Too cute by half

Killing koalas is ok if you're putting up wind turbines

Tanya Plibersek is a koala lover. The Environment Minister’s Facebook page is peppered with pictures of her encounters with the furry marsupials. She laments the Black Summer bushfires that killed or displaced thousands of koalas, impacting 3.7 million hectares of koala habitat on Australia's east coast.

So we must assume that a slip of the ministerial pen caused her to approve the Lotus Creek wind turbine development last December, reversing a decision by her Coalition predecessor, Sussan Ley.

Ley ruled against the Central Queensland development in June 2020, describing it as  “clearly unacceptable" under national environment laws, partly because the site was home to species afflicted by the previous summer's catastrophic bushfires.

Plibersek's puzzling decision has put 341 ha of koala habitat at the mercy of the bulldozers. That's what tends to happen when you build land-hungry wind plants in remnant native bushland.

The figure is likely to be underestimated. The renowned natural photographer Steven Nowakowski visited the site recently and described it as "koala central". Nowakowski is hoping against hope that the authorities might revoke the approval, even after the construction site has been pegged and the bulldozers prepare to move in.

“Plibersek either wants to halt the extinction crisis, or she doesn't," Nowakowski told me. "By approving these projects, she is hastening the extinction of native species."

There will be ample opportunity for the Minister to redeem herself as applications for more projects like Lotus Creek hit her desk. There’s the Korean-backed proposal to put giant turbines in the middle of an upland tropical forest at Chalumbin on the Atherton tableland. An environmental study prepared for the original application identified 844 ha of koala habitat.

The Moah Creek wind development on untouched native bushland 30 km west of Rockhampton presents a similar challenge. Some 380 ha of koala habit has been identified, yet the Queensland State Government has given the project the green light.

It is hard to see how Anastasia Palaszczuk can reconcile this decision with her express commitment to save the koala, an endangered species in Queensland. Earlier this month, the Palaszczuk government chose National Threatened Species Day to announce a $4.2 million grant to environmental organisation Healthy Land & Water to be spent on koala protection.

“The Palaszczuk Government will continue to work to ensure this iconic and much-loved species is protected,” Environment Minister Leanne Linard boasted.

Yet on Palaszczuk’s watch, 3680 ha of koala habit has been surrendered for the construction of seven wind turbine plants that are either operating or under construction, according to a study by the environmental agency Rainforest Reserves Australia.

The organisation has identified another 6500 ha of threatened koala habitat in proposals still on the table, bringing the total to more than 100 sq km of threatened koala habitat in one state alone.

Green organisations that might be expected to jump to the defence of endangered species have remained silent. The World Wildlife Fund is deeply conflicted. It makes money by appealing to the public to adopt a koala.

"Your generosity will be a symbol of your support for conservation and animal advocacy, ensuring this much-loved Aussie icon is safe from extinction," WWF says on its website. Yet, at the same time, it seeks money from corporations to sign up as Renewable Energy Business Partners to help promote Australia as a wind and solar superpower.

Lock the Gate is campaigning to stop the construction of the Vulcan Complex coal handling plant in Central Queensland because it will destroy koala and greater glider habitat. Yet it has said nothing about the damage caused by renewable generation plants and is campaigning for 100 per cent renewable energy by the end of the decade.

Almost every legacy environmental organisation has joined the conspiracy of silence. After a decade and a half of demonising fossil fuels and championing renewables, they are finding it hard to change course despite the mounting cost of renewable energy on the natural environment.

They are keen to adopt the koala as a symbol of climate change, posting harrowing pictures of scorched marsupials in bushfires and frequently seeking to raise funds on their behalf.

The extent to which climate change threatens koalas is a matter of debate. Yet it is irrefutable that they are the poor climate change policy victims.