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2006/15: Should the Bald Hills wind farm project have been halted to preserve the Orange-bellied Parrot?

Related issue outlines:
2004: Should there be a moratorium on wind farms along the Victorian coast?

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What they said ...
'Let's get this straight, this is about the extinction of this species. This impacts to hasten their extinction'
Senator Ian Campbell, federal Environment Minister

'Our analyses suggest that [banning wind farms] will have extremely limited beneficial value to conservation of the parrot without addressing very much greater adverse effects that are currently operating against it'
The report: 'Modelled cumulative impacts on the Orange-bellied Parrot of wind
farms across the species' range in south-eastern Australia'

The issue at a glance
On April 5, 2006, the federal Environment Minister, Senator Ian Campbell, announced that he would block a wind farm development at Bald Hills Victoria because the project posed an unacceptable risk to the survival of the Orange-bellied Parrot.
The Victorian Government, the renewable energy industry and conservation groups have all condemned the decision as essentially politically based, inconsistent, environmentally unsound and unnecessary in terms of preserving the Orange-bellied Parrot. Local anti-wind farm campaigners have claimed the decision as a victory.
The Victorian Government and the developer behind the proposed $220million wind farm in Gippsland have indicated they may take the Federal Government to court for rejecting the project.

Background
(Much of the following information comes from the Birds Australia Internet site and the Internet site of the Parrot Society of Australia. The entry for Orange-bellied Parrot on the Birds Australia site can be found at http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/birds/obp.html The entry for Orange-bellied Parrot on the Parrot Society of Australia site can be found at http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/birds/obp.htmlhttp://www.parrotsociety.org.au/articles/art_015.htm#Summer%20Breeding%20Season)

The Orange-bellied Parrot is a small 'grass parrot' of coastal south-eastern Australia. It is one of six species of the genus Neophema.
Three related 'grass parrots' (Rock, Blue-winged and Elegant) also occur in these coastal areas and may be mistaken for the species. They are olive-green and may have orange on their abdomens, but none have the grass-green plumage, distinctive alarm call, and bright orange patch of the Orange-bellied Parrot.
The Orange-bellied Parrot was formerly more abundant and widespread than it is now. It ranged from Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, along the coasts to Bruny Island in southern Tasmania, and to Sydney in New South Wales.
The species' current breeding range is a narrow coastal strip of south-west Tasmania where it lives over summer. It feeds on the seeds of various plants especially Button Grass and nests in adjacent forests and woodland copses.
The Orange-bellied Parrot's food requirements vary at different stages of the breeding season. For this season it will fly up to five kilometres from the nest to forage for food. Like most parrots, the Orange-bellied Parrot does not build a nest but lays its eggs in the hollow trunks and branches of Eucalypts. Up to six eggs are laid in a clutch.
Most adults depart the breeding range in February, leaving juveniles to follow in March and April. The birds leave south-west Tasmania and head north for the mainland. The migration north is protracted, taking up to two months (the return journey takes far less time). The birds move up the west coast of Tasmania, feeding mainly on coastal grasses and seeds of sea rocket (Cakile maritima) where it grows directly above high tide. When they reach the north coast of Tasmania and the western islands of Bass Strait, especially King Island, their major source of food is beaded Glasswort (Sarcocornia quinqueflora).
Adults first reach Victoria in late March and disperse east as far as coastal South Gippsland, and as far west as Lake Alexandrina in South Australia, by April.
Most of the population winters in central Victoria while the remainder moves west to the coast of South Australia. The Orange-bellied Parrots in Victoria feed mainly on salt marsh, favouring beaded Glasswort and two shrubby Glasswort species, Sclerostegia arbuscuia and Halosarcia halocnemoides. At Werribee near Geelong, birds also feed on pasture weeds and in the filtration paddocks of the nearby sewage farm. On the Bellarine Peninsula the birds regularly visit the local golf course to feed on seeding fairway grasses and adjacent Salt marsh.
In September, the first adults leave the Australian mainland for Tasmania, with the last birds departed by November.
In Victoria, up to 70% of the entire population concentrates at three wintering sites around Port Phillip Bay and the Bellarine Peninsula.

