Media Release

Peter Gutwein MP
Shadow Minister for Energy

Saturday 6th February 2010

Llewellyn can’t be trusted on Musselroe

Claims from the Energy Minister, David Llewellyn, that the Musselroe windfarm is only experiencing "short-term" delays are about as believable as his claims yesterday that he will remain a member of Parliament until he is 75.

The fact is that Musselroe is facing two major problems. One is that under the Federal Rudd Labor Government, the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target system has effectively killed off the windfarm industry in Australia. Windfarms in Tasmania, or anywhere in Australia for that matter, will not go ahead while Kevin Rudd stands by the current system.

Secondly, the Tasmanian Labor Government has one of the worst track records imaginable when it comes to managing major projects. The Lennon/Bartlett Government's legacy will be one of delays, cost blow outs and out and out stuff ups.

For David Llewellyn to tell Tasmanians that this project will go ahead, when contractors are abandoning the site and pulling out their equipment is not only disingenuous, it is harmful to both the north east's economy and also their community spirit. It's not fair, and it's not good enough.

This is David Llewellyn's mess and David Llewellyn needs to clean it up. Simply putting the project on the never-never is not a solution and it appears that rather than doing anything David Llewellyn would prefer to stall and delay.

Perhaps David Llewellyn is hoping that he will be out of public life before the Musselroe project finally falls over completely and therefore, if he just delays doing anything he will never have to be accountable.