Rally – Senator Chris Back

The second speaker at the National Wind Power Fraud Rally was Senator Chris Back, Liberal Senator for Western Australia, introduced by Alan Jones AO.

Chris addresses the health impacts from industrial wind turbines and the failure of Government and Wind farm operators to prevent them. He concludes by stating he has introduced an amendment into the Senate for completely independent research to be conducted into the health impact of industrial wind turbines.

This is a transcript of the video

AJ: As I look around, many of these placards are geographical, and you see Wellington and Mudgee, Yass, and Collector. And there aren’t a lot of people here – they don’t have the time, they don’t have the resources to be able to make the kind of statement that they want to make.

As many of you know – some of you may not know – I live in Macquarie Street in Sydney. As you drive down Macquarie Street, you come to the Opera House, and then the Harbour Bridge, and people say these are the wonders of the world.

And I simply say, in relation to this Rally, today – if there is no health risks from wind turbines, if there is no noise pollution from wind turbines, then put them in Macquarie Street, put them in put them in Anzac Parade, put them down Parramatta Road. That is where the people live, that is where they use energy, if you’re wanting energy, if you’re wanting electricity, then put them there. That is the ultimate test. Why are we terrorising, intimidating and destroying the lives of farmers and the value of their property? So many people here today are people that I have spoken with, or written to, over goodness knows how many years, all of whom have made very clear, very straightforward and very simple statements about aspects of this whole mess that have never been ventilated publicly and certainly never been ventilated in the Parliament. One of those people is Senator Chris Back, who is the Deputy Leader in the Senate. He took over from Judith Adams, who did a fabulous job arguing the case for all of this. These people are rare and I have never understood why the common sense argument by them is not understood by those in government, unless they are blinded by ideology.

Would you please welcome Senator Back.

CB: Ladies and Gentleman, Shane has a lot more courage than I have, the last time I asked somebody at the back if they could hear me, they said, yes, unfortunately I can Chris, but I am very happy to swap with someone who can’t. So Shane I admire you, and Alan, I also thank you for the interview we did on radio last year. What you don’t know is that your Producer rang up and said to my media person, who happens to be my wife, he said, ‘Oh my God, someone whose managed to talk Alan to silence’. Linda, having been married to me for 39 years, wasn’t in the least bit surprised.

Ladies and Gentleman, I would like you to have a look at the lawn behind you on Parliament House. It is very, very significant that lawn, it grows up over the top of the building and the significance of that is that the people should always be able to walk over the Parliament.

It is not there for its good looks it is there for you to do what you’re doing now, and that is, the people of Australia should walk over the Parliament and you should direct us as Parliamentarians, into what you want us to do, and I admire you and I thank you for being here today to do just that. This behind me is the symbol of democracy in our country, and if it is not going to live up to democracy and if it is not going to hear the will of the people and act on it and put legislation into the Parliament that actually will meet your will, and that of the rest of the people of Australia, well we should not be here. And that’s the reason why I am standing before you today.

Ladies and Gentlemen, there are a number of concerns, there are obvious economic concerns that I want to address them, there is equity and probity and honesty concerns and there are also health concerns, but as a rural West Australian, and as the only veterinarian in the Australian Parliament, I want to say to you, what’s concerning me more than anything else is that issue is tearing rural and regional Australia apart. And as Alan just so eloquently, Alan just eloquently spoke to, the gap now between rural and urban Australia, and I have got to say to you that this is an issue on which rural and regional Australia have got to stand up and be counted. And I think that very, very firmly.

It was Winston Churchill who made the comment, Healthy citizens are the greatest asset that any country can have. Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have. And if we are interfering with the health and wellbeing of our communities, or rural communities particularly, then people like me have a voice and a responsibility to deal with it. I do want to speak briefly on the economic side, and I am sure that there are others that will and I do want to address myself to this question about Renewable Energy Certificates and whether of not different wind turbine operators are, or are not licenced. And last evening, I in fact communication from Acciona, from which they said to me that the Victorian Department of Planning has written to my colleagues Alby Schultz and also Senator John Madigan and has pointed out to them what they believe to be errors in what those two people have said in the Parliament. And what they said amongst other things, the Victorian Department of Planning letter states, The Minister or the department have never stated (we’re speaking now of the Waubra wind farm) they have never stated the Waubra wind farm is not compliant with the planning permit. And it can’t be assumed, or inferred from the Departmental advice that the Waubra wind farm is not compliant with relevant planning permit, and I seek your cooperation in correcting that public record.

