The Victorian Labor party’s commitment to repeal the Coalition government’s anti-wind farm laws is getting support from regional Victoria. The opposition’s commitment to “rip up” former Premier Ted Baillieu’s brown tape received a big thumbs up from Sarah Durrant of Kilmore in a letter to The Weekly Times. 

A breath of fresh air on turbines

It was encouraging to hear from Victorian opposition planning spokesperson Brian Tee that, if elected to power, Labor would review and repeal the restrictive state planning policies regarding wind farms (‘Labor vows to “rip up” laws’, The Weekly Times, Oct 23). 

I’m writing this letter while holidaying in the UK, a place well known as a premium area for harvesting wind, and where ever I’ve travelled I’ve never been far from a turbine. 

More than 5000 are part of an operational network of wind farm here, with 3500 more approved or under construction. They are found in town and country, in urban landscapes and rural ones.

There’s no 2km setbacks here and I’m presently sleeping in a bedroom in  Yorkshire with a view of a turbine. 

People and wind farms co-exist in close proximity and in apparent harmony. 

Back at home, residents in my electorate McEwen have spent the past nine months in and out of VCAT witnessing the planning approval process for a proposed wind farm at Cherry Tree Ranges.

It’s an opportunity that will not only pump clean, renewable energy into our grid — it will also pump hundreds of thousand of dollars into the challenged local economy around the Seymour area.

But the process for gaining planning approval is lengthy, challenging and expensive. 

While Victorians recognise the urgent need to address climate change and increase the level of wind power in our energy mix, our current government is effectively tying our hands behind our backs and preventing us from acting.

Sarah Durrant, Kilmore