Just over a year ago, on November 18, 2023, hundreds of locals from my small community of Hawks Nest gathered for our first beach rally against the Labor/Greens/Teal massive offshore wind turbine installation. 

Then, as now, we stood united against Labor’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, and his directive to build about 300 massive floating wind turbines, each towering up to 260 meters high, the equivalent of a 70-story skyscraper, in the seas surrounding the pristine John Gould Marine Reserve off Hawks Nest beach.

This coastal reserve, designated as ‘World Protected’ in 1954, is a stunning group of islands and home to the endangered Gould’s Petrel subspecies.

Like hundreds of others across regional Australia, our community protests made no difference. Bowen dismissed them all with contempt.

In the year since this first protest, the government doubled down on its renewables ideology: ignoring regional communities, wasting billions of dollars and unleashing even more destruction. 

In June this year, Bowen approved a feasibility licence for the Hunter Offshore wind zone, condemning this sanctuary and the surrounding ocean to industrialisation on a massive scale:

• Hundreds of huge concrete anchor blocks smashing delicate reefs and ocean floors.
• A vast network of chains and electric cables, disrupting marine ecosystems and stopping fishing and tourism.
• Substations the size of oil rigs.
• Floating turbines prone to oil leaks and toxic blade failures, polluting our oceans and beaches for generations.

These huge turbines will always require heavy taxpayer subsidies and will operate for just three days out of seven. All this costly destruction to generate unreliable electricity for a mere 15 to 20 years.

Back then I attempted to share a media release on behalf of our small community, personally funding its distribution online as all our protests and submissions were ignored by the Labor, Green and Teals.

What I wrote back then still stands:

At some point during the short, insincere, and obscure consultation process for this project, we know that conservationists, scientists, ornithologists, and locals documented serious concerns: “66% of submissions were opposed to the proposal, with 19% of people that were opposed having specific or other concerns. 31% of submissions were supportive of the proposal, with 7% of these noting that they had specific or other concerns.”

We believe Labor did not listen nor care.

On 12 July 2023, the area comprising 1,854 square kilometres was declared by Chris Bowen to be “suitable for offshore wind” electricity generation. At this point it was evident from their map that Labor had ignored all concerns. It was evident in their physical siting of the Declared Area, located 20 km offshore, adjacent to Port Stephens, Hawks Nest beach, and the Myall Lakes National Park. The rows of turbines will completely cut off wildlife access to the Marine Reserve, particularly for the Gould’s Petrel (Cabbage Tree Island) and the Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Broughton Island). It was evident because neither the Reserve nor the islands even appeared on Bowen’s map of the offshore wind zone.

Despite Bowen’s unilateral declaration, the same conservationists, scientists, and locals did not stop voicing their concerns. But now they have become NIMBYs, climate change deniers, coal lovers, pseudo scientists, and selfish simpletons standing in the way of clean energy transition. None of which is true.

These are all easy insults that enable Labor’s terrible decision to go unchallenged.

They enable a simplistic, sanctimonious, and hateful narrative that suppresses any constructive debate or compromise. A yes or no narrative in which turbine supporters fail to even consider that perhaps the location is wrong. That it could be reviewed, reduced, or re-sited.

That perhaps the John Gould Marine Reserve is worth saving from the damage the massive turbines, blades, cables and tonnes of concrete anchors will inflict. That the Reserve could continue to be conserved for future generations of people and wildlife.

Perhaps conservationists and locals who have spent their lives protecting and nurturing the reserve do not want to “watch the planet burn” but nor do they want to sacrifice biodiversity for electricity.

That perhaps they support renewables being rolled out but not like this. Not at this cost.

And now there are even more costs evident.

Labor is intent on using the apparently uncapped and recently expanded Capacity Investment scheme (CIS) to fund the project. Billions of taxpayer dollars will be expended on construction and ongoing subsidies. Supply chain risks and workforce issues are already evident. Labor also appears to have failed to cost the decommissioning of aged or broken turbines which cannot be recycled and will need to be buried as is in landfill or left on the seabed. Finally, there is no evidence this project will substantively help to improve grid reliability or cut our electricity bill.

So, we rally because Labor has recklessly rushed this project regardless of all the costs…We rally to try to get people to rethink …the Hunter Offshore Wind Turbines.

Fast forward one year with many months of work by many volunteers and that rethink was delivered with bells on by Liberal leader, Peter Dutton who announced:

Today we announce that a Dutton Coalition Government will rescind the Port Stephens Offshore Wind Zone – a decision that puts the local community first. The Albanese Government has deliberately ignored serious economic, social and environmental concerns raised by local residents by this proposed wind zone. The Prime Minister, and his Energy Minister Chris Bowen, have shown complete disregard to the people of Port Stephens, Newcastle, and the Hunter in a desperate attempt to achieve their ideological target of a renewables-only electricity grid.

This is a massive win for one of many regional communities fighting hard against the Labor, Green and Teal’s government’s destructive renewables obsession.

Now for the 2025 federal election, where we get to vote Labor, the Greens and the Teals out 100%.

Sandra Bourke
ADVANCE Spokeswoman

Hawks Nest Beach protest against the offshore turbines - 18 November 2023.