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Dr Sarah Laurie has been the voice for rural communities set upon by the wind industry. For over 5 years, she has been advocating for an Australian ‘fair go’ for people trying to get a decent night’s sleep in their own homes; and, to that end, has relentlessly sought to get relevant, meaningful and enforceable noise standards drawn up to cover all industrial noise sources, including wind turbines:
Senate Wind Farm Inquiry – Dr Sarah Laurie says: “Kill the Noise & give Neighbours a Fair Go”
Fortitude, resilience, stoicism, fearlessness, and an overall desire to let right be done: terms that only begin to capture the essence of a remarkable woman.
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. And the lion’s share of that has been generated, or orchestrated, by a former tobacco advertising guru and his mate, Vestas front man, Ken McAlpine.
The guru, along with fellow wind power propagandists, McAlpine, Infigen’s Ketan Joshi and the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hannam sent Tweets to their band of intellectually challenged followers, asserting that Dr Laurie had been “deregistered”; implying that she had engaged in professional misconduct, causing the Medical Board to chop her registration.
For no apparent reason – save malice – Joshi and Hannam sent the malicious Tweet (first sent by McAlpine) around once more during the guru’s hand-trembling appearance before the Senate Inquiry. In a “we’re not going to take it any more” move, in response, Sarah Laurie sent in her legal team, who ultimately forced the lot of them to banquet on a very generous helping of humble pie.
Sarah’s first slimy-scalp was none other than the guru, and it’s no small pleasure for STT to pop up his mea culpa, once again:
CORRECTION & APOLOGY FROM PROFESSOR SIMON CHAPMAN TO SARAH LAURIE
I am a Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney.
On 20 March 2014, I retweeted the following tweet concerning Sarah Laurie:
NOT DROWNING, RANTING: Deregistered “Dr” Sarah Laurie doesn’t like the medicine dished up by @ama_media Waubrafoundation.org.au/resources/open”
My tweet implied that Ms Laurie had given cause to the Medical Board of Australia to deregister her as a medical practitioner, on account of unprofessional conduct: that she is not entitled to use the title “Dr”; and that she does so in contravention of the laws that govern the conduct of medical practitioners.
These allegations were implied without foundation and are entirely false.
Ms Laurie is not deregistered and has never been sanctioned by the Medical Board of Australia. Sarah Laurie allowed her registration as a medical practitioner to lapse for personal reasons; and accordingly, does not currently practice.
I sincerely apologise to Sarah Laurie for the harm, embarrassment and distress caused by my allegations, which I unreservedly retract.
Professor Simon Chapman
University of Sydney
NSW
Sarah’s next back-down was wrung out of Vesta’s McAlpine.
McAlpine’s fitting apology exposed a long-running campaign to discredit Dr Laurie, who has spoken out for residents affected by noise from wind turbines and other industrial sources through the Waubra Foundation.
What Sarah said about the guru’s personal attacks on her professional integrity apply with equal force to McAlpine, Ketan Joshi and Peter Hannam – as “just [another] example of a broader strategy employed by the wind industry to denigrate, marginalise and, therefore, exclude from public and political discourse anyone sincerely investigating a worldwide public health issue”.
With the respect and admiration STT holds for Sarah, it would be rude not to run McAlpine’s apology, at least once more:
CORRECTION AND APOLOGY FROM KEN MCALPINE TO SARAH LAURIE
I am a consultant Special Advisor to Vestas Australian Wind Technology Pty Ltd. On 19 March 2014, I uploaded the following allegations on Twitter concerning Sarah Laurie:
NOT DROWNING, RANTING: Deregistered “Dr” Sarah Laurie doesn’t like the medicine dished up by @ama_media: waubrafoundaton.org.au/resources/open
At the time that I uploaded the Tweet, I was employed by Vestas Australian Wind Technology Pty Ltd. The thrust of my allegations is that Sarah Laurie had given cause to the Medical Board of Australia to deregister her as a medical practitioner, on account of unprofessional conduct and that Sarah Laurie is not entitled to use the title “Dr”.
