STT’s Australian of the Year Awards

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Australians are a weird mob – as that, somewhat historically inaccurate, mash up demonstrates.

“Cooky” was, of course, a Yorkshireman; and, strictly speaking, Burke, of Burke and Wills fame, was an Irish born solider and policeman. Ned Kelly, the only gluten intolerant bushranger in history – born in Victoria, to an Irish convict father – is unlikely to have been equipped with a Dubliner’s lilt.

But, quibbles aside, the video otherwise hits the bull’s-eye: 26 January is the day when Australians hit the beach, haul-out the barbie and wash down paddocks full (or, rather emptied) of Aussie lamb, with frosty cold beverages. Mmmmm

Australians, on the whole, are slow to anger, but quick to jump in to a stoush when the bullies of the world start throwing their weight around.

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And, on Australia Day, the country turns to reflect on the achievements of those who fight with honour and courage, in a whole range of human endeavours, for the betterment of our collective lot.

In Australia, the fight to bring the great wind power fraud to a shuddering halt is being won: the wind industry is on its knees, investment is at a standstill and the financial collapse of wind power outfits – like the near-bankrupt Infigen – is a case of when not if.

The talk has turned from consideration of the wind industry’s “future”, to the timing of its inevitable demise.

But that switch in fortune has come thanks to the blood sweat and tears of hundreds of well-informed and dedicated individuals around this country.

As with any public gong, it’s impossible to mention them all, so we’ll stick to those who STT thinks have made outstanding contributions in their respective fields.

Following the style of Australia’s national daily, The Australian, STT throws up the following nominees as “STT’s Australians of the Year”.

It’s not necessarily a beauty contest, so feel free to vote according to your heads and not your hearts. And, because our little list is obviously cursory and incomplete, you have absolute liberty to nominate and vote for all of those unsung heroes in your communities who have made the kind of contributions that are worthy of recognition and praise.

And the categories and nominees are:

Tireless Community Defenders

With this award, STT hopes to recognise the tireless and dedicated work of the people who have rallied to promote the interests of farmers and rural communities around the Country.

Where the wind industry and its parasites attack these people as “anti-wind” (a strange and meaningless epithet, if ever there was one – STT thinks it impossible to find a human being with antipathy towards a gentle summer’s breeze) – STT says the proper characterisation is of a group of people who are positively fearless in advocating in favour of sensible energy policy and, therefore, are better described as “pro-Australian”, “pro-farming” and “pro-community” leaders and advocates.

Mary Morris

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Mary hails from Buchanan (near Eudunda) in South Australia, which is nestled on the eastern side of the range where Energy Australia speared a phalanx of Vestas V90s into Waterloo, back in 2010. The results have been an unmitigated disaster.

Since then, Mary – a former science teacher, now farmer and mother – has dedicated thousands of hours of her time to harry and shame the South Australian government and its rotten little EPA into action.

But for Mary’s tireless efforts and dogged pursuit of the truth, the EPA would have simply continued to run cover for its wind industry mates; and done nothing.

Mary went on to assist and organise the work done by Steven Cooper, and Prof Colin Hansen and his team from the University of Adelaide, which proved – contrary to the bogus claims made by SA’s bumbling and incompetent EPA – that infrasound is very much a feature of modern wind farms; and that it has direct adverse health impacts on neighbours, including sleep deprivation.

Here’s a little list of Mary’s efforts:

• Mary Morris – On the Warpath 2 December 2013
• Mary Morris – STT Champion of Champions 25 November 2013
• “Unscheduled” Wind Farm Shut-Down Shows Low-Frequency Noise Impact at Waterloo, SA 12 January 2015
• A letter to the Environment Protection Authority, South Australia 4 February 2013
• Mary Morris at the Wind Power Fraud Rally 18 June 2013/ 4 July 2013

Annie Gardner

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Annie hails from Macarthur in western Victoria, another unmitigated public health disaster, where AGL speared 140 Vestas V112s into some of the most productive grazing country in Australia.

From the moment AGL cooked up its plans for wanton and pointless community destruction, Annie was on the case.

Since the turbines kicked into gear in October 2012 – the first 30 fired up then and the balance were roaring and thumping by February 2013 – and started ruining the ability of dozens of families in her community to sleep in, use and otherwise enjoy their own homes, Annie has been a fearless warrior.

Constantly challenging and attacking the lies, deception and malfeasance of the local Council (see our post here); hassling and harrying those with political responsibility further up the food chain (see our post here); and getting that message made public through local and national media outlets (see our post here) puts Annie in the parade ring as an STT Champion of Champions.

