Posted on March 31, 2025
The Illawarra, on the NSW south coast, can be hostile territory for Australian politicians.
In 1939, Robert Menzies was booed by thousands of placard-waving locals as police escorted him down the Bulli Pass to meet striking waterside workers in Wollongong.
It was here that the man who became Australia’s longest-serving prime minister acquired the nickname “Pig Iron Bob” after he opposed the wharfies who refused to load pig iron on a ship bound for Japan for fear it would be used for military purposes.
Fast forward to 2025 and it was Anthony Albanese’s turn to feel the heat down near the steelworks.
During a February press conference announcing his new candidate for Whitlam, he copped a gobful from a man dressed in a tan shirt and black shorts.
“Get out of our town, Albo!” the man yelled. “We don’t want your wind farms!”
That protester was financial adviser Alex O’Brien, who is not just another local resident.
Alex O’Brien received national attention after heckling Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in February.
Mr O’Brien is, in fact, president of a not-for-profit association called Responsible Future (Illawarra Chapter) or RFI, whose purpose is to tank Labor’s proposed offshore wind project in the Illawarra.
The 36-year-old’s on-camera heckling of the prime minister made it onto big TV news bulletins and would’ve been the first time many Australians had seen or heard of him.
But behind the scenes, Mr O’Brien’s influence has been growing, as the community activist has met with senior Liberals such as Peter Dutton and been invited to speak at Parliament House by Coalition senators involved in the inquiry into the offshore wind consultation process.
RFI’s many objections to offshore wind farms have increasingly been given a platform in local, national, and even international media. But many are questioning whether the messaging pushed by the group and its associated social media accounts has been distorting and poisoning the debate.
Peter Dutton in Busselton last year announcing he would axe the WA offshore wind project if elected.
RFI has been accused of “Trumpian-style” attacks on advocates and experts, spreading misinformation and disinformation narratives imported from the US, misrepresenting the true level of community opposition for the project and cherrypicking the testimony of a prominent conservation group.
RFI’s rhetoric has been amplified by the Coalition, which hopes anti-wind farm sentiment can help them pick up seats such as Gilmore and Whitlam on the south coast and Paterson in the Hunter.
Mr Dutton has vowed to scrap three of Labor’s offshore wind farm projects, including in the Illawarra, if elected.
Offshore wind farm projects have seen resistance across the globe.
While there are many legitimate questions about what impact any potential wind farm could have on the environment and industry, the debate in the Illawarra has turned toxic at times.
Even the veteran leader of the South Coast Labour Council, Arthur Rorris, a man used to the rough and tumble of union politics, has been shocked by what he’s seen.
“People have been bombarded with combinations of conspiracy theories, wild accusations, and what ended up being an absolute blood-fest when they started attacking individuals and their reputations,” he said.
False ‘secret’ seabed survey claim
Formed in January 2024, RFI evolved out of three local Facebook groups and has since become a key force driving opposition to the offshore wind project.
However, the group’s ambitions aren’t limited to the NSW south coast.
“This fight isn’t just about Illawarra,” Mr O’Brien said in March.
“It’s about every regional community being steamrolled by flawed renewable projects. Canberra needs to listen, and we won’t back down until they do.”
The group won’t disclose its membership figures but claims it has more than 1,200 registered ongoing supporters and volunteers — as a recently formed association, it is not required to lodge its first financial records until July this year.
No offshore wind farms have been approved yet in the Illawarra. It hasn’t even got to a stage where a feasibility licence has been issued, but RFI has already objected to the project on virtually every ground imaginable.
It’s argued it will cost too much; drive up power prices; not produce enough power; be owned by a foreign multinational; spoil the view; ruin commercial fishing; kill whales; threaten bird and marine life; cost jobs in tourism and hospitality; reduce water quality, and; would rely on experimental technology.
In doing so, the group has been accused of spreading misinformation.
In one notable example, Mr O’Brien falsely accused the government of paying for the mapping of the seabed off the coast of the Illawarra on behalf of a developer who hadn’t even been issued a licence to develop a wind farm.
In January, Alex O’Brien posted about “secret” seabed surveys, suggesting they harmed endangered marine life.
In January, Mr O’Brien claimed in Facebook posts and in a TV interview that taxpayers were “footing the bill for millions in seabed surveys conducted in secret over Christmas in the Illawarra offshore wind zone”.
He questioned why these surveys were happening before feasibility licenses were issued, and then suggested, without evidence, that they could be behind the disappearance of grey nurse sharks.
