Howard�s Nuclear Option - Paula Wriedt, MHA - Tasmanian Government Media Releases


The Howard Government appears to have a single-minded focus on developing nuclear energy at the expense of the renewable energy sector.
Minister for Tourism Arts and the Environment, Paula Wriedt, said instead of backing Tasmania’s clean energy sector, Prime Minister John Howard has set up a task force which is little more than a stalking horse for the nuclear power industry.
“Mr Howard has just released an issues paper detailing the areas his Nuclear Task Force will address.
“As expected, the Prime Minister has failed to instruct the taskforce to provide an objective assessment of all available energy technologies.
“The taskforce will only look at nuclear energy.
“Of the 112 issues that will be covered by task force, only 9 of them will explore the environmental impacts of nuclear technology and only 8 address the health and safety implications of nuclear energy.
“It is unbelievable that an enquiry into a technology that could have such an extreme and lasting impact on our health and on our environment, is to have such a narrow focus.
“Sadly the majority of the issues to be covered by this review, 80 in all, relate directly to economic matters.
Ms Wriedt said recent comments by the Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran and recent actions by the Federal Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell suggest that the Howard Government has turned its back on renewable energy.
“Senator Campbell tried to add extra red tape to the approval process for wind farms, claiming that local communities are not given enough say in wind farm proposals.
“In doing so he has totally ignored the situation in Tasmania where each of our wind farms have been developed with local planning approvals.
Minister McGauran has also described wind farms as a ‘fraud’ and has said ‘wind farms are not producing any electricity of any measurable amount...’.”
On top of this, the Howard Government has withdrawn its support for the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target scheme which has seen the Heemskirk wind farm project scrapped and the Mussleroe wind farm looking doubtful.
“If both these projects are halted this will severely restrict our ability to create clean energy for export to the mainland, and result in hundreds of Tasmanians missing out on employment in the renewable sector.
“Tasmania’s Energy Minister David Llewellyn has been negotiating in good faith with the Howard Government to find a way to save Mussleroe, and I wish him every success in those negotiations.” Ms Wriedt said.