{"id":124860,"date":"2025-09-07T05:45:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T05:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124860\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T05:45:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T05:45:22","slug":"jacqui-lambie-blasts-robbins-island-wind-farm-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124860\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacqui Lambie blasts Robbins Island wind farm decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senator Jacqui Lambie has ripped into the federal government for signing off on the Robbins Island wind farm, saying a better site exists just kilometres away.<\/p>\n

Speaking in federal parliament on Wednesday, Lambie said she was not celebrating Environment Minister Murray Watt\u2019s approval of the project off Tasmania\u2019s north-west coast.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirstly, it is in the wrong place and, secondly, it has no community support,\u201d Lambie told the Senate. \u201cI have been talking about the problems with this wind farm proposal for years now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The independent senator raised environmental concerns, warning the project threatens Tasmania\u2019s only disease-free devil population and could damage squid breeding grounds with the construction of a 500-metre wharf.<\/p>\n

\"\"A 100-turbine wind farm has been approved for Robbins Island. Image \/ Bob Brown Foundation<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite bird experts saying this will directly impact 20 critically endangered shorebirds, potentially chop up our swift parrots and our eagles and screw up a productive squid and fish breeding ground, none of that mattered to Minister Watt,\u201d Lambie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minister for the environment and water was obviously oblivious to any science presented to him and ticked it off anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Minister Watt states the wind farm will power 422,000 homes. Image \/ Stock<\/p>\n

Lambie pushed what she called a better option at Whaleback Ridge, which already has community backing and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

It was granted major project status by the state government last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Whaleback Ridge proposal has broad community support and doesn\u2019t have to rip up farmland, because there is an existing powerline,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s owned by a Tasmanian company. The owners of the Robbins Island wind farm are a Filipino company \u2013 nothing wrong with that \u2013 but you\u2019d think as a country we\u2019d be prioritising Australian companies first.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Senator Jacqui Lambie in federal parliament this week<\/p>\n

Lambie stressed she supports renewable energy but said projects must be in the right place and involve genuine consultation.<\/p>\n

Tasmanian Greens Senator Nick McKim also took aim at the government this week, calling Robbins Island an \u201cabsolutely inappropriate\u201d site.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course we need more renewable energy, but it\u2019s got to be the right project in the right place \u2013 and that is the wrong project in the wrong place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Approving the 100-turbine farm after a \u201crigorous assessment process\u201d based on expert evidence, Minister Watt said it would generate enough power for 422,000 homes.<\/p>\n

\"\"Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt. Image \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision includes strict conditions from both the Tasmanian and Australian governments to ensure this project will be constructed and operated in a way that safeguards nationally protected species,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes the orange-bellied parrot, Tasmanian devil, Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle and protected migratory shorebirds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senator Jacqui Lambie has ripped into the federal government for signing off on the Robbins Island wind farm,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-124860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}