These allegations were made without foundation and are entirely false.
Laurie is not deregistered and has never been sanctioned by the Medical Board of Australia.
I understand that Sarah Laurie allowed her registration as a medical practitioner to lapse for personal reasons; and, accordingly, does not currently practice as such. By reason of her academic qualifications, Sarah Laurie is entitled to use the title “Dr”. I sincerely apologise to Sarah Laurie for the harm, embarrassment and distress caused by my allegations, which I unreservedly retract.
Ken McAlpine
Special Advisor, Public Affairs,
Vestas Australian Wind Technology Pty Ltd
Next on the list of wind industry backed liars was the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hannam. Hannam has been an overweening mealy-mouthpiece for wind industry propaganda from the get-go. His articles drool for the these things; and are drenched in fairy-tale fantasy: Hannam, if not posing as a ‘journalist’, could be forgiven for simply being infantile and gullible; but Sarah wasn’t about to let him off the hook for repeating his buddies’ and benefactor’s lies. Hannam, too was forced to withdraw his calumny; and apologise for the harm caused. Here’s scalp number three:
APOLOGY TO DR SARAH LAURIE
On June 29 I retweeted a tweet concerning Dr Sarah Laurie that was the subject of questioning by Senator Xenophon at a Senate inquiry into the health effects of wind farms. In doing so, I did not intend to convey any suggestion in the original tweet that Dr Laurie was not a doctor nor that she had been deregistered. If any readers interpreted my retweet in that way, I withdraw any such suggestions and apologise to Dr Laurie for any embarrassment caused.
Peter Hannam
Sydney Morning Herald
Gee, that must have hurt!
But Sarah wasn’t content to let it rest there.
Oh no, the good Doctor was also after Infigen’s top propaganda parrot, the insipid Ketan Joshi.
Joshi parades as the fountain of all knowledge, when it comes to espousing the ‘wonders’ of wind power; ‘properly’ paid to do so, of course (for a giggle, why not check his ‘ode to wind’ website). But, in truth, is just another vacuous ninny, who apparently amuses himself (as most walking jokes tend to do) with an endless stream of inanities on Twitter.
Although he did manage to amuse STT with his ‘submission’ to the Senate’s wind farm Inquiry, which was a moaning missive, entirely dedicated to STT. Apparently, Joshi hasn’t twigged to the fact that Australians have no time for whingers (you’ll need to Google it, Ketan). And Sarah Laurie, quite rightly, has no time for nasty little liars, like Joshi. Here’s scalp number four:
Clarification from Ketan Joshi to Sarah Laurie
I am a Research and Communications Officer employed by Infigen Energy, which operates wind farms in Australia.
On 29 June 2015, in the context of a series of tweets describing the proceedings of a public hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Wind Turbines, I published the following tweet:
In the interests of avoiding confusion, I would like to re-state that the allegation contained in the tweet by Ken McAlpine, linked to in my tweet that Sarah Laurie is a “deregistered” medical practitioner, is without foundation and entirely false.
I would like to reassert that Sarah Laurie is not deregistered and has never been sanctioned by the Medical Board of Australia. Sarah Laurie allowed her registration as a medical practitioner to lapse for personal reasons.
Ketan Joshi
Research and Communications Officer
Infigen Energy
“Without foundation and entirely false”, hey! Who would have thought: wind industry operatives caught out spreading nasty lies?
An industry that is built on a series of fictions – and peopled by malicious liars – has only one tactic when it comes to people with honesty and integrity, like Dr Sarah Laurie; and that’s to crush them with falsehoods about their true motives and character. More power to Sarah for calling them out for precisely what they are: a pack of lying hounds.
