One of this year's major electoral issues is centred around energy policy. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is vowing to scrap three of Labor’s offshore wind projects, in the hopes of tapping into key coastal seats that are anti-wind farms. The debate around these projects has become hostile at times with accusations of both sides spreading misinformation.
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00:00It's the political dispute that's seen the Prime Minister heckled, and National Party
00:13heavyweights flocked to coastal seats a long way from home.
00:18Last year the Federal Government declared a 1,000 square kilometre area off the coast
00:23of the Illawarra an offshore wind zone.
00:26I have declared a zone which is smaller than that originally proposed and further away
00:31from the coast.
00:32But the issue has proved divisive.
00:37The Coalition has vowed to scrap three of Labor's offshore wind zones if elected, and
00:42is hoping to win coastal seats off the back of this policy.
00:46I mean when we go to the beach, we want to see nothing but blue sky and ocean out there.
00:52We don't want to come and see wind turbines littered across the landscape.
00:57But not all locals are concerned about the impact on the view.
01:01Well it's not a pristine environment, if we're going to pick a place to do it, why don't
01:04we pick a place like Wollongong, that is an industrial town.
01:07This exchange between two local surfers says much about the debate in the community.
01:12Do you think they're going to say, hey mate, we're going to do this and it'll be great?
01:17They're going to shaft you to pieces when the bullet, when the rubber hits the road.
01:22What do you mean?
01:23How is it going to shaft me?
01:24Well they can say we're having 600 of those things out there and you'll go, oh, gee.
01:28And I'll say are they going to be behind the ships that I see all along the horizon?
01:32It won't matter what you say.
01:33Because I don't really give a shit if I'm looking at coal ships all day, mate.
01:37Alex O'Brien is the president of Responsible Future, a community group that evolved from
01:43these Facebook groups.
01:44Get out of here.
01:45At a meeting with coalition senators at Parliament House, he slammed the government's consultation
01:50process and accused Professor Ty Christopher, who spoke at community forums as an energy
01:56expert, of a conflict of interest.
01:58He was there representing the University of Wollongong, who has lost $90 million in the
02:0423 financial year and potentially see this project as helping maybe resolve some of those
02:11issues.
02:12The panel had a number of conflicts of interest.
02:14Ty Christopher says he and other academics at the University of Wollongong have been
02:19unfairly targeted by the group.
02:21We operate very much without fear or favour and without being beholden to anything other
02:27than the truth or the facts as we find them in our research.
02:31Unionist Arthur Roris says he was slandered online after he offered qualified support
02:37for the project.
02:38He says attacks on academics and scientists have been appalling.
02:43That is Trumpism.
02:45Take out your opponents publicly, humiliate them, try and cut them down in the hope that
02:53others who are watching this won't come forward.
02:57No one from Responsible Future was available for interview.
03:00In a statement they said...
03:02The term misinformation has been weaponised by pro-wind groups.
03:06We continue to face misleading attacks from those with financial stakes in offshore wind.
03:12We see these attacks increasing and we have seen property damage, harassment and abuse
03:18sent our way.