Senator Bob Day June 24, 2015 South Australia

By Senator Bob Day

Family First Senator for South Australia Bob Day marked the end of the contentious Renewable Energy Target (RET) debate by welcoming new government commitments on wind turbines: “For a long time Family First has been receiving complaints about wind turbines. When I was elected to the Senate in 2013 it became apparent that something needed to be done about this, so together with a number of Senate crossbenchers, I moved to establish a Senate inquiry. I have been deputy chair of this inquiry which has held hearings all over Australia,” he said.

“In at least fifteen (15) countries around the world, people from all walks of life have come forward complaining about the health impacts of wind turbines – nausea, blurred vision, vertigo, tachycardia, high blood pressure, ear pressure, tinnitus, headache, exacerbated migraine disorders, sleep deprivation, motion sensitivity and inner ear damage. Many of these people initially welcomed turbines into their area. It has been found that the principal cause of these symptoms is ‘infrasound’ or low frequency noise which is emitted by wind turbines. People living up to 10 kilometres from turbines have been affected. Acoustics experts, biologists, engineers, farmers, doctors, nurses, sleep experts, pharmacists and others have all come forward from throughout Australia and the world testifying about the impact that wind turbines have had on people’s lives. Only now are non-English speaking countries finding voice about the impact of turbines in their backyards. Yet the wind turbine industry and its environmental supporters all claim this is either a conspiracy driven by anti-wind activists or it’s all psychological and have at times treated these victims in an offensive, dismissive and uncompassionate fashion. To add insult to injury, wind turbines have had negative impacts on property values, have driven up power prices, compromised local shire councils and divided what were once friendly & harmonious communities.”

“After receiving evidence from well over 500 people all over the nation so far, the inquiry tabled an interim report which made several recommendations. Key among these were to:

1. Improve scientific knowledge about the health impacts of wind turbines;
2. Appoint a wind farm commissioner to provide independent assistance with complaints about wind turbines; and
3. Ensure the government finance corporation responsible for funding renewable energy will stick to its charter of supporting new technologies rather than established technology like wind.

These measures put the brakes on the out-of-control wind turbine juggernaut so, at last, some oversight, scrutiny and accountability can be imposed on this damaging mass-scale energy experiment.”

“South Australians have been asking for these reforms on wind turbines. I have been endeavoured to secure them.”

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