Media Release

Matthew Groom
Liberal Candidate for Denison
Monday 15 February, 2009
Save the Musselroe Wind Farm Project and Tasmanian jobs now!

Matthew Groom, Tasmanian Liberal candidate for Denison, has today called on the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong to stop hiding behind the cloak of the COAG process as an excuse for their failure to address the structural issues with their Renewable Energy Target (RET). Mr Groom has also called on the Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett to show a greater sense of urgency in pressuring his Federal Labor colleagues to act.

“The RET in its current form does not support the development of large scale renewable energy projects. The issue has been acknowledged at all levels of Government and yet no progress has been made through COAG for months. In the meantime, significant projects such as the Musselroe Wind Farm are being jeopardised. It’s just not good enough.”

“It’s about time David Bartlett stood up for Tasmania and Tasmanian jobs on this issue. We have had a lot of rhetoric on renewable energy from Labor governments at both the State and Federal level and yet the policy support promised by Labor at the last Federal election is still not in place.”

“David Bartlett should demand that the RET issue be withdrawn from COAG and a legislative solution to the issue be presented before the Federal parliament as soon as possible. No more excuses. No more delays. “

“For all of their rhetoric the Tasmanian Labor Party doesn’t seem to understand the need for urgency in dealing with this issue.”

“Its not good enough to say that the RET issue will be dealt with when COAG finally gets around to it. There many elements that go to making up the business case for this type of project and they are not static - they are in constant flux. The time for the Musselroe Wind Farm Project is now. There is no guarantee that this project will remain viable in 6 months time even if the RET issue is addressed by then. It needs to be fixed now.

“The Musselroe Wind Farm Project would be a $400m capital injection into the Northeast of Tasmania delivering over 200 direct jobs during the construction phase and many more indirectly. This project is critical to the future of Roaring 40s as well as high quality Tasmanian jobs in construction; engineering and environmental services.”

“David Bartlett should focus less of his energy on renewable energy hype and more on ensuring this important renewable energy project actually gets up.”

Matthew Groom is a senior executive with the Musselroe Project developer Roaring 40s*.

* Matthew Groom is on leave from his position with Roaring 40s during the period of the campaign. He makes these comments in his capacity as a Liberal candidate.