Cold and wet conditions greeted the Minister for Climate Change Chris Bowen, as he announced the new offshore wind farm zone off the Illawarra coast at the BlueScope steel works at Port Kembla.

Mr Bowen was with Stephen Jones, the Labor Member for the Whitlam and Alison Byrnes, the Labor Member for Cunningham.

The ocean wind farm issue has divided South Coast communities, with the potential placement of wind farms in the path of the Humpback whale migration.

A group calling itself ‘Good for the Gong’, issued a press release titled, “Illawarra welcomes community wind power”, a claim thousands of people on the South Coast may dispute.

Speaking to the media, a group spokesman said Australia would become a renewable energy ‘super power’.

The only dissenting voices at yesterday’s event were members of National Rational Energy Network. “I believe that the Illawarra community is overwhelmingly opposed to the wind farms,” said

spokesman Bruce Murray.

“Destroying our oceans will not save the planet. The only thing renewable about the wind farms is that they will need to be replaced in 20 years’ time,” he said.

“Chris Bowen is putting our energy security at risk and driving up the cost of living,” Mr Murray said. Bowen’s announcement was roundly condemned by local conservative politicians including Kiama

MP Gareth Ward.

“No environmental impact statement, no species or endangered animals analysis and no evidence to back up this appalling call,” Mr Ward said.

“If this proposal was off the coast of Mosman it would have been dead on arrival. But this junk is okay for our region?” he said.

On the tour: photo credit Region Illawarra

Andrew Constance, Liberal party contender for the seat of Gilmore said, “The overnight news that Minister Bowen has approved 300 plus floating wind turbines off our stunning coastline is

devastating and sad.”

“The South Coast will change forever with 260 metre high floating wind turbines. This is a calamity. This is the first floating wind farm anywhere in the world in a whale migration path. I want our

children to see the whales from our headlands and beaches,” Mr Constance said.

“The Minister has dismissed the concerns raised by thousands of community members, environmental organisations, local commercial fishers and tourism operators. You cannot destroy a

marine ecosystem to save it,” said a Responsible Future media release.

Bowen said disinformation had been peddled by opponents of the ocean wind farms.

He dismissed the claims that he had ignored thousands of submissions from Illawarra residents and said if people were against action on climate change, they would be against wind farms.

“I follow both pro and anti-groups,” he said. “I understand that not everyone is going to be happy. Peter Dutton didn’t care about whales when he was in office. Now he is like the rainbow warrior.”