“This Will Not Blow Over” read one of the makeshift placards at an anti-wind farm rally over the weekend. And so it is proving to be. 

Some 400 diehard opponents gathered in cold, windy conditions to hear a string of high profile speakers, including former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, outspoken free speech advocate and former Liberal Party member Craig Kelly, Shadow Minister for Climate Change Ted O’Brien, Shellharbour Deputy Mayor Kellie Marsh, contender for Wollongong Mayor at the upcoming elections Councillor John Dorahy and Liberal contender for the Federal seat of Gilmour Andrew Constance. 

In his typically robust manner Barnaby Joyce managed to attract controversy over his language and blunt derision of wind farms, saying it was all about billionaires turning themselves into multi-billionaires. “Get rid of the wind turds,” he told the crowd. “The reason I’m down here is because I’ve been fighting these swindle factories. When you get to the top of Bulli Pass, you’ll look down and see all the wind turds… Look at them all just rotting out there in the salt water.”

“Barnaby goes Berko” screamed the front page of the Illawarra Mercury the next day, while ABC RN Breakfast posed the question about his language to Sussan Ley, Deputy leader of the Liberal party, on radio.  This included Barnaby using the phrases “the bullet you have is that little piece of paper and it goes in the magazine called the voting box and it’s coming up.  Get ready to load that magazine…go - goodbye Chris … goodbye Albo.”

Ley declared “it’s not language I would have used but Barnaby as we know does use colourful language… when it comes to promoting social cohesion everyone in their language and words should be lifting the debate to what brings people together not what pushes people apart .” 

Behind the scenes Barnaby’s former political staffer and now wife Vikki Campion expressed a kind of affectionate frustration at his use of crude language. “I told him not to,” she told The Bugle. 

In an interview Barnaby told The Bugle: “It’s very important for the whole nation that we understand this is a swindle. We are being ripped off. These are not farms, these are factories. They are not renewable. They will be landfill. They are just going to put a dog turd in your ocean and just leave it there. The only thing you have to understand, just turn up in Canberra. Get numbers. Create a ruckus. Fight for change.”

The Federal government officially declared the Illawarra Offshore Wind Zone in February of last year, with the government’s so-called community consultations igniting significant protest up and down the South Coast. 

Protestors have claimed they were never properly consulted, the community information sessions held between September and October last year were pro forma only and the government ignored not just the community protest meetings that were held, but the thousands of hostile submissions from concerned residents. The controversy continues with the establishment of a Senate Inquiry into the wind farm consultation process in the Illawarra led by Nationals Senator Ross Cardell. 

In June, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen visited the Illawarra and declared an amendment to the Illawarra Offshore Wind Zone so that wind turbines will now be located 20 kilometres off the coast and encompass a reduced 1022 square kilometres. He claimed the decision followed “extensive community consultation with local leaders, industry, unions, First Nations people, community groups and individuals”.

Barnaby Joyce tops a string of Opposition leaders to visit the Illawarra over the last two months, including head of the Nationals David Littleproud, Opposition leader Peter Dutton and Deputy Opposition leader Sussan Ley.

Other speakers to address the rally included former Wollongong Deputy Mayor John Dorahy who said: “I am dead set against wind turbine farms off our coast. Greater Wollongong is the most beautiful place to live, work and play, our mountains are majestic, our beaches pristine. 

We won’t be muzzled. We have to stand up and say to any of the local Labor politicians we do not agree with their position.”

Councillor Dorahy said the “wall of turbines” would be seen from Kiama to Cronulla. “The cost will be horrific,” he said. “The cost to build, install, maintain, replace and ultimately remove them, it is costly, it is complex and that cost will come down to you.”

Shellharbour Deputy Mayor Kelli Marsh said: “This has stirred much anger in the community. The environmental impact of offshore wind farms cannot be overstated. We cannot imagine the impact on our delicate ecosystems.”

Federal Opposition Climate Change Minister Ted O’Brien told the crowd that to the Labor Party the residents of the Illawarra were just “guinea pigs" they were prepared to steamroll to achieve climate targets. 

“To the Coalition you are a community which deserves respect,” he said. “You are the frontline. Australia is being taken in the wrong direction. The days of cheaper electricity are gone under this government. You were ‘consulted’ under a broken community engagement system. This is a reckless indifference being shown to the local community. Under a Coalition government this project will not proceed.”