3 months ago
6
The news
Proponents of a $1 billion central Queensland wind farm proposal rejected by Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie say they will try again under the Crisafulli government’s updated application scheme.
Their decision comes as Bleijie, also the state’s planning minister, was forced to publicly defend his May call to reject the Moonlight Range project amid questions about an opposition group.
Bleijie said the group, Cairns-based conservation charity Rainforest Reserves Australia, had to “answer for themselves” about the veracity of their work, but insisted he did not rely on it.
Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie.Credit: Joe Ruckli
The group’s vice president, Steven Nowakowski, told a federal Senate inquiry that artificial intelligence was used to “edit” one of its error-laden submissions to the state-based process.
Why it matters
Bleijie used his ministerial powers earlier this year to reassess and ultimately reject Greenleaf Renewables’ already-approved 88-turbine wind farm west of Rockhampton.
In doing so, Bleijie cited – among other things – local opposition to the project and the fact it was approved before his government’s stricter rules required public input on wind farm projects.
Rainforest Reserves Australia’s submission had referred to a state agency that has not existed since 2009, two others that do not exist, and cited case studies from a non-existent project.
The volunteer-run and donor-funded group has recently grown in national prominence with anti-renewable campaigners and in the media for its opposition to wind farms and support of nuclear energy.
What they said
Despite the project’s rejection as part of several high-profile decisions by Bleijie since his government came to power, Greenleaf said last week it was committed to push on.
In a newsletter update published last week, senior development manager Django Tricker said the group would likely proceed with the next steps under the new assessment process in 2026.
A separate federal approval process, which does not replace the state-based assessment, was set to progress to the public exhibition stage this week.
Another perspective
Asked about reporting on Rainforest Reserves Australia’s submission in Cairns on Wednesday, Bleijie said he was “not going to get into” the matter, and “they have to answer for themselves”.
“What I based my assessment on was the advice I got from my department, which are independent officers, that gave the advice based on the weighting of the local community, not these groups,” he said.
“And we have a great government member in that area in Glen Kelly, and I rely on his advice more than that group or the proponents.”
Questioned about the inaccuracies in his organisation’s submission during the federal Senate inquiry hearing in Canberra on Wednesday, Nowakowski dismissed them as a “distraction”.
Later asked how he, as a self-described environmentalist and 2006 Greens candidate for Cairns, has felt sharing stages with pro-fossil fuel politicians, he said, “very uncomfortable”.
“[But] I’ve come to a point where I do not care if people believe in climate change or not. I do not care if people believe in coal or gas. All I care about is keeping our wild places wild.”
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