DEAR News Of The Area,
Labor’s political opportunism, environmental hypocrisy, and bullying continues.
Justin Page’s letter (8 May 2025) is yet another example of Labor-funded political hypocrisy.
A union and Labor operative now posing as a “local community advocate” at the Hunter Jobs Alliance, Page has the audacity to accuse everyday Australians of “opportunism” and “disinformation” simply for opposing a reckless offshore industrial electrical installation.
Let’s be clear: Page is a Labor-funded unionist defending his party’s massive industrial development, dumped on Port Stephens and Hawks Nest without genuine consultation, economic transparency, or independent environmental assessment.
We haven’t made “alarmist claims.”
Every concern, whether about the threat to marine life and tourism, or the $40–60 billion cost, is backed by facts.
Even the CSIRO’s GenCost report confirms offshore wind is among the most expensive forms of energy.
Globally, there is no floating offshore wind project of this scale: an unrealistic 320 floating turbines, each 260 metres tall.
The largest in Norway has just 11, operates less than 50 percent of the time, faces enormous maintenance issues, and isn’t even connected to the grid.
Placing this massive industrial infrastructure in a whale migration corridor near pristine marine parks is not “fearmongering”, it’s an environmentally risky proposal.
It’s time for a proper, fact-based assessment of this industrialisation, without massive taxpayer subsidies, without Labor’s ideological spin, and without the undemocratic vilification and silencing of those who dare to ask: is this really the best option for Australia?
This campaign for common sense didn’t begin with ADVANCE.
It began with concerned local residents, like me, who’ve been speaking out since 2023.
Labor and its union allies continue trying to ram this project through on behalf of foreign developers, hoping no one would push back.
In early 2024, a Labor staffer even turned up uninvited to our community meeting and attempted to intimidate us into silence.
So, we stood up.
Justin Page seems to forget that Labor failed to win a majority nationally: what is your “social licence”?
In Lyne, Nationals candidate Alison Penfold was elected while openly opposing offshore wind.
Funny how he left that out too.
This isn’t a “MAGA-style” campaign, what conspiratorial rubbish.
It’s ordinary Australians standing up against radical coastal industrialisation.
The real echo chamber is Labor and its unions, parroting green slogans, spending taxpayer billions, and ignoring the environmental damage, economic waste, while bullying and smearing locals.
We will keep fighting to protect our community, our marine life, and our coastline, as well as an energy future that is clean, affordable, and reliable.
No amount of Labor-union propaganda or bullying will silence us.
Regards,
Sandra BOURKE,
Advance Australia spokesperson,
Tea Gardens.
