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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-24 Daily Xml
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SELLICKS HILL/MYPONGA WIND FARM

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:50): I want to spend my few minutes this afternoon talking about the proposed Sellicks Hill/Myponga wind farm which was granted major project status some years ago. This project has been running around for five or six years. It has caused major concerns down on the plains country. Indeed, last week, the Yankalilla council moved a motion opposing the development. The scope of the development has changed so substantially from where it first was. The whole scenario has changed so much that, in my view and in the view of a great number of people down south, the thing should be stopped dead in its tracks.

I have had discussions with the appropriate minister and I know where he is coming from. I am not going to talk about that in here, but I do raise the issue in the house and put it on the record because five years is a long time. As I suggested, the whole scope, the size, the structure and the wind tower fans have all changed. I am a great supporter and a great advocate for alternative forms of power, particularly wind power. Indeed, the first wind farm in the state was in my electorate, at Starfish Hill near Cape Jervis, which was instigated by the former member for Bright, the Hon. Wayne Matthew.

However, time is up on this one. We cannot allow over five years to pass with no action taking place. My view is that the company, Trust Power, has had adequate time; far too much time. It has fiddled and fluffed around and done nothing. It has not done any substantive work whatsoever. For the residents near the site, not only do they have that as their view but there is impact from the noise to many sensitive ears. It is not widely known, but you can see the fans up there spinning around and the high intensity noise impacts on a considerable number of people.

The fact that the proposal has been varied so many times, that it is still sitting there and that nothing has happened is of major concern to me. It is of major concern to my constituents and also to constituents of other members on the plains. I met with a substantial group of people last Friday who asked me to raise the issue in the parliament. They want to know what is going on. They are very much of the belief that it should not go ahead, that five years is far too long and that time is up for Trust Power. There are serious questions about the involvement of different people in that project and serious questions are being asked about the relationship between some of the proponents, the PR and members of the government that are of concern, but I do not know how far that has really gone, quite frankly.

Research that has been conducted internationally since the original approval by the minister indicates that there is clear potential for negative health impacts caused by modern industrial wind farms in proximity to people. The other thing that the state government has done is change the urban growth boundaries substantially. Even members who reside in the metropolitan area are aware that the large expanses of paddocks down south that are owned by the government, by the LMC, are all going to fill up with residential development, in due course.

I put on the record also that I am aware that there are people who are quite happy with the wind farm, and that is always the case. But I am also aware that a petition produced some years ago is somewhat false and really does not hold true, and that there was some coercion and all sorts of things to get signatures on that petition and that, in itself, is of concern. Far more people are living in proximity to the proposed wind farm than were included in the original assessment by Planning SA. The group that I spoke to the other day have since been to see the EPA, and the EPA did not fill them with much hope of any sensible outcome whatsoever. Some of the things that were produced by the public officers within the EPA were seriously at variance with the approval process for the current proposed wind farm at Myponga\Sellicks Beach, so that worries them.

Time expired.

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