2015/13: Should Australia reduce its commitment to wind turbines as an energy source?
Introduction to the media issue
Video clip at right:On June 10, 2015, the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, told Sydney talkback radio host, Alan Jones, of his opposition to 'visually awful' wind farms. If you cannot see this clip, it will be because video is blocked by your network. To view the clip, access from home or from a public library, or from another network which allows viewing of video clips.
What they said...
'When I've been up close to these wind farms, there's no doubt, not only are they visually awful, they make a lot of noise'
Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott
'If we're going to use the criterion of "Does Tony like the look of it?" when making important decisions for our country, we could be in a spot of bother'
Perth radio broadcaster, Nat Locke
The issue at a glance
On June 24, 2015 a new renewable energy target (RET) was set at 33,000 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy sources by 2020. This is around 20 per cent lower than the original 41,000 gigawatt-hours target.
On June 18, 2015, the Abbott government announced its intention to appoint a national wind farm commissioner to investigate complaints about wind turbines. A similar commissioner has not been appointed to investigate complaints about any other form of power generation.
On June 10, 2015, the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, gave a radio interview to Sydney talkback host Alan Jones, during which Mr Abbott stated that he regretted Australia had ever committed itself to a RET and that his intention was to reduce the growth of wind farms which he criticised as 'ugly' and potentially harmful to human health.
Critics of these decisions and comments have argued that they represent an anti-wind farm bias on the part of the government. It has further been argued that a responsible clean energy policy requires Australia to increase its use of renewable energy sources such as wind turbines.