Ladies and Gentleman, Alby Schultz will not be here today. I don’t think I am breaking a confidence when I say that Alby’s career has been cut short in its final 2 weeks of his Parliamentary life, a life that started in local government and New South Wales State government, and of course the electorate of Hume. Unfortunately Alby is not well, he sends his greetings and he says to you should there be any occasion that he should have been able to get here, he would have done so.

Ladies and Gentleman, I do want now, if I may, following that correspondence from Acciona, and the quote from the Victorian Department of Planning, I do now want to go to the Hansard of the Upper House of the Victorian Parliament on the 18th April, 2013, and I want to quote the Hansard of the Honourable MJ Guy, Minister for Planning, and I am quoting directly here from the Hansard, these were his words,

I am advised that Waubra has not had its compliance signed off. A very complex permit issue is being worked through.

I’m not here, Ladies and Gentleman, to judge one or the other, what I am here, and what I will do I assure you is that I will get to the bottom of what it was. You can’t have a State Department saying the Minister never said something, when if fact, when you’ve got the Hansard, if it is correct, and it hasn’t been refuted, questioning that very point.

But Ladies and Gentleman, you need to know, you need to know what the cost of this particular activity with Renewable Energy Certificates is. And between the 1st of January 2011, and the end of March 2013, 2.25 thousand million dollars, (billion dollars) has actually been accredited to these activities. You have got to decide as taxpayers is that reasonable funding?

I for one, Ladies and Gentlemen, am not opposed to renewable energy. In our state of Western Australia as in many others, solar energy has assumed a great importance we are doing tremendous work, tremendous work with tidal and particularly now, in the South of Perth with wave energy. The great tragedy for wave energy, is that the very funding that they need to take it from a pilot stage, up to being something commercial is being starved simply because funds are not available for that purpose.

I do want to go, if I may, in the few minutes left Alan, in terms of what I see as the grave concern on health-related issues. As you all know, in 2010, the NH&MRC the National Health and Medical Research Council, made a public statement there is currently no published scientific evidence to positively link wind turbines with adverse health effects. That remains today on their web site and I think that is a scandal. If I can go then to a statement by the CEO of the NH&MRC to a Senate Inquiry which my late colleague, Senator Judith Adams was a participant, and it was on the 31st of March, 2011, that Professor Anderson that we are very aware that the high quality scientific evidence in this area is very thin. And yet we have no change.

And of cause that Inquiry recommended strongly that there be an independent investigation into health, which has never been done.

And there would be a more complete review, rather than the rapid review.

I am not here to debate with you, You’ve got your views and I share them, and that is a real concern around the world, that there are adverse health effects from low frequency and from infrasound. I did sit in a Senate Inquiry recently with Senators Xenophon, Madigan and Cameron, and it was interesting Ladies and Gentlemen, because, one of the challenges that I gave the industry, when they were in front of us, I said to them, ‘Why will you not make public, why will you not make available, the evidence and the data that you’ve got?’ And the challenge to me was ‘Who else does it?’ and I said, ‘The Airline industry does’. And whilst I was speaking, Senator Cameron jumped on the website, and interrupted me and said, ‘What he says is right, I am watching a plane landing at Mascot Airport right now’. They then said it can’t be done in real time because of commercial confidentiality. I said, ‘What’s the delay?’, the answer is ‘minutes’. I don’t think you are all minding if you get data that is minutes old, the fact is that you are not getting any. And I also asked them, why would they not make available data to independent scientific analysis being funded by the Australian Government. And they simply won’t.

Now Ladies and Gentlemen, as a veterinarian, as a scientist, I am very, very interested in the concept of the scientific principle. I have no time, for example, the Victorian Department of Health, coming out and saying, we’ve had a look at this issue and there are no adverse health effects. I would have expected the Health Department to have done some independent work on it, and they have not.

Alan, I will conclude, I will conclude if I may, because you know Parliamentarians are full of words, but what are we actually doing? I have introduced an amendment into the Senate. It will more likely be dealt with in the House of Representatives first, because money bills must be introduced in the House, but what I am calling for is a total and utter independent research to be undertaken – if the NH&MRC can’t do it, then the legislation calls for other independent experts to do this work. And it is high time, it is high time, that funding was put in place by the Federal Government, to actually undertake that independent research. To go back and dispassionately look at the literature, to not start out with the end point, and ignore everything that fails to get to the endpoint, and to come back to you, the people of Australia, with a decent answer, so that you can go away, satisfied that democracy is alive in this country. Thank you.

AJ: Thank you Chris, Outstanding.

All the Rally videos will be available in this playlist.