Projects hijacked by ‘political actors like Peter Dutton suddenly pretending to care about whales’

Associate professor Michelle Voyer was startled to see an article from the internationally esteemed academic journal Marine Policy asserting that wind energy projects proposed for the waters off the Illawarra and Hunter Valley would kill 400 whales a year pop up on social media.

After all Voyer lives in the Illawarra, and due to her role as principal fellow with the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong, she has expertise in the field. She is also, it turns out, associate editor of Marine Policy. She did not recognise the article.

An offshore wind farm off the coast of the UK operated by Orsted.Credit: Reuters

She called a colleague, Professor Quentin Hanich, who also lives locally and who is editor-in-chief of Marine Policy. He confirmed what she suspected; the paper was a complete fabrication and had never been published.

But to someone without expertise it may have seemed credible, says Voyer, who suspected its author may have used an artificial intelligence program to mock up a journal article. The Facebook page that posted the article removed it when she flagged that it was false, but Voyer is concerned about the damage it might already have done.

The fake paper was another shot fired in an increasingly heated debate sparked by the federal government opening a community consultation period to consider the possible footprint of a potential future wind energy industry off the coast of the Illawarra and Hunter regions. The two areas were selected because they have existing heavy industry that will demand future clean energy, deepwater ports, transmission lines and sophisticated industrial workforces.

The debate has been marked by the genuine concern of many local residents, but also a wave of political rhetoric and alleged misinformation that some fear could derail the process before it properly begins.

A government-supplied artist’s impression of what a wind farm off the Wollongong coast may look like.

In recent weeks, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and his energy spokesman Ted O’Brien have hardened their stance against offshore wind, while Nationals have long opposed renewable energy infrastructure such as onshore wind farms and transmission lines. One Nation, as well as the Shooters and Fishers, have had a high-profile presence at rallies against the proposed wind energy zones.

Arthur Rorris, secretary of the South Coast Labour Council, says what was to have been a simple community consultation process to discuss the potential wind energy zones has been hijacked by political actors.

“They keep demanding information about the impact on marine life or the size of the wind farms, but that information does not exist yet because the zones have not been identified, so the studies have not begun.

“We are at about stage two of a six-stage proposal.”

A government-supplied artist’s impression of wind turbines 10 kilometres off Bulli Beach north of Wollongong.

Under this process, assessment of the potential environmental impact of an offshore wind farm will start once a feasibility licence has been granted. A project could only proceed should it be approved under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Rorris says political actors and newcomers to Wollongong’s northern beaches “who have built their McMansions on top of coal miners’ shacks” are seeking to derail a process that has been going on for 15 years and has won the support of wharfies, coal miners, steelworkers, the local council and the University of Wollongong, as well as climate activists, Greenpeace and the Australian Conservation Foundation.

“We were told years ago that our area was carbon intensive and jobs here would be exposed in a transition. But we also learnt that the transition would need steel, and we told people to hold out. Now when a concrete project is in sight we get these people on the northern beaches who don’t even want to sacrifice their views to save the Earth.”

Nellie Stephens, head of investigations for Greenpeace Australia, said the organisation had received many sincere requests for information about offshore wind from residents of both regions who loved the ocean and were concerned about potential impacts. “But we have also seen this exploited by political actors like Peter Dutton suddenly pretending to care about whales.”

She said that Greenpeace’s view was that all offshore development caused impacts on ocean environments, but exploration for and construction of offshore wind projects was far less damaging than the oil and gas industry, because sonar mapping of the ocean floor was far quieter than the seismic blasting needed to find fossil fuels.

“Greenpeace supports renewable energy because it is the most important way to tackle climate change, which is the biggest threat to the oceans.”

Supporting protests against offshore wind in Nelson Bay last month, Dutton described the government’s goal of generating 82 per cent of electricity in the National Energy Market from renewable sources by 2030 as unfeasible. He raised eyebrows when he emphasised his concern for whales.

“When you look at the whales and the mother and the calf that we saw out there, the dolphins – all of that is at risk because there’s no environmental consideration of what these huge wind turbines, 260 to 280 metres out of the water, will mean for that wildlife and for the environment.”