Here’s some more on Annie’s sterling efforts:

•  AGL Cops Both Barrels from Annie Gardner 18 January 2014
• Anne Gardner at the Wind Power Fraud Rally 18 June 2013/ 6 July 2014
• ‘Anne Gardner is a very great Australian. Australia will be indebted to people like you.’ 13 April 2013

Keith Staff

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Keith hails from Penshurst in western Victoria, where RES has plans to spear a couple of hundred blade-chucking, pyrotechnic devices into the territory just north of Macarthur.

A British Bulldog, Keith is fairly described as “dogged”, in his pursuit of the truth about the great wind power fraud – and in his efforts to expose it.

Keith’s email contact list can only be described as “awesome” – and he uses it to great effect, bombarding our political betters and journalists with every “inconvenient” fact that scuttles the endlessly repeated lies, upon which the great wind power fraud depends.

Patina Schneider

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Patina Schneider is New South Wales’ answer to the Celtic warrior queen, Boadicea.

Patina is the brains and muscle behind the Australian Industrial Wind Turbine Awareness Network – a group dedicated to smashing the wind industry and exposing the corruption that it exploits to its advantage.

And Patina has given near-bankrupt wind power outfit, Infigen no end of grief in relation to its proposal to destroy Flyers Creek (see our post here).

Patina has been relentless in her efforts to smash into institutional corruption at every level of government: belting into the New South Wales Planning Department, exposing the rotten eggs within it; turning a blowtorch on the NHMRC, and the fact that it has been infiltrated and co-opted by wind industry advocates, such as – Liz Hanna – from Drs for wind turbines, among others (for a taste, see this effort here).

Expect to hear a whole lot more from Patina and her band of warriors as the Senate Inquiry revs into gear next month.

For Contributions to Science and Public Health

Professor Colin Hansen

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Professor Colin Hansen is one of nature’s true gentleman; and Australia’s leading academic authority on noise and vibration.

Colin’s work on identifying the precise nature of the noise generated by industrial wind turbines, and its relationship to the health impacts suffered by neighbours, has been going on quietly in the background for almost 6 years now.

Careful, considered and precise describes the manner of Colin’s approach to the work and the output of that work.

In the finest academic tradition, Colin – who is ostensibly ‘retired’ – is in the process of passing his intellectual baton to a team of others, with the capacity to build on his grand body of work.

That team includes his daughter, Kristy and her partner, Branko Zajamšek – who put together a very solid piece of research at Waterloo in SA (see our post here). A body of work that came together with more than just a little help from Mary Morris.

Here’s a tiny taste of Colin’s contribution to science and public health:

• Prof Colin Hansen hammers SA EPA’s Waterloo Noise-Wash 12 February 2014
• Prof Hansen slams Public Health Authority Australia as misleading and deceptive 17 March 2014
• Prof Hansen: 11 good reasons why EPA noise guidelines are rubbish 10 March 2014

Steven Cooper

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Quiet and methodical, Steven Cooper is the acoustican’s acoustician. He’s never had an axe to grind with the wind industry. Instead, he is motivated by the ethical responsibilities that are attached to acousticians, requiring them to put public health and safety first and foremost.

It’s his level of integrity, and dedication to scientific investigation, that led to the groundbreaking study carried out at Pacific Hydro’s Cape Bridgewater disaster last year. The publication of that study last week has seen the wind industry and its parasites in apoplexy. Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

In truth, the work is simply an extension of the obligation of acoustic engineers to protect public health.

Steven Cooper has spent hundreds of hours of his own time (unpaid) investigating the precise cause of the hundreds of complaints that emanate from wind farm neighbours: both in deference to his ethical responsibilities; and in the noble pursuit of science.

Here’s a wrap up of Steven’s most recent efforts:

• Pacific Hydro’s “Monumental Own Goal”: Or How Steven Cooper’s Wind Farm Study Helps Sink the Wind Industry 24 January 2015
• Steven Cooper’s Cape Bridgewater Wind Farm Study the Beginning of the End for the Wind Industry 23 January 2015
• Pac Hydro’s Cape Bridgewater Wind Farm Victims to Be Told What They Already Know: Turbine Noise Has Ruined Their Lives 13 January 2015

Dr Sarah Laurie

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Where to start.

Fortitude, resilience, stoicism, fearlessness, and an overall desire to let right be done: terms that only begin to capture the essence of a remarkable women.

