Tasmania is being taken to the cleaners, economically and ecologically, as a giant Korean company sells the St Patricks Plains wind farm project to Vesta, the global Danish wind turbine manufacturer, the Bob Brown Foundation said today.

“No public debate, no government input, no local consultation: this deal, which depends on a huge toll of Tasmanian flora and fauna and which will ruin the Highland Lakes scenic drive forever, has been decided in overseas boardrooms where Tasmania had zero input. The deal is doubtlessly lining Korean pockets now and is destined to line Danish pockets in the years ahead, while the Tasmanian government can’t say there will be any dividend for much poorer Tasmanians,” Bob Brown said today.

“What we do know is that the electricity will either go to foreign-owned data centres here or be exported to the mainland. We just pick up the damage, including taxpayers paying for the Marinus cable across Bass Strait. And Tasmania suffers the environmental impact.”

The Central Highlands’ No Turbines Action Group (NTAG) analysis is that government agreement to the project, “allows 2,062 national, state and IUCN (listed as threatened) birds to be killed each year for a 64-year period to 2090 including 4 Tasmanian wedge tailed eagles per year, 120 White throated needletail (swifts) and 45 Blue winged parrots per year. All are federal government listed (as threatened with extinction).”

NTAG pointed out that “the 230m high turbines and associated infrastructure are located in high quality eagle habitat, with 40 endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles known to use the area and 18 nests on the site.”

“Tasmania’s destiny is being decided by multinational corporations while the Rockliff government is asleep at the wheel,” Bob Brown said.