Barnaby Joyce was making more than just a fashion statement when he wore a pair of cowboy boots in Parliament on Wednesday.
The New England MP and former deputy prime minister said he pulled on the boots to protest billionaire Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s proposed wind farms.
Joyce said she chose the boots over a pair of RM Williams to send a message to Forrest, owner of the popular brand.
The mining magnate’s Squadron Energy began work on the Uungala wind farm in New South Wales in January.
National MP Barnaby Joyce turned heads in parliament while sporting a pair of cowboy boots.
The renewable energy project is expected to be the largest in the state upon completion, but Joyce believes it will all become an “obsolete future landfill.”
Mr Joyce said 2GB He came up with the idea while attending Beef Week in Rockhampton, Queensland.
“I don’t care for (Mr Forrest) as a person, but these wind farms are scam factories,” Joyce told Ben Fordham.
“They are just killing us in our country.”
The national MP recycled “scam factory” comments from previous criticism of the effect of wind farms on March energy bills.
He claimed renewable energy was upsetting the lower classes in regional Australia.
“Where they trample us and ladies and gentlemen, they scam you,” he said at the time.
Despite Joyce also describing wind farms as “reckless renewables” and “filth”, the NSW government has pressed ahead with approving more sites.
Joyce said she chose to wear the boots instead of a pair of RM Williams because it is a company owned by Mr Forrest.
His dispute with the billionaire comes months after Forrest (pictured) announced in January that his company, Squadron Energy, would build the largest wind farm in New South Wales upon completion.
Mr Forrest’s Uungala site will be the largest in the state until the massive Yanco Delta project, which is projected to be about four times larger, is built.
“This is a great announcement from a major Australian company that is continuing the work of building the renewable energy capacity needed to supply the green energy Australia urgently needs,” Forrest said in January.
‘The time for talking is over, we are investing right now in Australia’s green energy transition and creating jobs and economic development for regional Australia.
‘We will no longer have to depend on expensive, volatile and planet-destroying fuels. “We will have secure and affordable energy thanks to a huge new industry for Australia.”
Projected to create more than 260 jobs and inject around $61 million into the local economy, the site is also expected to prevent the release of more than 560,000 tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere annually.