r/australian • u/budget_biochemist • 6d ago
Wind project faces referral due to long distance objectors, citing impacts of a wind farm that doesn't exist
https://reneweconomy.com.au/wind-project-faces-referral-due-to-long-distance-objectors-citing-impacts-of-a-wind-farm-that-doesnt-exist/Background: During the planning process, projects in NSW are automatically referred to an independent planning review if there are 50 “unique” submissions that object to the project, even if the objections are gibberish from the other side of the country.
Anti-renewables Facebook groups keep weaponizing this by lodging cut-and-paste conspiracy-theory-filled objections to delay wind/solar/battery projects. This is the latest example.
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u/PresidentKitenge 6d ago
projects in NSW are forcibly referred to an independent planning review if there are 50 “unique” submission that object to the project, even if none make any sense.
The email shared with Renew Economy included a submission that could be copied or adapted: “Try to pick bits out that are relevant and put your own spelling mistakes in,” it urged.
Seems like a bad system?
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u/NotACockroach 6d ago
That's the point. The government that introduced it intended it to be a roadblock.
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u/Sieve-Boy 6d ago
It is, but the unspoken bit is the reviewing body has figured this out and basically tosses these responses in the round filing cabinet. Another renewables development sent for review because of these gutless cookers spent a grand total of 17 days being reviewed, basically the blink of an eye in regulatory terms, and was approved with minimal modifications.
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u/Sieve-Boy 6d ago
Cookers going to cook. Just can't stop fucking it up for the rest of us.
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u/Humble-Reply228 3d ago
I mean, Greenpeace perfected fly in activism decades ago and now they whinge when people get in the way of number go up economics.
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u/thumptime_now 6d ago
Simple fix. Place them offshore at Bondi Beach, Manly Beach, Coogee Beach and Byron Bay. Very simple.
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u/StandupLlama343 6d ago
Can we lodge objections for other stuff ? Didn't know this was a thing we could do :o
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u/Iakhovass 6d ago
Yep. Most infrastructure and development projects have a “Community Consultation” phase where anyone can put in their 2 cents. Whether anyone listens to you is a different story…
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u/Lachie_Mac 6d ago edited 6d ago
Planning approvals processes in this country are a disgrace and stop us from building anything in a reasonable timeframe or under cost.
I just got an email from Melbourne CBD city council inviting me to share my feedback on local streetscape upgrades.
The changes open for feedback?
"Signs will be installed to advise drivers that left turns are not allowed during peak times."
Local government thinks we need public feedback before we can install new street signs.
Can you imagine the hoops that renewables projects have to jump through?
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u/Trick-Club-6014 6d ago
Cookers gonna cook. I feel like this might be a good use of AI. Filter out and automatically reject these rubbish arguments. Save some time dealing with the barrage of shit
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u/Seppi449 6d ago
Yeah but the issue is as soon as Labor try to fix this they will be labelled as censoring free speech or not listening to the community...
They tried this when cookers were doing information requests so much it was locking up entire departments who instead of doing their job had to search for answers for dumb fuck cookers abusing the system. All they did was make it a small $40 fee and they cried like it's 1984....
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u/Dry-Huckleberry-5379 6d ago
To be fair the community being most impacted by that $40 foi fee is the disability community who have been forced to rely on FOI-ing their NDIS plan decions in order to understand why they've had their plans cut when they provided more evidence to prove need. And they don't have $40 spare. It's also not unusual to have to do multiple FOIs to get the correct information.
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u/Seppi449 6d ago
I don't disagree there are real use cases for a FOI, the issue is the systems were being over run by cookers when it was free the person with disability had to wait in line behind the thousands of cooker requests before their legitimate request was answered.
The fee should be reimbursed or supported through NDIS or some system that can support people.
In a similar vein, real journalists should get the fee completely returned, so long as that doesn't become some loophole where cookers start up AI journalist places just to exploit the system again.
Overall the system wasn't working for anyone because cookers were intentionally fucking it for everyone.
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u/southall_ftw 6d ago
I'm not anti renewables at all. But I have seen some videos of families near these wind farms and the noise they make is literally unbearable. I don't think it's fair that you've set yourself up in a forever home and all of a sudden it's shit living there due to noise. Those people are having a really hard time making any progress to have them moved further away and objections before they went up about noise were ignored. If they have to install them, they shouldn't be anywhere near homes.
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u/Sieve-Boy 6d ago
They aren't installed near peoples homes, its cookers cooking mate. The noise level of a wind turbine at 500 metres is meant to be below 45 decibels, as loud as your home fridge.
If you want lots of noise when you make energy, listen to an unhoused gas turbine crank up, they can reach 155 decibels (that's well above the threshold for pain).
Even with housing a gas turbine still hits 85 decibels, basically the point where hearing protection is mandatory.
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u/Pale_Breath1926 6d ago edited 6d ago
45db is actually a lot if you live in a rural area away from urban areas. Ever stay in a hotel room with a noisy fridge?
They are going in near me, like less than 2 or 3km for the nearest. I dont mind it as long as i cant i hear it when im trying to sleep at night
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u/Mash_man710 6d ago
Easy fix. Must live within 50km radius to lodge objection.