Pages tagged "media release"
ALP commitments step in right direction
ALP policy to fix Victoria’s wind farm laws good for farmers and small businesses but could go further
The Australian Wind Alliance today welcomed the ALP’s commitment to fix parts of the Victorian wind farm planning laws that have held back critical regional development but called for changes to go further.
“These changes will go a long way towards putting Victoria back into the business of building wind farms,” said Andrew Bray, National Coordinator of the Australian Wind Alliance.
“The government’s anti-wind farm laws shut down the pipeline for new wind projects in Victoria and deprived regional communities of much-needed economic opportunities.
“Farmers and local businesses can now breathe a sigh of relief that new investment might be just around the corner.
Read moreLabor needs to help Australia aim higher on RET
Andrew Bray from the Australian Wind Alliance has said today that he's disappointed Labor is willing to compromise on aspects on the renewable energy target, as reported in the Australian Financial Review today.
Mr Bray, the spokesman for the Wind Alliance said while it was welcome that Mr Shorten was calling for the publicly ridiculed Warburton Review to be scrapped and maintaining the position for small scale renewables, pushing the target out for large scale renewables was an unnecessary concession that would cost jobs.
Labor does not need to back down from the existing target. The government's own modelling showed that keeping the current target delivered the best result for the consumer.
Labor needs to be saying to Australians we can have more renewable energy, to clean up our power supply and reduce our cost of living.
Renewable energy review ignores regional jobs
The Victorian Wind Alliance today expressed disappointment that the government’s review into renewable energy will give no consideration to the most important impacts of renewable energy in country Victoria – jobs and investment.
The Call for Submissions released yesterday by the Renewable Energy Target Review panel restricts its scope to questions of cost and efficiency and makes no mention of jobs and investment in regional Australia.
“The Renewable Energy Target has delivered $18 billion of new investment since 2001 and a huge proportion of this has been in rural and regional Australia,” said Andrew Bray, State Coordinator, Victorian Wind Alliance.
“Jobs and regional investment have never been more crucial and country Australia will be looking to the government not to go backwards in its support for renewable energy jobs.
Read moreWaubra community starts new chapter, reclaims town’s name
The community of the small farming town of Waubra in Western Victoria took an important step forward today and sent off a petition with 316 signatures to the anti-wind campaigning organisation, the Waubra Foundation, asking them to leave the town's name alone.
"We are very pleased to have a wind farm in our town and claims that the Waubra Foundation make about ill health don’t ring true for the vast majority of our community,” said Karen Molloy, wind turbine host and spokesperson for the group of 10 residents who collected the petition.
"For us the wind farm has meant valuable income onto our farms and into our community. For at least one of our farmers it’s been the difference between staying on the land and going under.
"The wind farm has brought new energy and support to our sporting clubs and community organisations, even the school and kinder.
"Waubra is a proud farming community, not a disease.
"We are calling on the directors of this organisation to respect the good name of our town and remove it from their organisation’s title.
Read moreWaubra community demands apology
The Victorian Wind Alliance has called on the Waubra Foundation to immediately change its name to avoid further denigration of an entire community by associating them with a disease that does not exist.
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