However, these surveys were completely unrelated to offshore wind.
The Department of Defence confirmed to the ABC that it “was conducting an offshore hydrographic survey” as part of its responsibility to maintain navigation routes for vessels.
RFI did not respond to ABC questions about whether it had corrected the record or believed it had spread a conspiracy theory.
Personal attacks against experts
The anti-wind farm activists have also been accused of engaging in smear campaigns against experts.
One of its targets has been Professor Ty Christopher from the University of Wollongong (UOW), who has had a 40-year career in the electricity supply industry, including as a chief engineer at Endeavour Energy.
“There’s been a lot of misrepresentation of facts, selective interpretation of facts,” he said about the debate in the Illawarra.
Professor Ty Christopher’s credibility was questioned by RFI.
Professor Christopher said he, his colleagues at the university and other experts, including at the CSIRO, had all had their integrity attacked after sharing their expertise.
Questions around experts’ credibility have been constant in anti-wind farm Facebook groups, two of which Mr O’Brien is involved in heavily as either an administrator or “group expert”.
The ABC has seen unfounded claims circulating in the groups that UOW academics had accepted bribes or colluded with private corporations.
“It’s been challenging for many of my colleagues on a very deep and personal level to have their professional integrity challenged and frankly, to be challenged by people who were really not offering any rational debate or alternative into the discussion,” Professor Chrisotpher said.
Comments posted in RFI-linked Facebook groups taking aim at UOW and its academics.
In early March, Mr O’Brien and RFI vice-president Amanda De Lore travelled to Canberra to give evidence at a meeting held by Coalition senators Ross Cadell and Leah Blyth.
It was not a sanctioned hearing of the inquiry that both senators were a part of, but they used it to ask questions of the RFI committee members for a 25-minute period and live-streamed it.
When Senator Cadell asked Mr O’Brien about a town hall forum that was part of the consultation process, where Professor Christopher appeared as an energy expert, the RFI president accused him of a conflict of interest.
“He was there representing the University of Wollongong, who had lost $90 million in the 2023 [sic 2020] financial year. And you know, [he] potentially [sees] this project as helping maybe resolve some of those issues.”
Professor Christopher refutes these claims. He said he and his colleagues operate “very much without fear or favour, and without being beholden to anything other than the truth or the facts” of their research.
Coalition senators Ross Cadell and Leah Blyth (centre front) with anti-wind farm activists, including RFI’s Alex O’Brien and Amanda De Lore (right).
The ABC asked Senator Cadell if he agreed with Mr O’Brien’s assessment of Professor Christopher and why he didn’t challenge him about it at the time.
“The topic of offshore wind in the Illawarra is a divisive matter that deserves thorough questioning on both sides of the debate,” he said in a statement.
“I will not be forming an opinion until I have heard from all sides of the debate — something Labor and The Greens don’t appear interested in.”
South Coast Labour Council’s Arthur Rorris, who also appeared on the town hall panels, said he was appalled by the personal attacks on academics.
“What we saw here was a deliberate strategy to take them out so that there wouldn’t be any science and evidence,” he said.
“That’s Trumpism. Take out your opponents. Publicly humiliate them, try and cut them down in the hope that others who are watching this won’t come forward.”
Arthur Rorris accused anti-wind farm activists of “Trumpian-style” politics and personal attacks.
Mr Rorris said the Labour Council supported offshore wind farms under certain conditions — if they don’t harm the environment, if they earn a social licence to operate, and if the community gets economic benefits from the project.
“We have the steelworks, we have coal mines, we have ports. We understand the pressures that we’re under to try and decarbonise,” he said.
“We have seen first-hand what happens if you don’t. We survived the black summer fires on the south coast.”
This qualified support, however, has led to him being the target of what he called “very wild and crazy allegations” on anti-wind farm Facebook groups linked to RFI.
“I started getting phone calls from friends and from associates saying they’re accusing you of being corrupt … and of being a shareholder in multinational corporations, that I would personally benefit from all of these things,” he said.
RFI did not respond to ABC questions about personal attacks made by its members. A spokesperson said its members have been victims of smears.
“We have borne the brunt of wild accusations since the announcement of the proposal, merely for asking authentic questions based on troubling concerns about the potential negative impact of this project,” the spokesperson said.
US-imported whale misinformation
Much of the anti-offshore wind farm rhetoric in Australia around marine life mirrors arguments that have originated in the US. Most prominent, and arguably effective, are claims the projects are catastrophic to whales and their migration corridors.
