Managing Renewal Projects in the South Burnett

Mayor Duff said that she put this motion to Council to seek support of her fellow Councillors to establish a position on managing the roll out of renewables into the future.

Mayor Duff said “This same motion has been sent around to the Wide Bay Regional Organisation of Councils (WBBROC) to discuss with their Councillors with a view to establishing a collective position to take forward when talking to Government at both State and Federal levels.”

WBBROC is made up of North Burnett, South Burnett, Cherbourg, Fraser Coast and Gympie Councils and is working with Bundaberg Regional Council. The motion asks that a moratorium of all large-scale wind, solar, battery energy storage systems, pumped hydro and related transmission projects be imposed until:

1. a bond is held from start of project with guaranteed finance in place to cover decommissioning and full project removal, disposal and rehabilitation costs at end of life;
2. appropriate regulations are in place to protect threatened and endangered species;
3. large scale renewable projects are subject to full state government approval processes and be made impact-assessable not code-assessable;
4. an appropriate land access framework to protect the environment, cultural heritage, existing land users and local roads and infrastructure is established;
5. minimal impact upon existing rate payers is negotiated;
6. Australia's food security is protected by prohibiting large scale renewable projects on prime agricultural land; (See Paris Agreement Article 2 (1) (b));
7. all large-scale renewable projects comply with the same regulations that apply to agriculture and mining;
8. large scale renewable projects are added as a trigger to the EPBC Act;
9. a mandatory code of conduct is established to govern the renewable energy sector and renewable energy proponents ‘conduct with affected communities including notifying the relevant local Government of potential projects.
10. owners of large-scale renewable developments indemnify adjoining private landowners from any public liability risk;
11. Where Local Government are the assessment agency that appropriate mechanisms are incorporated in local government planning schemes to allow Council to apply conditions that protect local roads & infrastructure and other key assets.

Mayor Duff said “Renewable projects are already impacting our communities and causing a lot of concern. There needs to be proper planning and guidelines put in place to ensure that they are in places that have minimal impact on our region’s environment and natural beauty, to protect our communities and particularly our agricultural industries that provide our food and fiber.”