Critically endangered status
According to the Action Plan for Australian Birds 2000, the Orange-bellied Parrot is critically endangered with approximately 180 mature birds remaining in the wild.
Historical information suggests that the population of the Orange-bellied Parrot has fluctuated since the first European settlement. There are reports from the 1830s, the 1880s and the 1910s of 'thousands' of the Orange-bellied Parrot being seen.
The decline appears to have been most dramatic since the 1940s but the population may have stabilised in recent years (1975 - 1985) at its present very low level of 100 to 200 birds.

Internet information
The federal Department of Environment and Heritage commissioned a report from Ian Smales, Stuart Muir and Charles Meredith on the impact of wind farms on a variety of bird species. The report was released in December 2005. The section of it dealing with the Orange-bellied Parrot is titled, 'Modelled cumulative impacts on the Orange-bellied Parrot of wind farms across the species' range in south-eastern Australia'
This section of the report can be found at http://www.deh.gov.au/epbc/publications/pubs/wind-farm-bird-risk-orangebelliedparrot.pdf

The federal Environment Minister, Senator Ian Campbell, issued a media release announcing his decision to halt the Bald Hills wind farm project on April 5, 2006. This media release can be found at http://www.deh.gov.au/minister/env/2006/mr05apr206.html

The Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment's Action Statement for the preservation of the Orange-bellied Parrot can be found at http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/CA256F310024B628/0/9050113E9792E252CA25709200232F20/$File/043+Orange-bellied+Parrot+1993.pdf

On April 5, 2006, the Victorian Planning Minister, Rob Hulls, issued a media release criticising the decision of the federal Environment Minister to block the Bald Hills project. This media release can be found at http://www.dpc.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/newmedia.nsf/8fc6e140ef55837cca256c8c00183cdc/044471c060ab5c39ca2571480001c340!OpenDocument

On April 5, 2006, Environment Victoria also issued a media release objecting to the action of the federal Environment Minister. This media release can be found at http://www.envict.org.au/inform.php?menu=4&submenu=20&item=1132

Arguments supporting the halting of the Bald Hills wind farm project
1. The Orange-bellied Parrot is critically endangered
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, created in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species. It is maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
The IUCN Red List is based upon precise criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies.
Species are classified in nine groups, set through criteria such as rate of decline, population size, area of geographic distribution, and degree of population and distribution fragmentation. The three classifications at the top of the list are:
Extinct
Extinct in the Wild
Critically Endangered

The Orange-bellied Parrot is currently categorised on the IUCN Red List as 'critically endangered'.
The parrot is listed as 'threatened' in Tasmanian, Victorian, South Australian and Commonwealth legislation. The Orange-bellied Parrot is strictly protected under Australian Commonwealth law and the legislation of the three states where it lives. A large area of potential breeding habitat, including the remaining breeding site, is protected within Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area.
It is estimated that fewer than 200 of these birds survive in the wild. Some estimates have placed the number as low as 99.

2. Numerous factors currently place the Orange-bellied Parrot at risk
There are numerous factors which contribute to the Orange-bellied Parrot's critically endangered status.
The Parrot Society of Australia has detailed the risks faced by the Orange-bellied Parrot. Studies have shown that Orange-bellied Parrot pairs remain together for life, with the same pair occupying a nest for up to five years. At present there are estimated to be forty breeding pairs. As up to six eggs may be laid each season, it may seem surprising that the population is not expanding. However, natural events take a heavy toll. Of all nests studied, the average of young reared is 1.7 per nest.
As a migratory bird it has to face the arduous Bass Strait crossing. The juveniles are mostly unaided by adults, which appear to migrate independently.
The mainland habitats of the Orange-bellied Parrot have been dramatically reduced since European settlement. Within the remaining habitats competition for food has increased since the introduction of other seed-eating birds like Sparrows, Goldfinches and Greenfinches and even by the native Blue-wing Parrot. Predators like the introduced fox and feral cats also take their toll.
Added to all these burdens is the strain caused by the population now being so small. The birds still disperse over much of the original range but are spread so thinly that there is no longer much 'safety in numbers'.