Facebook groups administered by RFI members are littered with AI-generated or photoshopped images of whales dead among wind turbines and infographics about the project that suggest it could lead to their slow, painful demise.
Examples of either AI-generated or photoshopped images of dead whales and marine life posted to anti-wind farm Facebook groups.
RFI’s leadership has admitted to corresponding with American groups that have been fighting similar projects, by highlighting the risk to whales, though RFI did not disclose the name of its US contacts when asked by the ABC.
This narrative emerged in 2023 after several whale carcasses were found washed up or floating near New York and New Jersey.
Former Fox News host and conspiracy theory peddler Tucker Carlson pointed the finger at offshore wind, calling it the “DDT of our times” — a reference to an insecticide that was banned for health and environmental reasons.
Several whales were found on New Jersey shores in 2023.
Donald Trump further amplified this sentiment in September 2023.
“Windmills are causing whales to die in numbers never seen before. No one does anything about that,” he said.
Expert and US governmental agencies have dismissed these theories.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said there was no evidence to conclude whale mortality was attributable to offshore wind-related activities.
Research showed the overwhelming number of whale deaths were caused by vessel strikes or entanglement with fishing gear.
However, that has not stopped Alex O’Brien from pushing the narrative that wind farms kill whales. In a YouTube interview last year, he stated that people in the US he’d been in contact with had noticed ” a significant increase in whale mortality” around offshore wind projects.
RFI, in its response to the ABC, maintained there was a “concerning rise of marine mortality events near offshore wind developments” off the United Kingdom and New Jersey coastlines.
“This issue remains under-researched but should not be ignored,” the spokesperson said.
RFI also cited the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd Australia (SSA) in defence of its statements about threats wind farms posed to marine life.
However, in its submission to a Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) consultation process about the Illawarra project, Sea Shepherd Australia said its views had been misrepresented by anti-wind farm proponents.
“SSA is concerned about the explosion of misinformation and disinformation around the OSW (Offshore Wind) industry,” it said.
“SSA has had to take action to have our material taken down from a website where our policy position was being misrepresented by an anti-OSW group.”
Sea Shepherd confirmed to the ABC that the group in question was RFI.
The conservation group agreed that questions about the environmental impact of wind farms were valid, and noted in its submission to the DCCEEW these would be addressed in detail when the feasibility licence holder was decided and had to undertake environmental impact assessments.
As there has yet to be an approval process, a vacuum has opened up for misinformation and disinformation about a project that has yet to be properly outlined.
The map of the declared area for offshore renewable energy as of June 15, 2024.
US company BlueFloat Energy applied for a seven-year feasibility licence to explore the viability of the project, but last month asked the government to pause its application until after the May 3 election in light of Coalition threats to kill off the project.
That feasibility process would’ve included scientific studies to assess the best location, size, and arrangement of wind turbines, as well as environmental approvals and further community consultation.
Financial inducement for submissions
Allegations of misinformation and disinformation have also been directed at RFI over claims it has been making about what it says is widespread opposition in the community to offshore wind farms.
During the initial consultation process, 14,200 submissions were made through the DCCEEW website. Of these, 65 per cent of respondents said they opposed the project.
Mr O’Brien has used that figure out of context to suggest it accurately represents the scale of opposition to the project across the community.
The RFI president has said 65 per cent of the local community had “voted against” the project despite there being no plebiscite on the matter. On Sky News, he made similar comments, stating that “65 per cent of the community down here said no to the offshore wind project”.
Liberal candidate for the neighbouring seat of Cunningham Amanda Ivaneza has also publicly declared “65 per cent of the community opposed the project”.
Not mentioned is that over a quarter of the submissions made to the DCCEEW came from outside the Illawarra and that there are serious concerns raised in the official departmental analysis of these submissions about whether the consultation process was gamed by anti-wind farm activists.
The DCCEEW said it was aware of people making submissions using non-valid email addresses or had made multiple submissions. It estimated that around 9 per cent, or about 1,225 submissions, were either duplicates or false.
There are also accusations that anti-wind farm activists had encouraged fake submissions.
Martin Cubby, a member of the Greens and the pro-offshore wind group Good for the Gong, signed a statutory declaration that he witnessed this during a 2023 community meeting held by opponents of the project.
Cunningham MP Alison Byrnes said an offer for RFI to meet with the climate and energy minister was declined.
