Thursday 6 September 2007

No evil plot on report

Ballarat Courier
Thursday 6/9/2007 Page: 5

A LEAKED planning report recommending a controversial Victorian wind farm proceed was not worth releasing because the project was dumped, Planning Minister Justin Madden said yesterday. The 48-turbine Dollar Wind Farm, proposed for a site in southeast Victoria, was scrapped last month when the proponent AGL Energy Limited pulled out.

Opponents of the $140 million project were fighting for access to a planning panel's report into whether the project should proceed. They took their battle to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal but the project was withdrawn before their case was resolved.

ABC radio has obtained a leaked copy of the report which, contrary to speculation, endorsed the project going ahead. But Planning Minister Justin Madden defended the government's decision to withhold the draft report, saying it was meaningless when the project was not going to proceed. "There's no conspiracy here, it is a document which had no status once the project was withdrawn," Mr Madden told ABC radio.

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