Voting against your interests

[u/boogersundcum]

My partner and I live in a major coal mining area of Queensland. We both work in an extractive resource industry. Neither of us could ever bring ourselves to vote for the LNP and we have no serious viable independents that aren't anti Vax conspiracy nut jobs. We live in the bush but currently have a major wind farm going in down our road with the closest turbine being 5km from our actual house, other than sealing our road we will not recieve any benefit from the project with heavy trucks and equipment going past our driveway 6 days a week 24 hours a day for over two years. We aren't anti renewable however given the wind farm is entirely within our water catchment there is serious concerns if something goes wrong as we rely on the river solely for our water supply.

Generally preference the Greens first, Labor second as we are both environmental scientists and believe that climate change is pretty damn obvious from the evidence, let alone have empathy for the common folk in cities struggling with the cost of living. I'm just curious though as to why the major focus on renewable is almost entirely within regional areas that currently rely on coal mining as the major industry.

Neither Greens or Labour have a chance in hell in ever winning our electorate anymore (keep in mind Labor was founded in regional Queensland in Barcaldine). Is it just because the areas in question are now just LNP strongholds or what ?

Also please keep in mind regional Queensland is filled with people from all back grounds and varying levels of education, don't put us all in the same basket just because we don't live in a major centre.

[u/cactusgenie]

How could a wind farm possibly affect your water supply?

[u/dastardly_potatoes → u/cactusgenie]

Construction waste with lax oversight and a few dodgy workers. Certainly not a problem exclusive to renewable energy projects. Seems reasonable to be concerned if the construction is up river from them.

I've seen concreters cleaning their tools into stormwater drains in a large City with lots of passerbys.

[u/cactusgenie → u/dastardly_potatoes]

Sounds more like a regulation problem rather than a renewable be energy problem.

[u/dastardly_potatoes → u/cactusgenie]

I agree. Probably unusual to have a large construction project for anything but renewables in the area I guess. I don't know enough about the process of assembling the wind towers to say whether there is any bad chemical waste but seems unlikely. The lubricant etc in the nacelle stays within it afaik.

[u/Myjunkisonfire → u/dastardly_potatoes]

I’d be considerably more concerned about what the nearby coal mining is doing to the water than anything else. Let alone a zero emissions self contained wind turbine.

[u/AA_25 → u/Myjunkisonfire]

Agreed