The declaration was witnessed by a staffer of local Labor MP Alison Byrnes, who then read it in parliament, describing it as “a coordinated effort to undermine and inflate representations of community options to this parliament and to the government”.
“Mr Cubby put to me that at a community meeting on 28 September this year, members of the Coalition Against Offshore Wind, ‘encouraged community members to submit multiple submissions to the REZ (Renewable Energy Zone) through the federal government website using alternative or fake email addresses,” Ms Byrnes said.
A former representative of the Coalition Against Offshore Wind who was at the meeting denied Mr Cubby’s versions of events.
RFI told the ABC that it heard that during community sessions run in 2023, DCCEEW representatives had advised residents that they could submit multiple responses.
“For example, some people may have focused strongly on environmental matters in one submission and may have wished to add legitimate concerns about other elements in another submission,” the RFI spokesperson said.
“We are not in a position to explain why the department would permit fake emails, if this did occur.”
The DCCEEW said it also found evidence of the promotion of artificial intelligence (AI) software to generate responses as well as financial inducements being offered for negative submissions.
In a since-deleted Facebook post, a local woman offered beauty services in exchange for negative consultation submissions.
A local beautician posted in a local anti-wind farm Facebook group and offered up to $1,400 worth of services for people to make negative submissions. The woman described proponents of the project as “corrupt”.
She told the ABC she was just an “ordinary citizen” and that no one had taken her up on the offer, which she made because she believed the project would “destroy the ocean”.
Disputes over community meetings
RFI has been explicit about its support for candidates who have vowed to scrap the project.
Mr O’Brien was photographed with opposition leader Peter Dutton and Liberal candidate for Gilmore Andrew Constance last December — RFI said it was “grateful” to them for listening to community concerns.
RFI president Mr O’Brien, Liberal leader Mr Dutton and Liberal candidate for Gilmore Andrew Constance in December.
RFI has accused the federal government of ignoring community concerns and said the project consultation was launched by Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen with a predetermined outcome.
Labor disputes this. It says there have been six consultation sessions and other meetings with stakeholder groups, in addition to the two town hall forums. Further consultation was planned if a feasibility licence was awarded.
At Parliament House in March, RFI vice-president Amanda De Lore said: “We’ve never really sat down at the table with anyone in … the federal Labor government, that really were interested in answering any of our questions.”
RFI told the ABC that Ms Byrnes and politicians on both sides have been invited to its community information evenings and rallies but “no-one from the state or federal Labor party attended”.
Responsible Future’s Alex O’Brien and Amanda De Lore at an unofficial hearing in Parliament House this month.
However, Ms Byrnes disputed suggestions the ALP had ignored the group. Her office showed the ABC an email to RFI last July offering to set up a meeting with Mr Bowen.
RFI declined the offer.
Questions over group backing
Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson, a member of a Senate committee looking into the offshore wind industry consultation process, said he had questions about who was backing RFI.
“The Senate received very troubling information through the inquiry’s submissions process that key Australian groups opposing offshore wind rollouts are not in fact the grassroots community movements they claim to be,” he said.
“Rather, they are linked to political, organised and well-funded global campaigns to undermine renewable energy.”
Senator Whish-Wilson said he would have invited Mr O’Brien to give evidence if the committee had not been halted before the election.
“I would have liked to have heard his concerns, and the Greens would have taken the opportunity to cross-examine him on any connection he or his group may have to political parties, organised astroturfing strategies and other shady global think tank structures.”
The RFI denied being funded by third-party groups.
“We have no funding from fossil fuel groups, special interests, or foreign entities. It is laughable to suggest we are part of a conspiracy,” a spokesperson said.
“Any suggestion otherwise is false and defamatory. We are happy to sign a statement confirming this. Will offshore wind proponents and their associated groups do the same?”
The group told the ABC its members bring with them “a whole range of political backgrounds and views”.
Nationals candidate Katrina Hodgkinson described the upcoming election in Whitlam as “almost a referendum here on wind turbines”.
If the Coalition forms government, the project will be scrapped. If Labor wins, the feasibility licence process will be reopened.
The Nationals, in a recent visit to the Illawarra, described the upcoming election as “almost a referendum here on wind turbines”.
Leader David Littleproud believed the community does not want offshore wind farms.
“That’s the beautiful thing called democracy,” he said.
“Every three years, you get to put us in or chuck us out … you talk about whether the community supports it? We’ll see in about six weeks’ time.”
