Media Release

KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter together with State Member for Dalrymple Shane Knuth have today urged the Tablelands community to attend the Mareeba Community Cabinet Meeting on Sunday to demand that the Deputy Premier reject the Mt Emerald wind farm project.

Mr Knuth said today that the massive wind farm project would deliver very little in the way of power generation to the area, whilst any profits would go back to Thailand.

“It is proposed to spend $550 million on this massive wind farm project, when the Tully Hydro scheme has already started, with $80 million spent on the tunnels for that project, which will produce 19 times more power.

"Wouldn’t that be a more viable option that would create thousands of jobs and breathe life into the Atherton Tablelands?

“The Tully Hydro would provide reliable power indefinitely and we would not have to worry about transmission costs from the south, at almost the same cost as these wind farms.

“The Minister is aware that these massive wind farm schemes, that deliver little power, put great pressure on our electricity bills. In reality, you need to get money for dollar,” Mr Knuth said.

Mr Katter said the scheme signalled torture for the residents who lived close to the proposed wind farms.

“There is no doubt that the noise will be a huge problem for the people living even remotely close to the wind farms. It will sterilise all of that area for development.

“Wind farms employ virtually no people. There are two or three businesses that I know of that will shift out of the Mareeba area if the wind farms go ahead. Without indicating what those businesses are, we’ll be losing more jobs than we’re getting.

“I’m no greenie, but there will be a 20 kilometre barrier that all the coastal birds can’t fly through. That seems to me to be going too far.

“There’s a desperate effort by the government to get all their gifts in place to their political backers before the election, this is another one of those,” Mr Katter said.

The primary concerns of the wind farms include the possible impacts to the health of residents nearby, environmental impacts and the economic and social impacts of such a large scale development.

The proposed wind farm will be constructed with approximately 75 turbines in the centre of prime agricultural land that is surrounded by the residential properties of several families.

Community Cabinet Meeting will be held on Sunday, 30 November 2014 from 3pm to 5pm at Mareeba International Club, Vaughan Street, Mareeba.