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.
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