ADJOURNMENT

Mr YOUNG (Longman—Second Deputy Speaker) (19:30): One of the hottest topics at the moment in the electorate of Longman, which I proudly serve, is energy. The conversations are extremely varied, as is what matters to people when it comes to energy. For some, the priority is the environmental aspect; for others, it's about the reliability and guarantee of supply.

But, for most, it is the cost. This diverse range of concerns tells me what most people already know. The energy plan for our country must be balanced and address these three issues of concern: affordability, environment and reliability.

As a layman in the energy sector, like most members and senators in this place, I rely on data and reports from experts to form my views. This is also difficult because people with similar qualifications and reputations can have very different reports, data and opinions. That's not to mention that I will often not know what financial interests, if any, these people and organisations have that may affect the reports that they prepare.

More and more, it seems to me, less and less of the information I receive is based on facts and science, and, more and more, it becomes about ideology and emotion. This makes our jobs in this place very difficult, but it is an issue that we must address as best as we can. When I speak to my constituents, the majority, but not all, want to see the decarbonisation of our energy grid at some stage.

The time that they will expect for that to take place in varies greatly, but one thing that doesn't vary much is that most don't want to pay any more for their energy for this to happen, mainly because they simply don't have the money in their already stretched household budgets to do so. The current government is putting all our eggs in the renewables-only basket to achieve decarbonisation.

Before politics, I thought this sounded reasonable; however, now I've had the opportunity to dig deeper, my view on this has changed. I do believe renewables have a place, especially in household rooftop solar, even though there are concerns around their disposal at end of life and around damaged panels leaking pretty nasty stuff like cadmium, lead and the like into our home water tanks for us to consume.

But every energy source has challenges it must overcome. Long before politics, I had, and I still have, rooftop solar, as I believe that we all have a personal responsibility to play our own part, however small, in ensuring our environment is protected for future generations. But I wanted answers on the environmental and financial costs of the large-scale renewable projects the current government are spending billions of taxpayer dollars on right now.

Last week I had the pleasure of seeing a presentation by Steven Nowakowski from Rainforest Reserves on the truth of large-scale renewable projects around the country. Steven is a former Greens party member and candidate who isn't afraid to ask questions about the detriments of large-scale renewables such as wind and solar. Steve showed the audience photographs and video footage of the damage being done by these projects to the environment—to the flora and fauna of Australia's bushland.

We saw before and after photos of how thousands of hectares of trees and bushland were cleared not only to install wind turbines but for access roads for vehicles to get to these turbines for maintenance. Steve has also, for the first time after years of gathering data which has been intentionally suppressed, provided a real, albeit conservative, cost of the renewables-only pathway.

That number is frightening: $1.3 trillion. That's right, $1.3 trillion. Again, this cost is not from the coalition, but an independent conservation group led by a former Greens candidate.

That is almost four times the $340 billion cost of nuclear to achieve decarbonisation. Steve also pointed out these alarming facts. This government's plan will require 31,000 wind turbine towers, which is six times the current national number, to be replaced every 20 years, operating 25 to 35 per cent of the time.

It will require 28,000 kilometres of high voltage transmission lines, which is longer than a lap around the equator, and 7,800 kilometres of undersea cabling that will cut through fragile marine habitats. There will be 44,000 kilometres of new haulage roads, longer than Australia's coastline, and 584 million solar panels, covering 443,755 hectares, an area larger than metropolitan Sydney, to be replaced every 25 years, operating 18 to 25 per cent of the time.

This extra cost simply has to be passed on to the consumer through higher power prices, which is what we are seeing right now, with real energy costs increasing by over 30 per cent over the last couple of years, and there will simply be more increases to come. This is just unavoidable. I want to encourage all Australians who want the truth about energy to include rainforest reserves in their research.