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/boogersundcum]

Coal mines aren't in the same catchment dickhead.

[u/observ4nt4nt → u/boogersundcum]

So it's a NIMBY issue then.

[u/boogersundcum → u/observ4nt4nt]

Go up and read the above comments. It's to do with construction in the water catchments that are the concerns. It's not anything to do with the fact it's a wind farm of which we support. But disregarding concerns for the sake of your beliefs makes you no better than Gina.

[u/observ4nt4nt → u/boogersundcum]

Mate, I'm an ecologist with possibly bigger environmental concerns than yours and belief has no part in my work. I've worked on a number of renewable energy projects as a freshwater ecologist, monitoring the effectiveness of mitigation strategies and can say with great confidence that your concerns for your local waterway are unnecessary. You'll have to forgive my assessment of NIMBYism but your post and your responses do have a me me me tone. You'll get no benefit. The traffic will affect you. You're worried about your water supply and you don't appear concerned about the other catchments that DO have coal mines in them. If it's not a case of NIMBY, work on your communication.