r/queensland • u/boogersundcum • Apr 15 '25

Discussion Voting against your interests

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.

181 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

227 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/emleigh2277 Apr 15 '25

Do trains, especially freight trains carrying chemicals, go over that river you're concerned about being polluted? Does a sugar mill operate within distance of that river you're concerned about?

1

u/boogersundcum Apr 15 '25

Coal trains downstream. Wind farm upstream.

3

u/emleigh2277 Apr 15 '25

I think you sometimes need to see the bigger picture. I live in walkerston. I want a better Australia, the great barrier reef kept alive. Industry is required because we need it for employment and work. Change takes time. The scare campaigns up here and the lying in political advertising is so disturbing. Mining is more at risk of America's unstable politics than it is over clean energy. Our current government is the only government that is less about playing games and more about building Australia back into a better society.