At the turn of the decade, the anti-wind lobby escalated its campaign of exaggeration, cherry-picking, and scare tactics. Just five years later, community members from regional Victoria are saying enough is enough.

A recent letter to the editor by Sandra Hawkins (The Courier), which held Senator John Madigan to account for perpetuating the scare campaign, resulted in a flurry of letters from anti-wind campaigners. The following rejoinder was published by The Courier:

SORRY Mary Morris, but I am up to date with the latest February 2015 NHMRC report which has not only just begun to investigate the matter but exhaustively examined available evidence, and follows on from a 2010 review of evidence of that time.

The 2015 report states “NHMRC concludes that there is currently no consistent evidence that wind farms cause adverse effects in humans”.

Interesting that the National Health and Medical Research Council cited the poor quality of current direct evidence as the reason for more research.

Perhaps because 244 different symptoms and diseases are so far alleged to be caused by wind farm exposure.

Interesting, too, that the NHMRC thinks research into “broader social and environmental circumstances that may influence the reporting of health effects in people living near wind farms” is warranted.

Perhaps because of the evidence of a prevalence of symptoms in areas where anti-wind farm activism groups have shown up at the first sniff of a wind farm proposal.

Sandra Hawkins

Opposition to wind energy technology comes from the political fringe.

Senator John Madigan’s wind energy inquiry (witch-hunt) is the current manifestation of this dynamic.

Fringe politicians who where elected on preference deals and only managed a a trickle of primary votes — such as Sen. Madigan, Sen. Bob Day (Family First), and Sen. David Leyonhjelm (Lib Dems) — are over-represented on the wind energy inquiry.

To ensure that the pro-renewable energy viewpoint of mainstream Australia is heard, we’re calling on people to sign our petition calling for a fair wind inquiry.

TAKE ACTION:

• Sign our petition calling for Senator Madigan to run a fair wind energy inquiry.
• Support our campaign by getting involved or making a donation.
• Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.