Labor must come clean on the massive greenhouse gas impact of the construction of Australia’s biggest desalination plant near Wonthaggi, Shadow Minister for Environment and Climate Change David Davis said today.
“Today’s refusal by the Environment Minister to rule out a giant blowout in greenhouse gas emissions from the new desalination plant should greatly alarm Victorians,” Mr Davis said.
“Under Labor, greenhouse gas emissions have increased since 1999, and now the Environment Minister won’t release key assessments of the giant greenhouse gas emissions from Labor’s massive desalination plant.”
In Question Time in the Legislative Council, Minister Jennings was asked simply: “Will greenhouse gas emissions in Victoria increase or decrease as a result of the desalination plant the Government has contracted for at Kilcunda?”
“Labor could have outlined today the exact size of the expansion in emissions from the desalination plant, but its culture of secrecy and cover-up means the Environment Minister has once again left Victorians in the dark,” Mr Davis said.
“Labor must have assessed the massive increase in greenhouse gas emissions from the desalination plant, but won’t share this data with Victorians.
“The Minister’s claim that the desalination plant will be ‘supported by’ renewable energy is clearly questionable, given that the Brumby Government has not revealed what proportion of the desalination plant’s ongoing energy requirements will come from renewable sources and what proportion will have to be sourced from coal-fired energy.
“Labor can duck and weave all it likes, but can’t escape the fact that the desalination plant will gobble energy and spew out massive quantities of greenhouse gases,” Mr Davis said.