3. There is a recovery plan in place to preserve the Orange-bellied Parrot
Concern for the plight of the Orange-bellied Parrot is so great that the State Governments of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, the Commonwealth Government, the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union and the World Wildlife Fund have joined forces in an effort to build up its numbers and save it from extinction.
A team of specialists has been established to coordinate a recovery effort on the Orange-bellied Parrot based on a recovery plan produced in 1984. The aim of this effort is to reverse the population decline by increasing the number of breeding adults through better juvenile survival.

This recovery plan involves:
Protecting the habitat - Most of the areas used by Orange-bellied Parrots at different times of the year are now known. Many of these habitats need very careful management to ensure that they provide a safe home, adequate food and minimum of disturbance. Especially vulnerable are habitats used during migration, the salt marshes of the highly populated perimeter of Port Phillip Bay and the shores of South Australia, south of Coorong.
Ensuring food supply - Central to efforts to help Orange-bellied Parrots is the need to ensure adequate food supplies. The birds exploit a variety of foods in most areas they visit. It has been found that some controlled burning in south-west Tasmania, exclusion of stock from known Orange-bellied Parrot habitats in all three states, and the propagation of plants in some areas, will help improve food supplies.
Keeping predators away - In many areas used by Orange-bellied Parrots, predators abound. On mainland Australia both foxes and cats turned wild are most destructive to the bird. There are no foxes in Tasmania but feral cats are a problem and in south-west Tasmania the European starling competes vigorously with Orange-bellied Parrots for nest sites. Measures to control these enemies are being taken.
Recording the numbers - Each year the young birds are counted in south-west Tasmania and on King Island to determine how successfully they bred. Regular counts are also made throughout the full winter range of the bird to establish how the population is faring. These counts are intended to help in assessing the success of the recovery effort.
It has been claimed that given the serious dangers the species faces and the extent of the long-term effort being made to assist its survival, it would be reckless to introduce another factor, such as wind turbines, to put it further at risk.

4. Wind farm development poses an additional threat to the survival of the orange bellied parrot
The cumulative impact of all wind farms built and proposed in the species range of the Orange-bellied Parrot has been estimated in the most recent 2005 study to be less than one bird mortality a year. Some critics of the proposed wind farm development at Bald Hills have noted that with a total population of perhaps less than 100 birds, the loss of one bird a year is significant.
This view has been canvassed in the report of Ian Smales, Stuart Muir and Charles
Meredith titled, 'Modelled cumulative impacts on the Orange-bellied Parrot of wind
farms across the species' range in south-eastern Australia' released in December, 2005.
The report stated, 'Given that the Orange-bellied Parrot is predicted to have an extremely high probability of extinction in its current situation, almost any negative impact on the species could be sufficient to tip the balance against its continued existence. In this context it may be argued that any avoidable deleterious effect - even the very minor predicted impacts of turbine collisions - should be prevented.'
This view has been taken up by the federal Minister for Conservation, Senator Ian Campbell, who has stated, 'The Orange-bellied Parrot is currently listed as endangered under federal environment law but I want to know whether there is a case for this to be lifted to critically endangered to ensure that appropriate priority is given to conservation strategies necessary to enhance its long-term survival ... On the basis of the information that has been presented to me on the Orange-bellied Parrot, I have decided not to approve the Bald Hills wind farm.
I understand that this will be a disappointing outcome for the proponents of the wind farm but it is very clear to me from reading this report that every precaution should be taken to help prevent the extinction of this rare bird.'

