Labor greenlights contentious Robbins Island windfarm despite fears for endangered orange-bellied parrot

Shorebird habitat at the northern end of Robbins Island in Tasmania, looking south. The island’s mudflats are an internationally important feeding habitat for migratory and residential birds. Photograph: The Guardian

The Albanese government has greenlit a contentious windfarm proposed for Robbins Island off north-western Tasmania, promising to impose conditions to protect threatened bird species, including the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot.

The environment minister, Murray Watt, announced on Friday that he had approved an application by the renewable energy company Acen Australia to build up to 100 turbines, a 1.2km bridge between the nearly 10,000-hectare island and the Tasmanian mainland, a 500-metre wharf and four quarries.