OPINION
Even if Australian PM Anthony Albanese survives the “Indigenous Voice” referendum, there’s an avalanche of political pain bearing down on him, courtesy of his government’s “Net Zero” obsession. Pollsters have noted that, as the Voice vote sinks lower and lower by the week, Australians are growing increasingly frustrated that the government has made a boutique, divisive racial issue its overriding priority, while their household bills go through the roof.
Even more dangerously for the government, voters in key rural seats are furious at the prospect of their homes being carpeted with bird-chomping eco-crucifixes and mile after mile of steel behemoths. All so Greens and Teals voters in inner Melbourne and Sydney can feel extra-smug while they recharge their EVs.
Frustrated Port Stephens residents say their calls for consultation to be restarted over the controversial 5GW Hunter offshore wind zone have been denied and warned that voters in the heartland Labor seats will abandon the Albanese government if the project proceeds.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, who met with a handful of community representatives in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, received a hostile reception from around 100 protesters holding placards and banners and calling for the offshore wind farms to be axed.
Although some of them seem to be a bit confused.
In a meeting with around 12 community members, Mr Bowen was urged to consider a mix of solar and onshore wind farms in place of offshore turbines, which locals say will devastate their coastal economy and marine environment.
Imagine Cruises chief executive Frank Future – who attended the meeting – said there were “thousands of hectares of land” that could be used for renewables.
So, devastate the rural environment, instead of the marine one? Hack thousands of birds to pieces, instead of marine animals?
Let’s face it: “renewables” are an environmental disaster everywhere.
At least some of them get it.
Tackle World owner Brent Hancock, who attended the meeting with Mr Bowen, said […] “It’s crazy to think what’s going happen to that ecosystem. We’re already wrecking ecosystems on land, what are we going to do in the ocean?”
He’s not the only one who’s clear that wind farms are a bad deal, all round.
Moonshadow Cruises business operations manager James McArthur said the community was disappointed the offshore wind zone remained “on the agenda” for Labor […]
“We’re opposed to wind farms. We think that the location is on a massive, very important ecosystem off Port Stephens and is untouched. To have a wind farm of that magnitude go into that area would not be ideal.”
The Australian
Even Albanese’s own MPs whose electorates are affected by Bowen’s hare-brained scheme are getting alarmed.
Infrastructure Minister Catherine King joined farmers, councils and environmentalists in attacking consultation on the Victorian-NSW Interconnector transmission project, which will plug renewables into the grid and help achieve Labor’s 2030 emissions reduction target […]
Ms King’s extraordinary intervention heaps pressure on Energy Minister Chris Bowen to urgently address rising community anger over government consultation on renewable projects and massive transmission lines integrating solar and wind farms into the electricity system.
In her submission to AEMO, which is overseeing a project plagued by delays and cost blowouts, Ms King said parts of her electorate would be significantly impacted if a Western Renewables Link transmission station was built by VNI West north of Ballarat.
Plagued by delays and cost blowouts… gee, a major project in Victoria, overseen by the Albanese government, and its cost is blowing out?
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Mr Bowen must explain the true cost and impacts of Labor’s renewables plan. “If Chris Bowen pretends that his policy is going to cost less than $1.2 trillion, he needs to provide the detail because the experts … are saying that the Labor plan will cost between $1.2 trillion and $1.5 trillion – and Australians will pay for that through increased electricity bills. People are going to end up with 28,000km of new poles and wires, which is a considerable eyesore through many communities.
The Australian
Elsewhere, Bowen’s own “experts” are estimating anything between $7 trillion and $9 trillion as the total cost of his mad “Net Zero” scheme.
Assuming the costs don’t blow out, of course — because who ever heard of a green-left scheme blowing its budget?