From junk science to “swindle factories”, Barnaby Joyce hates wind farms down to his boots

Barnaby Joyce’s indefatigable anti-renewables crusade took a sartorial twist last week, when he turned up to federal parliament wearing cowboy boots, in protest of the fact that his usual brand of choice – RM Williams – is now owned by iron ore billionaire and green energy evangelist Andrew Forrest.

Joyce told 2GB Radio that while he has nothing against Forrest, personally, he’s not happy about Twiggy’s company Squadron Energy building wind farms – or “swindle factories,” as he now likes to call them – in regional New South Wales.

“He’s putting swindle factories or so-called wind farms all over our area,” the federal member for New England told 2GB’s Ben Fordham last week.

“I don’t mind him as a person but these these wind farms, swindle factories… they’re just killing us out in the country,” Joyce said.

“They don’t help the power price – the power price is going through the roof – and they’re just future obsolete landfill… they don’t work… and in the meantime we get the transmission lines, all this garbage all over us, and I thought I’d make a statement.”

As Joyce himself notes, this statement has ended up being well publicised by the mainstream media – and, yes, by us too – as more of his wacky antics, that recently included being filmed lying on the footpath in Canberra while conducting a colourful phone conversation.

The problem is, Joyce’s wacky antics, and the outrageous things he says and does as an elected member of federal parliament, rarely get held to account. Meanwhile, they are clearly doing some damage.

A major new survey commissioned by renewables developer Zen Energy has found warning signs that public support is at risk if communication to communities about the ability of renewable technologies to replace fossil fuel generation isn’t consistent or reinforced over time.

More specifically, the polling found that a majority of the 1,100 people surveyed weekly over a 12-month period don’t believe that renewable energy technology is advanced enough to fully replace fossil fuels.

This can not be blamed entirely on Joyce – although he wouldn’t mind if it was. A white paper published by Zen alongside the survey results argues that governments haven’t provided enough leadership on vital communication points like these.

But you can bet your boots Barnaby’s antics are having an impact.

Joyce in his RM Williams boots. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

“People are vulnerable to negative, oppositional messaging, particularly in regional Australia where the greatest benefits of the transition can and will be realised,” Zen says in the This is Transition white paper.

In particular, Joyce and the Coalition have been successful in turning Australia’s energy debate into a battle of city versus country; of down-home common sense thinking versus highfalutin’ climate science, which Joyce relentlessly and ruthlessly derides – including from his frozen RM Williams boots.

But if the Canberra footpath incident teaches us anything, it’s that things don’t work out well when you blatantly ignore the science.

“I’m on a prescription drug, and they say certain things may happen to you if you drink, and they were absolutely 100% right,” he said, at the time. “They did.”