A TASMANIAN wind farm is operating with a licence to kill up to six endangered orange-bellied parrots every two years — the same birds that the Federal Government last week declared must be saved at all costs.

TWO days into the 2004 federal election campaign, Ian Campbell was on the telephone with a message for voters in the marginal Victorian seat of McMillan.

IT'S blowing a Gippsland gale. The half-dozen wind turbines that flick long fingers above the seaward horizon near Dalyston are cartwheeling with a will, slipping in and out of view between the rain squalls that blow like sheets of hard, grey mist across the tawny paddocks.

A new report into the collective impact of wind farms on some of Australia’s threatened and migratory bird species warns of threats posed by coastal wind farms to the long-term survival of the threatened Orange-bellied Parrot, the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell said today.

The Bracks Government has attacked as "blatantly political", a Federal Government decision to block a controversial 52-turbine wind farm plan on Victoria's south-east coast.

The federal government has blocked a wind farm proposal on Victoria's south-east coast after a report found the project would threaten an already endangered parrot species.

FLEURIEU EAGLES THREATENED - IS ORIGIN ENERGY SERIOUS ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT? ENVIRONMENTAL LOSS IN THE NAME OF ENVIRONMENTAL GAIN

Compliments of Andrew Chapman, the attached pdf files contain extensive documentation particularly with respect to the impact of wind turbines on wildlife as part of an ongoing effort to prevent the construction of the Bald Hills Wind Farm, South Gippsland, Victoria. While it has been approved by the Victorian State Government the presence in the Bald Hills area of migratory species of national and international significance that are protected by treaties with Japan and China in the Bald Hills has placed the final decision in the hands of the Federal Government. This decision is pending.

In its submission today, the department will not reiterate all of the matters raised in the 21 October submission, rather the department wishes to focus largely on the matters arising from this proposal affecting Brolga and Southern Bent-wing Bat.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment has considered and evaluated the above [Macarthur] application pursuant to, section 52 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. DSE offers the following response to the above proposal.

This submission deals only with the potential impact on the natural environment and in particular birds and bats.

The media release from the Minister of Planning, Victoria, denying the permit for the Yaloak Wind Farm because of the unacceptable risk to the Wedge-tailed eagle.

The attached report is on collision modeling done for the proposed Yalloak wind farm in Victoria. The wind farm was rejected because of the large risk to Wedge-tailed Eagles. This report suggests that 9 of a population of 12 would be killed in the first year resulting in a population sink.

This Action Statement has been prepared under section 19 of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 under delegation from Chtoe Munro, Secretary, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, June 2001

The Capital Wind Farm project will seriously diminish biodiversity from its initiation and this degradation will not cease. It is totally hypocritical for the scientific community, the so called environmental community, and the renewable energy businesses to promote an inefficient and invasive technology which has decimated bird populations globally. The inefficiency of wind technology must be thoroughly researched and published by our media as a matter of the utmost urgency. For those sanctimonious bureaucrats and scientists who reply that we should be looking at the bigger picture, that global warming is killing off species anyway, this is all the more reason to lobby our governments to develop a clean and efficient technology immediately. There is no room for scientific arrogance or ignorance with regard to the technology (not just the scientific concept) of energy production.

It may be the time to consider how wind farms fit in with the values which the Wilderness Society represents. If the Society is prepared to go through such a prolonged and worthy fight to save the forests, with all the financial and emotional costs involved, it would be consistent to regard wind farm development with the same scepticism with which it regards the wood chip industry. Both are potent adversaries to the values which I hope we share.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
Broadcast: 17/04/2006
Government vetos wind farm development
Reporter: Mary Gearin

How is the legal and moral requirement for the protection of our wildlife, in this instance Brolgas, reconciled with the certainty that they will be displaced and or killed by the turbines of this wind farm?

Editor's Note:This letter has appeared in several Australian newspapers.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Brolga, and many other birds, are at a great risk and would be killed by the Macarthur wind farm if it were to go ahead. Its time to give our native companions a fair go.

Editor's Note: This letter has appeared in several Australian papers.