Manildra Producing Ethanol from Food Grade Wheat
Reverend the Hon. Dr GORDON MOYES: I ask the Minister for Planning, Minister for Infrastructure, and Minister for Lands, the following question regarding the Manildra group at Nowra using feedstock labelled as “waste starch” to produce ethanol, as the Minister stated in support of the bill. Is the Minister aware of the Supreme Court judgement in Manildra Laboratories v Campbell that showed that Manildra was increasingly diverting its own non-waste flour to the production of ethanol? Is the Minister aware that significant flour was diverted from export sales to ethanol production and that it was not waste at all but flour from food grade wheat? Will the Minister indicate if that showed the 44 per cent greenhouse gas emissions saving relative to petrol being incorrectly defined, now that the proportion of ethanol feedstock that was waste would have resulted in incorrectly elevated abatement figures?
The Hon. TONY KELLY: I have said in the past that most of the production of ethanol at Manildra comes from waste starch. In fact, the vast majority of ethanol production in Australia—and from proposed ethanol plants—comes from waste products. For example, in Queensland the production of ethanol comes from waster sugar—the sugar bagasse—and in New South Wales the vast majority comes from the waste from starch that would normally be sent off as waste. Sometimes they do use some of the flour but basically it is primarily from waste in Australia, unlike other countries in the world, so the food versus fuel argument is irrelevant. I am also aware of two or three proposals for other plants in New South Wales and one plant in Victoria in conjunction with General Motors Holden and my understanding is that they are also as a by-product from other production facilities.