STOP THESE THINGS 
After listening to the goings on at the Senate Hearings where McAlpine appeared to be using his presence there to call Dr Sarah Laurie a liar, and imply that Nick X was being misled, I can only say hearing that he was forced to apologise to her for his disgraceful attempt at denigration brought not only a smile to my face but a feeling of joy to my life.
That Chapman also had to apologise for re-tweeting such disgraceful lies, could indicate he is not concerned about what he says, as long as he appears to be ‘top dog’. Maybe until now he believed he was immune from consequences.
As we know Joshi is an advertising/promotional person working for a wind industry company, and nothing he says can be considered worthwhile as it is just an example how he and his friends believe they can say what they like because they are untouchable, with friends in high places.
Wrong, the law is the law and he and the others have had to answer for their actions.
The reporter, well lets face it so many of them are now nothing more than fast talking idiots who believe they have a ‘voice’ worth listening to. He was exposed and in that exposure left others of his ‘colleagues’ on the edge not knowing if they should continue to use diatribe to denigrate Dr Laurie or indeed anyone else.
Dr Laurie’s actions have wiped the smile off their faces and has put others on notice that enough is enough.
Now hopefully Dr Laurie can continue with her considerable workload without having to continually explain her qualifications and why she doesn’t use her title of Doctor.
That she was placed in a position where she felt she had to make an offer not to use it in her role as CEO of the Waubra Foundation is a disgrace, and the Board should now let her know publicly they are happy for her to use it anywhere – after all she is qualified to use it.
I will continue to use it and if everyone else does then there will be no confusion about her qualifications to discuss medical issues in public.
Keep up the good work DOCTOR Sarah Laurie.
Thank-you Dr Laurie for your voluntary dedication and ongoing efforts to support rural people being impacted by industrial ‘noise’. For fighting these personal attacks and the belittling, denigration and bullying tactics being deployed which will never deny the truth and reality of life as it is being personally experienced and scientifically investigated on our properties and inside homes.
Mr Steven Cooper was congratulated from experts around the world on his work. He was congratulated by Dr. Paul Schomer the Standards Director for the Acoustical Society of America. The professor from Sydney University has never made a clinical assessment of my health status, is not an acoustician, scientist nor an engineer yet caustically and foolishly called the world first acoustic study at Cape Bridgewater, “an atrocious piece of research”.
A sample of the Sydney Uni. professors own ‘scientific’ approach you can see here on twitter; draw your own conclusions on his hypothesis and methodology, and who his paymaster is;
Despite the professors and departmental minimisation, complaints of noise pollution occur at many wind farms and industrial sites around the world and we are fed up after 7 years with the continued lack of a proper complaint process and lack of protection. Non-compliant wind farms such as at Cape Bridgewater face no consequences for their permit breaches, allowing noise/ sound impacts to relentlessly continue.
The Wind Farm Commissioner should (without any corruption or interference) provide an avenue of addressing the abject failure of this system which is causing homelessness, land devaluation and ongoing harmful health impacts and so much agony to families trying to live peaceful, normal lives in their homes.
I wonder how long it took Ms. Urquhart to come up with such questions to Chapman. I wonder if they, together, organized the questions.
It reads just like a poll that gives you only specific options that they want you to pick from.
A person experiencing headaches, migraines, tinnitus, ect.. from IWTs would never suspect IWTs as the root of the problem. Therefore they wouldn’t complain about it. They simply visit their doctor looking for an explanation. Usually leading to medications that aren’t necessary.
You can’t fight the disease if you don’t know you have it.
Dr Laurie you are a legend.
Truly great work by Dr Sarah Laurie. The 12 December 2014 Publication Frontier Science publication and the Corrigendum 12 October 2015 shows how the malicious lies of Simon Chapman, Luke Fry of Sydney University and Ketan Joshi can be overlooked by the University of Sydney research integrity department. The malicious lies dished out by this lot causes much mental anguish for many people. The information was taken from the Professor’s previous work in The Conversation; a publication that is run by friends of Chapman and partly funded by the Sydney University.
