PASIN WELCOMES COALITION COMMITMENT TO RESCIND WINDZONE

PASIN WELCOMES COALITION COMMITMENT TO RESCIND WINDZONE

I wholeheartedly welcome the commitment announced yesterday that an elected Coalition Government will rescind the Southern Ocean Offshore Wind Zone.

From Port MacDonnell to Warnambool, recreational and professional fishers, tourism operators, community groups, small business owners, and residents have all rejected the proposal for offshore wind development in the Southern Ocean region.

While the area off the coast of South Australia was removed from the Southern Ocean Zone last year in a win for the local community, our neighbours across the border have continued to fight against this development for fear of irreversible damage to their local coastal waterways.

The impacts on the whale migration highway, migratory seabirds, fishing and tourism industries would be far reaching and as such I celebrate the Coalition commitment to rescind the Southern Ocean Offshore Wind Zone not only for those in these Victorian communities but also for the flow on effects for communities in SA that will inevitably be impacted if the proposal was to proceed.

The Albanese Labor Government's ideological crusade to establish renewable energy projects across the country is being met by opposition from rural, regional and coastal communities across the country. Helping the Victorian State Government to meet its ambitious emissions reductions targets may help Labor win inner-city Melbourne seats but it would be doing so at the expense of small coastal communities who want to be heard.

I commend the Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton and Member for Wannon Dan Tehan for listening.