Set upon by the attack dogs that help run media and political interference for the wind industry, Sarah has been subjected to more than her fair share of utterly unwarranted, vilification and abuse.

Notwithstanding the virulence and relentlessness of their attacks, Sarah continues to press those that govern us to get on and do the research into the known and obvious adverse health impacts caused by turbine generated low-frequency noise and infrasound.

Properly vindicated in her efforts to date by Steven Cooper’s work at Cape Bridgewater, STT fully expects that Sarah’s efforts will be fully recognised in the halls of power; starting with the Senate Inquiry, which kicks off next month.

Here’s a roundup of some of Sarah’s efforts:

• Dr Sarah Laurie on Alan Jones – it’s Royal Commission time 16 December 2013
• Alan Jones & Sarah Laurie go on the attack 29 November 2013
• Sarah Laurie on Alan Jone’s Show 16 November 2013

For Contributions to Political Reform

John Madigan

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For Victorian Senator, John Madigan “justice” and “right” are not just fancy concepts to chatter about – they are the pillars of decent, civil society.

With an unparalleled tenacity, John Madigan has badgered and embarrassed his political peers into action on a whole range of issues arising from the great wind power fraud. His efforts to root out corruption and fraud amongst authorities and agencies like the Clean Energy Regulator, the NHMRC, State Planning Departments and local councils is the stuff of legend.

Dogged and determined, STT fully expects a standout effort during the Senate Inquiry (John will take the Chair).

Here’s a sample of the Senator’s character and of the contributions made to his Country:

• The Tangled Web: John Madigan Exposes the Greens as a Paid-Up Wind Industry Front 11 July 2014
• Senator John Madigan Skewers Simon Chapman 19 June 2014
• John Madigan at the Wind Power Fraud Rally 18 June 2013/ 3 July 2013

Nick Xenophon

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South Australia’s favourite Greek, Senator Nick Xenophon has rallied behind South Australian communities set upon by wind power outfits from the very beginning.

Nick gets it.

Challenging the great wind power fraud on the economic level (see our post here); and pressing for legislative change that would result in better protection for wind farm neighbours from wind farm noise (see our post here), Nick is driven by an overriding sense for decency and fair play.

The wind industry unleashed its attack dogs on Nick, some time ago, in an effort to silence him and shut him down. However, it’s a strategy that makes evident that these intellectual ‘giants’ don’t know him very well: Nick, true to form, simply dug in and went on the counter-attack.

Nick, is 1 of the 8 crossbench Senators that holds the balance of power; and, as wily political operators do, has been quietly working in the background to engineer an energy policy that would exclude insanely expensive, intermittent and unreliable wind power, in favour of “on-demand renewables”, such as geothermal.

Angus Taylor

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Angus “the Enforcer” Taylor has been smashing into the great wind power fraud, even before he was elected in a landslide to the New South Wales seat of Hume in September 2013.

Angus, a Rhodes scholar in economics and law, has been on the front foot ever since.

With an encyclopaedic knowledge of the facts and numbers that demonstrate what a colossal economic debacle the Large-Scale Renewable Energy Target is, Angus has used every opportunity to educate his political peers, as well as the media, on the greatest rort of all time; or what Angus calls “corporate welfare on steroids”.

“Method” and “insight” best describe Angus’ approach to unwinding the great wind power fraud and, thereby, setting Australia up with an energy policy that works for us, and not against us.

Here’s a little catalogue of the Enforcer’s relentless work:

• The Wind Industry’s Worst Nightmare – Angus Taylor – says: time to kill the LRET 15 September 2014
• Angus Taylor: Coalition set to kill the wind industry, while supporting rooftop solar 6 September 2014
• Angus Taylor: Community Backlash Brewing Over ACT Wind Farm Plan 5 August 2014
• Angus Taylor Joins the Wind Farm Rumble to Save Rugby & Rye Park 6 July 2014
• Kelly O’Dwyer & Angus Taylor Join in a Wreck the RET Duet 24 June 2014
• Angus Taylor: ACT fan plan Corporate Welfare on steroids 6 April 2014
• Angus Taylor: Infigen’s backdoor deal with ACT will triple power prices in Canberra 16 March 2014
• Angus Taylor at the Wind Power Fraud Rally 18 June 2013/1 July 2013

David Leyonhjelm

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New South Wales Senator, David Leyonhjelm is another of the 8 cross-bench Senators with the power and, thankfully, the desire to put an end to the great wind power fraud.

