STATEMENTS BY SENATORS
Senator BLEYER (Tasmania) (12:25): Off the far north-west coast of Tasmania is an island, Robbins Island. Its traditional Palawa name is Pilitika. It is rich in Aboriginal cultural heritage and of profound significance to the Palawa Pakana people.
It contains landforms of global geological and geomorphological significance. Its complex coastal systems serve as an international index site for studying past climate changes and sea-level histories. It is on the migratory pathway of the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot, which doesn't just instinctively fly over but stops and forages on the island.
It is home to the last remaining disease-free population of the endangered Tasmanian devil in the world. Elsewhere in Tasmania, a facial tumour disease is decimating Tasmanian devil populations. Now, wait for this, and I hope you're all sitting down: last year, in 2025, this Labor government approved a wind farm at Pilitika/Robbins Island.
Construction of turbines will destroy sites of Aboriginal cultural heritage, destroy sites of global geological significance and cause the extinction of the orange-bellied parrot as the turbine blades pulverise the last parrots that survive. Construction of a bridge from mainland Tasmania to Pilitika/Robbins Island will introduce diseased Tasmanian devils and decimate the last healthy wild population.
Construction of a wharf will deprive us forever of studying sea-level histories at a time of climate crisis, when we need it most. Like every development, there's a right place and a wrong place. This is simply the wrong place for a wind farm.
You'll be pleased to know I'm the bearer of good news. Something has just happened which means that this government should now bring the proposed wind farm at Pilitika/Robbins Island to an end. It was a condition of this government's approval of the Robbins Island wind farm that, within six months of the date of approval, the proponent of the wind farm—backed by a megarich Philippines based company, by the way—must submit an orange-bellied parrot survey plan to this government for approval.
The proponent did not. It was a condition of this government's approval that the proponent notify this government within two business days of failing to comply with the condition. The proponent did not.
The big foreign corporation behind the proposed wind farm obviously cares not for the laws of this nation, just like it obviously cares not for the irreplaceable natural and cultural wonders of Pilitika-Robbins Island. On the other hand, we hear this government talking so much about how it upholds the rule of law and that the rule of law is a foundational principle of Australia's democracy.
It follows that it must care very much for the laws of this nation. So, no doubt, this government is going to do what the law says that it should because of the breached conditions and immediately revoke the approval of the wind farm at Pilitika-Robbins Island. No doubt, this government is going to do what the law says it should and prosecute the proponent for its serious statutory offence in breaching the conditions.
Surely this government is not more concerned about appeasing a big corporation and making decisions for that big corporation instead of for us. I and so many whom I represent in Tasmania eagerly await the news from this Labor government that it will adhere to the rule of law and that this monstrosity of a wind farm—100 turbines, each over 200 metres high, and in absolutely the wrong place—is over.
Speaking of developments that are absolutely in the wrong place, I note a proposed data centre in the Tamar Valley in northern Tasmania that remains controversial. Recently, a local council in Tasmania approved that AI data centre at what was previously the site for Gunns proposed pulp mill. Let me tell you, that place and I go way back.
When I was a lawyer, we ran more court cases to stop that proposed dirty, stinking pulp mill than to stop any other proposed development in this nation. We challenged every single state and federal government approval. This was because that site in the Tamar Valley is not the place for a pulp mill.
The noise that the pulp mill would have generated and the light that the pulp mill would have emitted would have been grossly disruptive to the residents of the Tamar Valley, and it would have permanently damaged the then $50-million-a-year tourism industry. The massive amounts of water that the pulp mill would have needed could not have been delivered, because the presence of threatened flora species where the pipeline was intended to be built would have prohibited it.
For all these reasons, the pulp mill failed. For the same reasons, a noisy, light-emitting and water intensive AI data centre at the same site as the proposed Gunns pulp mill cannot proceed, in what is now a $100-million-a-year tourism industry. It might have local council approval, but I can't see how it could get federal government approval under our national environment laws.
Big business and the Tasmanian government sought to ram through the pulp mill, but, as a community, we stood up and saw it off. As a community, we can and we will do the same for this AI data centre. We know that data centres are deeply unpopular across the whole of Australia, particularly in Tasmania.
A petition tabled this month by my Greens colleagues in Tasmania's state parliament opposing the development of AI data centres was one of the largest in the state's history. Tasmanians called for an immediate moratorium on non-complete artificial intelligence and data facilities until strict protective guardrails are put in place. We need a moratorium on AI data centre developments across the whole nation now.
That is the Greens position and that is the public's expectation of all of us in this place. We can't wait until next year, when this government says it's going to introduce proposed laws, because, in the meantime, companies like Firmus are going to ram their proposals through local planning processes. Local councils aren't even equipped to deal with that.
AI data centres were not even a sparkle in anyone's eye when the planning schemes were prepared. The only people that benefit from these developments are the big tech corporations. The company that is seeking to build the data centre in Tasmania's Tamar Valley, Firmus, is run by a convicted fraudster.
Can we really take him at his word? We can't, and I'll give you some evidence as to why. Firmus has just appealed the local council decision to approve the data centre at the proposed Gunns pulp mill site in an effort to allow it to run diesel powered generators at the site.
It had promised that its data centres would be powered by renewable energy. These big tech corporations are misleading our communities. They are misleading our governments, and they are proposing developments that are in the wrong place.
The community won the fight against Gunns proposed pulp mill and the community will win this fight against this proposed AI data centre.