The New South Wales wind farm bizarrely attacked by Barnaby Joyce in January has received a written objection to its development by the National Party MP’s fiancée and former staffer, Vikki Campion.
Campion, a former media advisor to Joyce and a News Ltd journalist, is one of 438 people and organisations who submitted an objection to the Winterbourne wind farm via the NSW Department of Planning and Environment portal.
Another 498 submissions were made in support of the up to 700MW project, according to a news update from Winterbourne on Wednesday, which says the next step is to “consider all feedback” and conduct additional assessments to address comments and concerns.
In her lengthy submission, Campion raises a series of creative objections to the wind farm’s development near Walcha in New England, including around noise, impact on farm animals, and claims it will wreak “monumental environmental destruction.”
“This region has a quiet, rural character where people, wildlife and stock will notice any noise,” she writes.
“Anecdotally, landholders who succeeded in another court case fighting incessant industrial noise in Queensland claimed their animals, including dogs, cattle and sheep, exhibited signs of stress, including reduced lambing and calving due to consistent low-grade industrial noise.
“We have yet to determine what the impact on stock in one of the most prolific food and fibre bowls in the nation will be.”
And finally, “You cannot claim a change from a natural landscape to a landscape of hundreds of industrial machines, which will undeniably impact cultural heritage, biodiversity, visual and audio amenity, and no plan for its disposal except for rusting on the horizon, is good for the local environment.
“If this were not a wind farm, this proposal would be laughed out of any planning authority for the literal monumental environmental destruction it will cause,” Campion says.
The submission follows the January panning by Joyce – the federal member for New England – of Winterbourne’s Environmental Impact Statement as “a packet of poo tickets.”
The bizarre comment was issued at a meeting held by local anti-wind group Voice for Walcha.
“You’ve got to arrive in Canberra on the Federation Lawn at Parliament House. You know, it really scares politicians,” the former deputy PM encouraged attendees at the Walcha Bowls Club, before advocating for nuclear power for New England, instead.
Neither Joyce nor Campion are renowned for their support of renewables. Campion has used her platform as a Murdoch media columnist to ridicule electric vehicles and lambast wind turbines – on land and sea.
For Joyce, the situation is a bit more complicated, considering the New England region has been declared as one of five designated Renewable Energy Zones (REZs) in NSW, due to its proximity to existing energy infrastructure and abundant natural clean energy resources.
As RenewEconomy has reported, the lack of political support shown for the project by Joyce ignores a Community Benefit Fund that will return more than $35 million to locals over the expected project life.
A Vestas spokesperson told RenewEconomy in January that Winterbourne will offer one of the largest Community Benefit Funds of any renewable energy project in Australia, including a $1 million contribution at financial commitment of the project, and $750,000 per year (indexed to CPI) of operation (based on a 600 MW project being delivered; for every 1 MW above this capacity, we will contribute an additional $1,000 per year to the fund).
“It is the intention that this fund will be managed by Walcha Council and Uralla Council, and will support local community initiatives, programs, events, facilities, services, infrastructure and businesses,” the spokesperson told RenewEconomy.
More broadly, Vestas says the Winterbourne wind farm is expected to generate more than $150 million in direct wages and profits, and more than $160 million in indirect wages and profits, per year of construction.
During project operations, the project is expected to generate around $25 million per year in direct and indirect economic benefit for the local region. Over the course of construction it will create an estimated 400 jobs.
No doubt objections to the project from actual residents of Walcha are based on genuine concerns that it is now beholding upon Vestas to work through and resolve as best they can.
But Campion’s claims fall in another category entirely, calling on the ghosts of anti-wind campaigns past and pointing to the outcome of the Bald Hills legal case, which is very much an exception rather than an exemplar, both legally and in the sector.
Claims that the developers of the project have not consulted broadly enough with the local community and first nations people are certainly disputed by Vestas, which says it has secured the endorsement of 55 landowners for the wind farm.
“We have directly engaged with project neighbours and with the local councils and agency stakeholders. We have a project website with considerable material available for download, have a direct email for feedback and enquiries, and maintain social media platforms,” a spokesperson said.
“We established a Community Consultative Committee which held seven meetings since March 2021. We have a local office which is currently staffed three days per week.
“We have logged more than 1,700 stakeholder interactions on this project, and we will continue our commitment to community engagement as the project moves forward.”
See also: “A packet of poo tickets:” Barnaby’s beef with wind power goes nuclear