The Conversation article authored by Chapman claimed that I had had an accident, a very serious head injury, and implied that I was still in brain training after he operation of the turbines affected me. Referenced to be from my Senate Submission 2011 none of these claims are true. I did NOT say I had an accident. I did NOT say I had a serious head injury. I had to stop the brain training because I could not become relaxed. The manipulation of the dates in both of Chapman’s articles and assisted articles, The Frontier 12 December 2014 and The Conversation 18 September 2013, implied that Doctor Sarah Laurie was fomenting sickness. Those articles have no basis, are lies and should be retracted. Dr Sarah Laurie’s involvement is due to the likes of ACCIONA’s former CEO, Brett Thomas making public malicious comments without any evidence to defame me and others; lies also used by Chapman.
We made our first noise/vibration complaint on May 2009. Dr Sarah Laurie first spoke publicly about turbine noise issues over 16 months later, in September 2010. That occurred about about 2 months after the Noise Impact Assessment Report (aka ‘The Dean Report’) was released in July 2010. It is risible to even suggest that someone is publicly fomenting sickness on a basis which is a temporal impossibility (without the aid of a Tardis or silver DeLorean fitted with a flux capacitor). The argument that Sarah’s statements in late 2010, caused my turbine noise related health problems spouted by Chapman and Joshi is a deliberate work of accomplished fraudsters and proven liars.
It is important to note that Infigen started paying Chapman in late 2012 to provide a desktop report on Psychogenic aspects of wind farm noise complaints for use in VCAT (Infigen’s Cherry Tree Wind Farm appeal). Chapman gave evidence to the Senate Inquiry into Excessive Noise on 14 November 2012 where he gave the following evidence.
The chair asked Professor Chapman, if people do suffer from the NOCEBO effect, do they actually feel ill?
Chapman said: YES, VERY MUCH SO. There is no suggestion that they are making it up or that they do not feel ill or that, in many cases, you can not physiologically measure that they are having – THEY DO (page 50).
In Chapman’s advice to early career researchers and advocates (published 30 March 2015) in a presentation delivered to Public Health Research Practice (phrp.com.au) he talked about 10 lessons he’d learnt.
Lesson 7 reads, Experts are fine but they are not living thing.
A journalist once said the above to me and I have never forgotten it, people who live with the diseases we try to prevent appear more in the news media than experts and politicians.
When an expert speaks we may admire their coherence, grasp of issues and ability to simplify complexity. But if a person speaks and does the same it can be doubly powerful. Ordinary people can make amazing advocates, and we should work with them far more. They bring a compelling authenticity to an issue.
It appears some people are so well ‘protected’ by Chapman’s Wonder Drug (nocebo) that Acciona bought out 8 properties out of 11 vacated properties (and gagged their owners) in an attempt to meet the noise conditions of its planning consent. Acciona, apart from buying noise affected residents, has made effort to mitigate noise emissions at its non-compliant Waubra Wind Farm, with homes within 1.5 kms identified as being exposed to noise in excess of its permit (as set out in brief BMINO10076 to the Planning Minister from his department, dated 10/12/10).
Noel Dean
I’d love to meet all of these wankers in a dark alley one night. Yes, all of them at once. What a pack of weak pathetic little men!
Peter, with the prospective perspective of potential payback of a great injustice, I would like to be there, if only to hold Chapman accountable for his knowing lack of accountability in his pathetic attempts in seriously undermining those who have genuinely been negatively affected.
The “man”, and I use the term loosley, attacks from a point of distance, and I happily ask him to do the same from a more significant, physically near proximity.
No threat.
Please Simon, if you are confident in your argument, let us set up the conversation.
I doubt you are up for it.
Martin
It’s amazing how many engineers, doctors successful business people, lawyers have been impacted directly or family members; having these noisy wind factories dumped on our back doorsteps. We the direct neighbors really appreciate their help and support. As at busy times when these weazels publicly ridicule us it really gets us down questioning our integrity. We really need to stop them using our hard won respect by calling these noisy factories farms. Tom, 1.5 kms Macarthur wind factory.