5. The federal Conservation Minister has given his in principal support to wind farms when their placement is appropriate
The federal Conservation Minister, Senator Ian Campbell, has indicated that he has no in principle opposition to wind farms and believes that when appropriately placed, so as not to jeopardise threatened species, they make a valuable contribution to Australia's conservation measures.
The Minister has stated, 'This certainly does not mean there is no place for wind farms in Australia. In certain areas, the risk to birds from impacts with wind turbines will be higher than in others. As such, the potential for each project to have a significant impact on nationally threatened and migratory species will always need careful consideration on a case-by-case basis.
I have long held the view that wind farms, when located in the right area with the support of the local community, play a very valuable role in Australia's development of renewable energy.'

6. The federal Government will put in place an improved mechanism for determining where wind farms should be placed
In the media release in which the Conservation Minister, Senator Ian Campbell, announced that he would halt the development of the Bald Hills wind farm, the minister stated,'I have proposed that State and Territory Environment Ministers work with me on development of a National Code for the location of wind farms.'
Senator Campbell first raised the idea of a national code governing the process for establishing wind farms during a visit to Denmark, in southern Western Australia, last year.
Early in April 2006, the Minister said the controversy over the proposed Denmark wind farm highlighted the need for a national code and that the views of local communities needed to be acknowledged when large-scale wind farms are considered.

Arguments opposing the halting of the Bald Hills wind farm project
1. The Bald Hills wind farm poses no significant risk to the survival of the Orange-bellied Parrot
It has repeatedly been claimed that the Bald Hills wind farm poses no significant threat to the survival of the Orange-bellied Parrot.
The authors of the wind farm impact report, on which the federal conservation minister claims to have based his decision to halt the project, state that the Bald Hills development will have negligible impact of the bird's chances of survival as it is unlikely the parrot would reside in the region for any length of time.
According to the report commissioned by the Federal Government, no orange-bellied parrots were seen near Bald Hills, nor near any other proposed wind farm sites in Victoria apart from Yambuk and Nirranda South, both near Warrnambool.
It said the parrots' usual migratory path was over Victoria's south-west coast, and they had only rarely been seen in Gippsland.
When making their estimates, the authors of the report actually significantly exaggerated the possible risk, modelling for the 'possibility of a portion of the population annually making two migratory passes through the site' when is reality it is unlikely to make one. The writers of the report have stated, 'We have intentionally adopted this approach in an attempt to err, if at all, on the basis of over rather than underestimation of potential risk to the species.'
Other bird experts have stated that not one orange-bellied parrot has ever been seen within 50km of the proposed Bald Hills wind farm. According to environmental effects statements, the Orange-bellied Parrot always lives with 2km of the coast, yet the closest proposed turbine would have been built more than 2km inland.
Given this, it would seem that the danger posed by the Bald Hills wind farm would is minuscule. Indeed, the possible death rate of the Orange-bellied Parrot attributable to wind turbines does not derive exclusively from the Bald Hills development.
The risk posed to the bird of less than one death per year relates not to the Bald Hills wind farm, but is based on the potential combined impact of all wind farms in coastal Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, including 14 that have not been built.

2. The report on which the federal Conservation Minister claims to rely when halting the Bald Hills project does not recommend this step
It has repeatedly been claimed that the wind farm impact does not support the decision of the federal conservation minister to halt the Bald Hills project.
Environment Victoria executive director, Marcus Godinho, has stated, 'Read the fine print and the report does not find that the Bald Hills wind farm posed a danger to the parrot at all.'
The federal conservation minister has been accused of distorting the principal recommendation of the report by failing to quote it in its entirety. The report does acknowledge that the Orange-bellied Parrot is in such a vulnerable position that any additional risk may seem unwise. However, it does not endorse this position. Rather it claims that the impact of wind farms will be of no consequence unless other far greater hazards are checked. The report concludes, 'Given that the Orange-bellied Parrot is predicted to have an extremely high probability of extinction in its current situation, almost any negative impact on the species could be sufficient to tip the balance against its continued existence. In this context it may be argued that any avoidable deleterious effect - even the very minor predicted impacts of turbine collisions - should be prevented. Our analyses suggest that such action will have extremely limited beneficial value to conservation of the parrot without addressing very much greater adverse effects that are currently operating against it.'