David doesn’t hide his light under a bushel – going on the front foot numerous times last year in an effort to educate and inform Australians about the nature, scale and scope of the greatest rort of all time.

David will sit on the Senate Inquiry – the existence of which is due in no small part to his powers of influence and persuasion – so expect to hear much more from David in the coming months.

Here’s a little of David’s recent efforts:

• Alan Jones interviews David Leyonhjelm on the Senate’s Inquiry Into the Great Wind Power Fraud & Cross-Bench LRET Plan 4 December 2014
• Senator David Leyonhjelm on Australia’s Energy Future 21 September 2014
• Senator David Leyonhjelm: “Wake Up Clive!” – It’s Time to Kill the RET & Save the Poor 28 August 2014

For Excellence in (Proper) Journalism

Alan Jones AO

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To say that 2GB’s Alan Jones has taken an “interest” in the great wind power fraud, its causes and consequences, and the victims thereof is a monumental understatement.

From his appearance as the MC at the great wind power fraud rally in June 2013 (see our post here) and ever since, Alan has been very much the ‘voice’ of the people.

And when we say people, we mean hard-working, law-abiding, taxpaying, fair-minded, community focused people of the kind that make this Country worth celebrating, at all. People like Mary Morris, David Mortimer and Annie Gardner, for example.

But for Alan’s efforts, these people would largely be voiceless. However, thanks to them, these voices are heard by some 2 million listeners, loud and clear, via 77 stations around the country. And, more important still, Alan Jones commands the ears and attentions of our political betters, like no other radio broadcaster.

Here are a few examples of what we mean:

• Alan Jones: Victims – Like Turbine Host David Mortimer – Vindicated by Steven Cooper’s Groundbreaking Wind Farm Study 25 January 2015
• Alan Jones interviews David Leyonhjelm on the Senate’s Inquiry Into the Great Wind Power Fraud & Cross-Bench LRET Plan 4 December 2014
• Wind Turbine Noise a “Hazard to Human Health”: Alan Jones interviews Dr Jay Tibbetts 18 November 2014
• Exposing wind industry “vampires”: Alan Jones and James Delingpole 6 June 2014
• Alan Jones interviews Professor Alec Salt on turbine noise impacts 14 April 2014
• Chris Back meets Alan Jones & Graham Richardson on Sky News 11 April 2014
• Melissa Ware: a heartfelt “thank you” to Chris Back, Alan Jones & Graham Richardson 15 April 2014

Graham Lloyd

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Graham Lloyd is The Australian’s Environmental Editor and, among his journalistic peers who claim that tag, is unique. Where Graham differs, is that he lives up to the ethical responsibilities, which were once central to journalism as a profession: he equips himself with the facts.

Instead of simply parroting the endless stream of press releases pitched up by the wind industry and its parasites, Graham does what good journalists do: wherever there is a big story to be told, he pulls on a pair of dusty or muddy boots and hits the ground in order to get a proper grip on precisely what is going on.

Graham’s investigation into the lies pitched up by the wind industry, about the community division it has caused, and the adverse health impacts suffered by neighbours, began in earnest back in April 2012 at Waterloo, in SA.

Graham lobbed into that productive (and once happy) little agricultural community and set about doing what journalists once did as a matter of course: he stayed with, and spoke to, the subjects of his investigations; and told their stories (see our post here).

It used to be called “journalism”. STT still calls it journalism.

It was Graham Lloyd that broke the news to the world of Steven Cooper’s groundbreaking study at Cape Bridgewater.

For his proper journalistic endeavours there, Graham has been attacked by the eco-fascist cheer squad, the wind industry and its parasites. However, true to his professional responsibilities (and, dare we say it, character), Graham hasn’t backed down. Instead, he has gone on with more articles aimed at doing what journalists are meant to do: exposing the truth (see our post here).

And here’s some more examples what real journalists do:

• Steven Cooper’s Cape Bridgewater Wind Farm Study the Beginning of the End for the Wind Industry 23 January 2015
• Bird Carcass Count proves AGL’s Macarthur Wind Farm is an Avian Slaughterhouse 22 September 2014
• Pac Hydro’s Cape Bridgewater Wind Farm Victims Vindicated 6 August 2014
• More Australian Wind Power “FAILS” 4 August 2014
• Some facts that wind weasels would have rather kept buried 17 July 2013

So, as you tuck into your lamb chops, we think it only fitting to spare a thought about the efforts outlined above. Australia is all the better for people like these and the contributions that they make.

Happy Australia Day!