“As expected, Prime Minister Albanese has sent his anti-environment emissary, Minister Murray Watt, to sign the death warrant for the magnificent ecosystem of Robbins Island. The prime minister has made clear he wants to fast-track energy developments and remove so-called ‘green-tape’. Tragically for the Orange-bellied Parrot, that removal puts the hundred remaining birds on death row,” said Christine Milne, Bob Brown Foundation Patron.

“Robbins Island should never have been accepted as the site for a mega-windfarm of 100 turbines because it is at the southern end of the East Asian Australian flyway. Migratory birds flying from Arctic Siberia will hit the turbines,” said Christine Milne.

“Murray Watt’s assurances that he will set strict conditions are a joke. The Tasmanian EPA set conditions that the turbines shut down for five months of the year to protect the Orange-bellied Parrot and migratory species. However, when the multinational Philippine corporation ACEN objected, the decision was overturned. When corporations tell this Albanese government to jump, it asks ‘how high?’ From Murujuga with Woodside to Macquarie Harbour with JBS and Cooke, to Robbins Island with ACEN, anything the company wants, it gets.”

“Even more offensive is that ACEN will pay for the bird monitoring as if anyone would believe the corporation would release the truth about its impact on critically endangered birds.”

“The last disease-free population of Tasmanian Devils in Tasmania is on Robbins Island, and the bridge ACEN will build from the mainland will see the disease reach the island,” said Christine Milne.

“Make no mistake, the productivity roundtable was designed to soften up the Australian community to the idea that nature is dispensable in the rollout of renewable energy. Nothing could be more wrong. The Robbins Island wind farm decision is just the beginning of the industrialisation of northern Tasmania, enabled by Marinus Link and the northwest transmission line paid for by the public.”

“It is neither ecologically sound nor economically viable, and Bob Brown Foundation will continue to oppose Robbins Island wind farm, Marinus and its transmission lines in the defence of nature,” said Christine Milne.