“Madam Deputy Speaker, according to last year’s report from the construction skills Queensland, Queensland will need up to 196 gigawatts of installed capacity and renewable capacity to meet the state’s target. Just to put that into perspective. Currently Queensland has installed capacity of 16.2 gigawatts and total energy generation less than a quarter of that 3.8 gigawatts comes from renewables. That’s 2% of the of the amount needed to reach net zero. It’s hard to see how any of this will be humanly possible, particularly when you think what it looks like to achieve a measly 3.9 gigawatts. We have now enormous amounts of public moneys will be needed to make it happen.

Money that will have to be ripped out of other areas and redirected towards copying the regions in industrial grade wind and solar factories. According to CSQ and CSIRO, this energy transition will cost Queenslanders as much as 14 billion a year between now and 2050, as much as 96% of this investment will be spread across just three renewable energy zones. Central Queensland and Mackay will be ground zero. Investment in these two regions alone totals roughly 27 billion, almost 40% of the state’s total spend.

Planned projects for these regions stretch from the giant wind and solar plants to hydrogen, renewables, manufacturing and fake food factories. Fully a quarter of Queensland’s planned wind projects will be built in the Mackay region. That’s 25% of the state’s wind developments, all located in one of the most unique and precious ecosystems in the country. Not to mention some of the country’s most productive farmland in my electorate of Mirani. Andrew Forrest Quadrant Energy is in the process of building a $3 billion wind farm at Clarke Creek, 120 kilometres north of Rocky. On completion, it will reportedly be the single largest grid connected renewable project in Australia.

Darren Powell In Queensland, the government will be spending 365 million towards central Queensland grid reinforcement.

This means construction, construction, gigantic new transmission towers and thousands of kilometres of transmission lines across northern and central parts of the state. The regional Queenslanders or traditional owners even begin to comprehend the impact all this will have on their land in the use of in that area or the staggering amount of construction work it will take.

According to CSQ, a 13% increase in construction workers will be needed.

Where will they say dozens of skilled workers come from? Bare in mind that 94% of these jobs will be in regional Queensland, where there are already critical shortages in skilled workers across the board, not to mention a dire shortage of accommodation. Affordable housing and hospital and education services. Just about every other service you can think of. So we need to know what is the government going to do to overcome all of this and to install and instate all these new renewable projects, because at the moment we just, we can’t even survive with what we’ve got. So thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.”