Can Labor Planning Minister Paul Scully guarantee that almost five hundred 300-metre-high wind
turbines proposed at Dinawan and Bullawah for the Riverina and at Walcha in the Northern
Tablelands will be free of serious environmental consequences if fast track approved in his
recently announced No-appeal Public Hearing?
In fact, he can’t because there is a legally negligent lack of diligent independence by public
authorities like the IPCN and financial promoters in conducting environmental risk research in
hot, dry Australia.
What are the effects on production of food and fibre by our farming community?
Submissions 53 to the Senate Inquiry into Energy of December 2024 and to the cross-border
Warracknabeal Victorian Planning Panel meeting on December 9 (46 and 150), 2025 show the
turbulent wake of wind turbines is very likely drying landscapes, possibly increasing bushfire
intensity and there are serious questions to answer about long term environmental impacts of
PFAS and Bis-Phenol A (BPA).
The Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) recently drew attention to the need for prohibition
of PFAS imports, recommending monitoring for long-lived PFAS used in turbine blades for
tempering surfaces to limit corrosion of stressed longer blades.
Moreover, by 2027, both the EC and the UK intend to prohibit turbines lubricated internally with
gaseous sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), 1 kilogram of which has greenhouse effects equivalent to
24.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide but a much longer lifetime of 3,200 years, so accumulating slowly
from leakage.
It can also make toxic products if electrically arced.
Most turbines so far installed in Australia have at least 1 kg of SF6 and perhaps all of these
should be dismantled now?
Mr Scully will also need to explain how these major Farrer Electorate installations and at Walchawill require farmers housing turbines to pay to clean up afterwards, just as our Premier, Chris Minns honestly explained recently about responsibility for decommissioning, possibly costing more than they will earn farmers leasing land while turbines operate.
Ivan R. Kennedy
(Professor Emeritus in Agricultural & Environmental Chemistry, University of Sydney
