Barnaby Joyce made 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 had pulled up the boots to protest billionaire Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s proposed wind farms.
Mr Joyce said he chose the boots over a pair of RM Williams to send a message to Mr 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 wearing a pair of cowboy boots
The renewable energy project is expected to be the largest in the state when completed, but Mr Joyce believes it will all just become a ‘future obsolete dump’.
Mr. Joyce told it 2GB that he came up with the idea while attending Beef Week in Rockhampton, Queensland.
“As a person I don’t mind (Mr Forrest) but these wind farms are a scam,” Mr Joyce told Ben Fordham.
“They’re just killing us in our country.”
The Nationals MP recycled comments about the ‘scam factory’ from previous criticism of the impact of wind farms on March energy bills.
He claimed renewables were failing the lower classes in regional Australia.
“Where we defect and ladies and gentlemen, you are being ripped off,” he said at the time.
Despite Mr Joyce also describing wind farms as “reckless renewables” and “filth”, the NSW government has pushed ahead with approvals for more sites.
Mr Joyce said he chose to wear the boots over a pair of RM Williams because it is a company Mr Forrest owns
His row with the billionaire comes months after Mr Forrest (pictured) announced in January that his company, Squadron Energy, would build the largest wind farm in NSW when completed.
Forrest’s Uungala site will be the largest in the state until the massive Yanco Delta project is built, which is expected to be about four times the size.
“This is a huge announcement from a major Australian company as it continues to build the renewable energy capacity needed to deliver the green energy Australia urgently needs,” Forrest said in January.
“The time for talk is over, we are now investing in Australia’s green energy transition and creating jobs and economic development for regional Australia.
‘We will no longer have to rely on expensive, volatile, planet-destroying fuels. We will get safe and cheap energy from a huge new industry for Australia.”
The site is expected to create more than 260 jobs and inject approximately $61 million into the local economy, but is also expected to prevent more than 560,000 tons of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere annually.