Ben Fordham
Well, Gina Rinehart has unleashed on net zero and the impact it’s having on farmers. Australia’s richest woman delivered a video address to the Bush Summit hosted by The Australian.
She says the rush to implement net zero is sending thousands of farmers to the wall. Gina Rinehart says they already have more than enough to worry about with droughts and floods and fires.
They don’t need the added expense of complying with net zero reductions. She’s also called out excessive and expensive green tape. The mining magnate says as we speed up climate gate, there’ll be worse to come.
Australia will saddle farmers with net zero restrictions, paperwork, and huge costs. And she says there’s no guarantee they’ll reap the rewards. Gina Rinehart says it’s not even assured that the renewable electricity harming their farms will ever reach the farmers.
So that’s Gina Rinehart today — and we revealed here yesterday, exclusively, what’s happening in Crookwell in the Upper Lachlan Shire. They’ve got more green energy projects than just about anywhere else in New South Wales: 338 giant turbines and another 100 in the pipeline. But despite that, they’ve decided they need to bring in diesel generators to keep the lights on.
Michael McCormack is the Nationals MP for the Riverina, former Deputy Prime Minister. He’s on the line.
Michael McCormack
Well, good morning to you too, Ben — but it’s not a good morning for Crookwell. They are facing outages left, right and centre. Since February last year, they’ve had nine unplanned outages.
That’s nine times the town — 3,400 homes and businesses — has been plunged into darkness for hours on end. And they’re doing the heavy lifting when it comes to providing green energy, the renewables, for this state.
Ben Fordham
How can they have all of these blackouts when they’ve got 60% of the wind projects in New South Wales in their neck of the woods?
Michael McCormack
Well, as the Mayor Paul Culhane told me, the issue is simply the fact they’ve got 42 kilometres of radial line, and there’s no backup or means of diversion should a tree fall or lightning strike.
So, while the state’s expecting them to provide the green energy, they’re not getting anything in return — apart from a few beads and blankets.
The difficulty there is that they’re being asked to do the heavy lifting, and yet the town continually gets plunged into darkness. On June 18, hotels, a motel, nursing homes, and the hospital incurred costly losses. Eventually, this is going to cost somebody a life.
This is madness, Ben. This is absolutely outrageous.
Ben Fordham
You mentioned the Mayor, Paul Culhane, and he’s told the story of State of Origin night — going to pick up a pizza from the pub and suddenly the lights go out. No one can watch the footy, no one can cook their dinner. And he’s thinking, hang on — we’re doing the heavy lifting here as far as energy is concerned.
Michael McCormack
And he’s totally right. And it’s totally unfair.
Ben Fordham
Can you confirm what we revealed here yesterday — that there was a meeting this week involving Essential Energy, and they confirmed they’re bringing in diesel backup generators?
Michael McCormack
For backup, yes — when the lights do go out and the power goes off. Now look, I’m not pointing the finger and blaming Essential Energy. It’s the state government, it’s this mad federal rush to net zero that’s causing all this.
But Essential Energy are at least going to look at options for diesel backup, for generators to protect and save Crookwell. But they shouldn’t need to. Crookwell should be looked after — and it’s being ignored. It’s not right.
Ben Fordham
Yeah, Paul Culhane says people are happy that something’s being done, but it is ironic — in an area surrounded by wind farms, we’re going to be running on diesel.
We’re talking to Michael McCormack, Nationals MP for the Riverina.