3. The federal Government's decision to halt the Bald Hills project was taken for political reasons
It has been claimed that the federal conservation minister, Senator Ian Campbell, has halted the Bald Hill project for political rather than environmental arguments. The Bald Hills development is unpopular in the area and promising to stop the development would be a political advantage for the party which did so.
The Australian's environment reporter, Ewin Hannan, has stated, 'Two days into the 2004 federal election campaign, Ian Campbell was on the telephone with a message for voters in the marginal Victorian seat of McMillan. The federal Environment Minister told me he had "undoubted powers" to veto the Bald Hills electricity-generation wind farm proposed for the electorate, saying it was an outrage that Steve Bracks' state Labor Government had overridden the concerns of local residents to approve the project.
Campbell's intervention was a gift for Liberal candidate Russell Broadbent, who accused local federal Labor MP Christian Zahra of not standing up to his state ALP colleagues.
Three days before the election, Campbell wrote to McMillan residents, telling them, somewhat dramatically, that their vote "may well decide the future of South Gippsland's magnificent landscape".
"As the Minister for the Environment, I guarantee that I will exercise my responsibilities to ensure that any development submissions meets every requirement of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act," he wrote. "The voters of McMillan may well decide who governs Australia for a long time to come. Should Christian Zahra be re-elected as part of a [Mark] Latham Labor government, you will send a signal ... that you tolerate interference from the Bracks Government in local planning decisions and that you are happy to play host to increasing numbers of wind turbines in your region."
Three days later, Zahra lost the seat, the only Victorian Labor member to be thrown out at the 2004 election.'
According to the scenario outlined by Ewin Hannan, Senator Campbell promised voters he would block the Bald Hills project in order to undermine the Labor representative for the area, Christian Zahra.

4. The federal Government's decision in the Bald Hill case is inconsistent with other decisions it has taken
It has been claimed that the decision to halt the Bald Hills project is inconsistent with other decisions the federal Government has taken.
About 1800 developments have been referred to the federal Environment Minister since the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act was introduced in 1999. Three of them have been blocked, including the Bald Hills wind farm project.
Only one in four projects has been subjected to a full environmental assessment.
Critics of the Bald Hills action have claimed that in blocking this development Senator Campbell is acting in a way which runs directly counter to his department's general conduct in this matter.
A spokesperson for Pacific Hydro, which won Federal Government approval for a wind farm at Yambuk, near Port Fairy, two years ago, said Senator Campbell's decision on Bald Hills was 'puzzling'. The spokesman said orange-bellied parrots had been sighted around Yambuk, but not near Bald Hills. In six months of operation, no deaths of the parrots had been recorded at Yambuk.
A further case that appears to demonstrate the inconsistency of Senator Campbell's decision re Bald Hills is that of the Woolnorth wind farm. The Woolnorth wind farm on Tasmania's north-west coast is operating with a license to kill up to 6 Orange-bellied Parrots every two years. In 2001, then Australian federal environment minister Robert Hill approved the wind farm, along the main migratory flight path for the parrot, with several conditions to protect migrating birds. To date no Orange-bellied Parrots have collided with the turbines.
It has further been noted that the vast majority of development projects, which unlike wind farms have no environmental advantages, are approved though they pose greater species risks than does the Bald Hills wind farm.

5. Wind farms are likely to have a positive effect of the survival of threatened species
It has been argued that a reduction in greenhouse gases via the continued development of wind farms is one way of slowing the climate change associated with the greenhouse effect. These climate changes are likely to be far more prejudicial to the survival chances of many species than is the remote possibility that a bird may collide with a wind turbine.
Environment Victoria executive director Marcus Godinho has noted that scientists have forecast that 1000s of bird species will be wiped out in coming decades because of climate change.
Mr Godinho has stated, 'Wind farms are one way we can reduce the degree of climate change impact. It is illogical to block a wind farm based on a report that found only one parrot a year may be struck. The Howard Government is consistently undermining the renewable energy industry when other countries see promoting clean energy as the way of the future. What good is it to save one bird and yet ignore the future of thousands of other species?'
It has been estimated that the Bald Hills project would reduce green house gas emissions by an amount equivalent to taking 75,000 cars off Victorian roads annually.