South Coast locals at a meeting to protest against any proposal for an offshore wind farm. Misinformation is flooding through the campaigns against the developments.Credit: AAP

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s chief executive, Kelly O’Shannessy, said there was ample evidence that whales swam around infrastructure built in oceans, such as oil rigs, and added she was sceptical about Dutton’s motivation.

His concern for whales reflects an ongoing political debate in the United States, where former president Donald Trump has endorsed groups opposing offshore wind farms championed by the Biden administration.

There, residents groups backed by conservative think tanks with links to the fossil fuel industry have been arguing that survey work for wind projects was responsible for a spate of whale deaths. The issue has been picked up by Republican politicians, including Trump, and wrapped into the broader culture war over climate change.

“[Whales] are washing up ashore,” said Trump in September. “You wouldn’t see that once a year – now they are coming up on a weekly basis. The windmills are driving them crazy. They are driving the whales, I think, a little batty.”

Research by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Britain’s Royal Society has found the deaths were caused by ship strikes and entanglements.

Donald Trump has opposed wind farms as a threat to marine life.Credit: AP

“I want to be unambiguous: There is no information supporting that any of the equipment used in support of offshore wind development could directly lead to the death of a whale,” said Benjamin Laws, deputy chief for permits and conservation with the NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources in January. “There are no known connections between any offshore wind activities and any whale strandings.”

The Herald approached the Opposition Leader but was told he was travelling in India and unable to comment.

In Port Stephens, billboards have appeared bearing a photograph of a dead whale and a slogan calling for the proposed wind farm to be stopped, while at a protest against wind farms in Wollongong on Sunday some speakers reasserted misinformation about wind turbines that has been debunked time and again, such as the claim that they emit dangerous “infrasound” or that the turbines’ lifespans are so brief as to negate their environmental benefits.

This masthead has seen social media posts regarding the Illawarra zone alleging without evidence that infrasound from windmills could harm whales, that surf will be reduced along the region’s famous beaches, that hang gliding at Stanwell Tops will be affected, and instructions on how to use AI to generate responses for the consultation process. Some posts have included links to materials created by Advance Australia, the conservative lobby group that had a prominent role supporting the campaign against the Voice to parliament.

Protests against wind farms link danger to whales, but there is no evidence that whales would be affected.Credit: AAP

Rorris has written to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen voicing his concern about what he sees as an effort to corrupt the consultation process, including social media posts that air offers of financial inducements for negative contributions to the public consultation process.

“We fully support the democratic right of all members in our community to hold different views and indeed to campaign around these issues,” he wrote. “What we find abhorrent, however, is the use of deliberate misinformation to not only divide communities but turn a consultation process about clean energy into a Trump-style circus driven by internet trolls and fuelled by fear that has been manufactured and imported.”

An example of one of the anti-windfarm social media posts being shared in Wollongong.Credit: Twitter

One person shocked by the tone of the debate is Wollongong resident Damien Toogood, who established the Facebook page Illawarra Wind Farms Discussion Group to facilitate a more balanced debate. He was shocked when one early contributor said he would like to see a prominent Australian businessman who supports climate action die.

But Toogood, who supports the transition to renewable energy, also believes the government has not made the process clear enough for residents and remains concerned about the potential offshore wind project.

“I want what is best for my son. I don’t want him to grow up in the hellscape of climate change, but on the other hand the option to exploit the last bastion, the oceans, needs careful consideration.”

Whatever happens off Australian coasts will not be clear for some years. The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water will consider submissions regarding the declared offshore wind zones over the coming months. Next year, Minister Bowen will decide whether to grant feasibility licences to developers for some or all of those zones.

Should they be granted, developers could begin to undertake detailed environmental assessments, geotechnical surveys and further consultation on their proposals. They might then apply for commercial licences to begin construction later this decade.

Even if they leap each of those hurdles, they might still stumble. This week the offshore wind giant Orsted abandoned far more advanced plans for two of its US projects, citing increasing interest rates and costs.

Trump was thrilled. “The whales, which are dying in record numbers because of these wind scams, are very happy tonight,” he said.

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