Thanks for your continued courage, Sarah.
Its time for the broom. The wind industry and its propaganda arm the Clean energy council look a tired and disheveled lot.
Keats no matter how many tweets you send mate, “at the end of the day you cant make love to your PC” might be time to move on.
As for the friends of the earth leader, he looks like he needs to be put on a state sponsored drench program and given a complimentary voucher for a “parmy & pint” at the local pub.
The clean energy councils chief hack is getting a bit long in the tooth and has had his day.
I know, you know, we all know who should take control of the reins of the wind industry, yes sir re none other than the ruggedly handsome country boy at heart, Senvion’s “PRETTY BOY.”
A fresh face that cuts through the ages. Why already those women in renewables worship the ground he walks on. Why they have an ode to him;
Hail Pretty Boy
Blessed are you amongst women in renewables
and the sheilas of Wycheproof too.
Don’t say we do nothing for you Pretty boy.
Dear Goat,
Tis wonderful to see you growing in confidence and taking it to the shysters, and the realisation that the f%$#wits never had any clothes.
Love your way……and keep it up!
Sarah works tirelessly to bring light to the issue of low frequency noise impacts. It takes a strongly principled person to withstand the wind industry’s onslaught. It has no other option than to shoot the messenger because it has no real facts to defend itself with. A big thank you, Sarah.
We who know the truth love you Sarah for all that you have done, continue to do, and for what you stand for 😀
As the saying goes, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”
Dr. Sarah is a champion for the victims of the wind scourge, worldwide! We love and respect her, for her courage and integrity!!!!
What would have been most interesting would be if the aforementioned prats had admitted that as individuals they lacked moral fibre, integrity, intestinal fortitude, any sense of balance, any moral sense and more……………..
Any of these creatures of which I speak, please give me and others the platform for a “real” public conversation, as you know and I know that you will not stand a chance.
Just as our Premier in South Australia, Jay Weatherill, will not have any real debate/conversation with me and mine about Renewables/Wind(lacko’power)/Solar(“We have the greatest solar resource”) except for at least 50% of the time and then a great deal’ and then some, and we have the same man banging on about attracting an electrical vehicular manufacturing base whilst we have THE most expensive power prices known in the western world.
There is NO possibility that any privately owned non-subsidized entity is coming close to South Australia.
As an example of of a man with a slow leak in his head, Weatherill attempted to stick it to Roxby/Olympic Dam(n) owners when they threatened to pull out, and with that they went to Canada with much more appreciative tax rates.
Our grand leader was attempting to show his strength, but he was called and only showed his ineptitude.
BUT, Did our Premier admit to what a f*#@wit he is?
Our Premier, is at least disingenuous, perhaps and more probably a less-than-well planned liar, and certainly nothing of an improvement of his predecessor.
Reblogged this on How Green Is This.
May I suggest it is time for Sarah to be awarded a Nobel Prize for her courageous work against what many would find overwhelming odds?
Brenda, I wholeheartedly agree! Anyone who thoroughly understands the larger context in which Dr. Laurie has taken such a brave stance, can see clearly the credit she deserves. Just this week, she reached out to people in rural Ontario, Canada, who have been consistently wilfully ignored in their efforts to draw attention from all who are responsible for turbines sited too close to their homes, as they struggle with the adverse health impacts. Connecting with her warmth and wisdom has been absolutely uplifting. She is a REAL leader. Her compassion is profound!
Interesting to see the trail of “independence” between the industry, academics and journalists… the same bunch that voraciously hunts for any obscure hint that there might be a link between the coal industry and the “anti-wind movement”
As my friends and I used to say when we were younger,
“love your work Sarah”
Reblogged this on The Law is my Oyster and commented:
Dr Sarah Laurie puts wind industry spin to the sword.
Well done Dr Laurie. You are an inspiration.