6. The decision to halt the Bald Hills development is likely to slow or prevent other wind farm developments
It has been claimed that Senator Campbell's decision will undermine faith in the wind farm industry, reducing investors' willingness to support wind farm developemnst and company's readiness to undertake such projects.
Suasn Jeanes, the chief executive of Renewable Energy Generators of Australia has argued, 'You're never going to have a renewable energy industry if we don't have some investment certainty, and the politicisation of the planning process is not conducive to that.'
The company behind the Bald Hills proposal, Wind Power, said the decision was 'completely unreasonable' and would deter businesses wanting to invest in infrastructure projects in regional and rural areas.

Further implications
It remains to be seen whether the Victorian Government and Wind Power, the company behind the Bald Hills project, will take the Federal Government to court over its decision to block the project. Wind Power has already invested substantially in the development of the project and is angry at what it sees as its capricious blocking by the federal environment minister.
Despite Senator Campbell's denials, it would appear that his decision has the capacity to undermine confidence in the renewable energy industry in Australia. In the wake of his decision, the companies behind two mooted wind farm projects, one in Tasmania and one in West Australia, have expressed concern that these developments may be halted.
Perhaps of even greater concern is the minister's repeated proposal that a national code for the location of wind farms be established. There are already laws in place which require developers to assess the environmental impacts of their projects. Senator Campbell's proposal is concerning as it singles out wind farms as a form of development for which a national code needs to be developed and further because the minister seems particularly concerned to take into account the objections of local residents. The minister has stated, 'I've already written to the States and Territories proposing a national code that will ensure local communities have a say about wind farm developments in their areas.'
Opposition to wind farms from local residents is quite wide-spread and is largely aesthetically-based - many people find the turbines unattractive to look at. If such objections have the capacity to halt these projects this could prove a major obstacle to the establishment of a viable and conservationally significant wind farm industry in this country. Critics of Senator Campbell's decision also argue that it leaves the approval process at a federal level open to political manipulation.

List of newspaper items used in the compilation of this outline
The Age
April 11, page 6, news item by L Minchin, `Bracks seeks wind-farm veto review'.
April 8, page 12, news item by Minchin and Khadem, `Minister back on the defensive over parrot "hypocrisy" / Campbell told: what's good for the bird's good's good for the sun moth'.
April 7, page 13, comment, `This isn't about a parrot, it's opportunistic political bastardry'.
April 7, page 12, editorial, `The strange, sad history of an orange-bellied bird' with cartoons and letters on same page).
April 7, page 3, news items (ref in part to endangered bird species, orange-bellied parrots) by N Khadem et al, `Legal action threat on wind farm / Turbines create a gale of concern in Gippsland'.

The Australian
April 11, page 13, editorial, `Pining for some sense'.
April 11, page 7, news item by E Hannan, `Bracks' wind farm plea to PM'.
April 10, page 4, news item (ref to iron mine and night parrot) by P Taylor, `Greens use parrot ruling in ore fight'.
April 8, page 24, analysis by E Hannan, `Breezy dismissal'.
April 8, page 9, news item by Wallace and Denholm, `Bird ban excuse selective'.
April 7, page 15, editorial, `Dead parrots society'.
April 7, page 7, news item by E Hannan, `Wind Farm ban unites opponents / Nowhere near convincing'.
April 7, page 1, news item (ref to golden sun moth) by G Roberts, `Moths threaten $400m project'.

The Herald-Sun
April 11, page 21, comment by E Whinnett, `Parrotting politics'.
April 8, page 28, editorial, `A grub joke?'.
April 8, page 17, news item by Whinnett and McManus, `Storm brews over wind farm fears'.
April 7, page 24, editorial, `A parrot joke?'.
April 7, page 23, cartoon.
April 7, page 15, news item by G McManus et al, `Bird fear claim "full of wind"'.
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