that, at any opportunity they can find, they attack the renewable energy industry. I am quite happy to talk to—I think it is Tarong Energy that operates—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Wasn't it us?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: The member for MacKillop obviously still does not believe the facts that have been put to him by the Premier. The truth is that, when we came to government in 2002, there was one wind turbine: it was in Coober Pedy and it did not work. That was the previous government's achievement in renewable energy.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: How many were approved? None that I can recall, because I can tell members that one of the first things I did in government was get the bureaucrats into my office on the Starfish Hill wind farm and tell them to resolve the deadlock on providing all the necessary approvals for it to go ahead. After the industry had been stuffed around for months by the former energy minister, it took 20 minutes to resolve the difference. If you want to talk about wind energy, we will do it at some length.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: The answers may well be longwinded. I am quite happy to find out how many, and I will not take for granted any of the honourable member's allegations. I do not know why you want to attack the people operating wind farms. I do not know why you want to do that, but we are more than happy to be known in public as strong supporters and happy to find out. I will tell members how many are operating as opposed to when you were in government, and that is an infinite number more because, when you were in government, our energy was drawn from—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I am sorry, the power tool has something to say by way of an interjection. I mean, that voice is as uninformative as it is unattractive! What I can say is that any reasonable observer would know that South Australia is not only the most successful state in Australia in creating renewable energy but also a world leader. If members opposite want to quibble about someone who has gearbox problems in wind farms to attack the industry, go right ahead, but we will continue to support it.

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