CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Mr BIRRELL (Nicholls) (10:19): I rise to talk about a tiny bit of commonsense which has found its way into a state somewhat devoid of commonsense because of the governance of the Victorian Labor government. But thankfully a logical decision has been forced on a bad government by a community that did not back down. The Central North Renewable Energy Zone has been scrapped because of the efforts of the community, the farmers and the people in the wider area.
What was the Central North Renewable Energy Zone? Well, someone decided that it would be a great idea to put a renewable energy zone, which was primarily going to be solar projects, in one of the most productive farm areas in Victoria. Part of it was the East Shepparton irrigation system, which grows all sorts of things including dairy pastures and fruit, and part of it was the Dookie plains cropping area, cropping land that is so good that the yields of wheat, barley and canola are significantly higher than the nation's average.
The community said, quite rightly, 'This is farming land. Why do we want to put solar projects all over it?' The government said, 'No, no, you're going to have a renewable energy zone, and it'll be great.' And the community said 'It won't be great.' They fought against it. They produced report after report.
They were put through stress and concern, which they should never have been put through, but they fought back. The efforts of Protect Dookie and the Goulburn Valley, led by Jodie Fleming, Hannah Harmer and many farmers across the region including Chris Ludeman, have led the government to finally come up with a little bit of commonsense and scrap this renewable energy zone.
As I've said in this place before, renewable energy has a place, but it's not on agricultural farmland that is there and, for many, many generations, has provided incredible yields of winter and summer crops. Renewable energy needs to have social licence. It also has been shown overseas and in a lot of modelling that renewable energy is useful in a grid only up to a certain percentage.
The madness of governments that think that Australia can run heavy industry and an industrial economy on 80 plus per cent renewable, therefore intermittent, energy is a fallacy. Let's get this energy transition right by respecting communities, respecting agricultural land and understanding both the benefits and the limitations of renewable energy. Well done to the people of Dookie and the Central North Renewable Energy Zone.
Thank goodness it's gone.