FOR or against? That’s been the question asked of Glenelg Shire Council in relation to the proposed offshore wind farm zone and it has now provided an answer.

Councillors last Tuesday night unanimously endorsed a submission to the federal Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water Department on the zone, which takes in the entirety of the waters off the coast of the shire, as well as parts to the west and east.

The council will provide “in principle” support for offshore renewable energy projects but has called on the Commonwealth to considered concerns raised by the community now, and in the future when – if the zone is approved – projects move off the drawing board and closer to reality.

“Glenelg Shire Council strongly supports the need to transition to renewable energy sources, and trusts that the concerns raised by our community, especially regarding environmental protection matters, are duly considered in the assessment of the overall community consultation,” the submission says.

“We look forward to working alongside our local community with federal and state governments, developers, industries and business to achieve zero emission targets for the benefit of future generations.”

What the councillors said

The motion to endorse the submission was moved by Karen Stephens, who said that offshore wind power generation was a key part of the federal government’s agenda – $14.5 million this year alone simply for a strategy – and the council had long supported renewable energy.

She also pointed out the proposed wind farms that might eventuate, should the zone be declared, were long term projects that would take up to seven years to finish the feasibility stage – as the Observer reported recently one of the three projects, the Cape Winds Offshore Wind Farm, believes it would not be generating power until 2033 at the earliest, with construction starting in 2030.

“There’s a long way to go with these projects,” Cr Stephens said.

“We’ve listened to our community, we’ve understood, we’ve listened to the Commonwealth consultation process, we’ve got all this background information and knowledge… and we’ll make that submission.”

Michael Carr also stressed that the zone declaration process was just one stage before any feasibility licences were approved.

Supporting the zone was also part of the council’s plan and its 2040 community plan which called for decarbonisation and supporting renewable energy.

“Each offshore wind project has the potential to contribute thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars to the local community,” Cr Carr said.

“Make no mistake fellow councillors, the Glenelg Shire and its community has the opportunity to be part of a once-in-a-generation economic boom that will last decades should it proceed.”

That would be while at the same time decarbonising Australia’s energy market and protecting existing local manufacturing jobs “and enabling the region to develop new jobs”.

“I believe it would be irresponsible for this council to go against its own plan and community plan and say ‘no our community does not want the area declared’ during phase one of the process,” Cr Carr said.

“We need to be supportive of the Commonwealth Government declaring the area so companies that wish to invest can proceed to phase two of the process and be confident that the voices of our local communities can be considered.”

Gilbert Wilson said offshore wind projects “should be supported for the good of the environment”.

“This council supports Australia’s renewable energy targets,” he said.

“I believe that the effect of these floating turbines will be minimal at best.

“The zone will not overlap our marine parks and protected areas.

“There is no evidence that whales will be affected by the offshore wind farms.”

The approvals process would take whale migration and calving patterns into consideration.

“Whale and Dolphin Conservation Australia says climate change… and heating of oceans is the greatest threat to ocean life,” Cr Wilson said.

“The floating towers are known to provide great habitats for fish.”

The towers would also be inside the Continental Shelf so would avoid the Bonney Upwelling, while the largest land colony of gannets at Point Danger nested near onshore wind towers.

Cr Wilson also questioned the impact on surfers, and the distance towers would be from shore – he said these could be anywhere up to 50km from shore “therefore they would be quite hard to see”.

“As most of the towers would be anchored to the sea bed there will be no effect to the surfing beaches, “ he said.

“I believe not supporting this zone will increase the time of carbon reduction and will affect the marine life more.”

Jayden Smith said the zone was a “great step in the right direction regarding emission reduction”.

But he had two concerns – he would rather the wind farms be funded publicly rather than be owned by private companies and he was also concerned how politicised the subject of renewable energy had become in Australia.

The happy-go-lucky and “she’ll be right” character of Australians was why “at such a late hour in time” the nation had scrambled to renewable energy production.

Cr Smith said he had been contacted by community members proposing nuclear energy as an alternative “but that’s not something that’s ever going to be on the table in Australia for a long time if ever given the attitudes around that”.

However, the environment also needed to be considered.

“Our local ocean area is perfect for the offshore winds but it’s also more than perfect for the current natural environment that it houses,” he said.

“There’s going to be much work done to make sure that the environment is looked after.”

Plenty of people were excited by the economic opportunities offshore wind could bring to the region.

“I personally ask that (Chris Bowen the federal Climate Change and Energy Minister) takes all consultation on board,” Cr Smith said.

Chrissy Hawker echoed that.

She said she acknowledged the need to transition to renewable energy.

“But it is critical that our community voices are considered as part of the consultation process,” she said.

Mayor Scott Martin was the last to speak.

“The amount of misinformation out on social media has been staggering and quite frankly disturbing,” he said.

“Declaring a zone doesn’t mean that towers will be put in tomorrow, or at all,” he said.

“This could all be for nothing – this is only stage one.

“Stage two is where interested companies put in their expressions of interest, that is where what I’d say the mission impossible starts for those companies regardless of whether they’re fixed, floating or other (types of towers).

“Companies are required to put in a management plan where they are required to show how they can work with all user groups… and that is in the national interest.

“That may require a number of solutions, like monetary compensation.”

Cr Martin said the council submission was “a very measured and sensible approach with the facts that we have on hand right now”.

“I can appreciate the ‘not in my back yard’ mentality,” he said.

“Like it or not we have the existing infrastructure, we are right in the Roaring Forties here, this is the ideal spot.

“I see South West Victoria and particularly the Glenelg Shire doing the heavy lifting when it comes to transitioning our country from fossil fuels to green energy.”

“If there will be some negative impacts in our community… then we deserve some sort of compensation.

“For me if we’re going to power the country I think a good starting point would be for Glenelg Shire residents to never have an electricity bill again.”

Cr Martin said “climate change is real”.

“We need to make some tough decisions,” he said.

“A community should be looked after if the burden of those tough decisions should fall on us.

“Recent history has shown from the other declared zones (Hunter in NSW and Gippsland) the Minister does consider submissions.

“If people are genuine about wanting to be heard by the federal government make a practical, logical, evidence based (submission) and the Minister said he will consider that.”

But wait, there’s more

Earlier Cr Martin answered questions about the council’s stance during public question time.

In response to some from Steve Liddicut, a landowner near Cape Bridgewater, he also pointed to “the amount of misinformation out there, not only in public and… social media” which he said was “not only staggering but disappointing”.

“Several zones around Australia were publicly announced late last year,” Cr Martin said.

“Really high level information has been available for quite some time.

“While I can appreciate some people may want answers yesterday, the reality is they do take time to come to council and to come to council meetings.

“At no point will the Glenelg Shire Council be doing community consultation on this or any part of the project for offshore wind.

“This is a federal project done in Commonwealth waters, completely outside of local government reach.

“I’m not sure how I can be clearer than that.”

Michael Byrne asked how councillors could have considered the issue properly when “one councillor has been on holiday on Thailand, a councillor (has been) holidaying in Noosa and councillor (has been) on leave and just returned from England”.

Cr Martin said “that is exactly why we didn’t put a submission in straight away”.

“We took the required amount of time to get the information to councillors,” he said.

“Councillors have had the opportunity to ask questions, to gather information and to learn.

“I think it’s pretty disingenuous to say that councillors haven’t seen or read the papers, haven’t (looked at) social media.

“We see, we do listen… I can assure you every councillor has had the opportunity to receive the information and to digest it.”