Andrew Hastie
We should not tolerate dishonest politicians

Introduction

A wind turbine at Hallett in South Australia

This page is not about whether hundreds of wind turbines should, or should not, be built off the Western Australian coast, it is about Mr Hastie's level of dishonesty in his opposition to the proposal.

Shortly after the Albanese government opened a period of consultation on the proposed offshore wind farm zone Mr Hastie produced a petition against it.

The language in the petition itself was fairly innocuous, but in the preamble to the petition he made a number of misleading, if not downright false, claims. What Mr Hastie was doing was nothing short of a highly unethical scare campaign.

Not content with his petition, Mr Hastie also did a card drop to, I suppose, the households within his electorate of Canning and in the vicinity of the proposal. Again, this was misleading.

I've written in detail about Mr Hastie's dishonest statements below.

Mr Hastie's refusal to provide evidence in support of his claims

I have asked Mr Hastie for evidence in support of his claims through a local Facebook page and directly by email several times. I've informed him of this Web site. He cannot be unaware of my exposure of his lies and misleading claims and he ignores my demands for evidence. (I know he received my emails because he added me to his email propaganda list).

He has never provided me with any justification for his claims, he has never responded to my attempts to engage with him at all. This indicates that he cannot provide evidence in support of his claims and he knows that his claims are unjustified.

Declaration of interest

I am strongly in favour of replacing Australia's fossil fuel fired generation with renewable energy. The burning of fossil fuels is widely recognised as the main cause of climate change, ocean acidification, sea level rise and ocean warming. The air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels kills millions of people world-wide each year.

I have long striven against anyone who dishonestly opposed wind power developments in South Australia where I have lived until the last two years. But above all, I love truth, honesty, justice and high ethical standards.

I now live in Mr Hastie's electorate of Canning and about 40 kilometres from the closest point of the proposed wind farm zone.

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While I hold that the offshore wind farm zone could displace millions of tonnes of greenhouse gasses and would be desirable for that reason, I do have some concerns about possible environmental impacts (which I have covered in another page on this site). I would prefer to see onshore wind farms, solar farms, and power storage facilities.

Mr Hastie's lies, misleading statements and scare campaign

I dissect the lies and absurdities in the preamble to Mr Hastie's petition below:

Mr Hastie's statements	The facts
"Labor is planning to lock up nearly 8,000 square kilometres of coast for an offshore wind farm 20 kilometres off the coast of Mandurah, all the way down to Dunsborough."	Not a single kilometre of coast is going to be locked up. The sentence is nonsensical in any case: he says that the development would be locking up the coast and also that it is 20km off the coast, contradicting himself.
"What will this do to our coastal lifestyle? What will this do to recreational and commercial fishing?"	The short answers to these three questions are: nothing, nothing and nothing bad. How many people swim or surf 20km or more off the coast? How many recreational fishermen go out 20km or more? (There is nothing in the proposal indicated that recreational fishing between the turbines will not be allowed.) Trawl fishing in the wind farm area may be banned; I would argue that would be a big plus for the sea floor environment.
"You'll never see a 120-metre-tall wind turbine in Cottesloe."	Some statements are so stupid as to not deserve a response.
"Labor is coming for our community and our coastal lifestyle."	In what way? How could a wind farm 20km of the coast, so far as to be hardly noticeable, damage the community and coastal lifestyle?
"They don't care that wind turbines fuelling their green dreams are built in countries like China"	Yes, many wind turbines are built in China. Others are built in the USA, India, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Iran, Croatia, Spain, Taiwan, France, Denmark, Brazil and Belgium. They would also be built in Australia if Mr Hastie's Liberal party has not been so opposed to renewable energy for so many years.
"And they don't care that you're paying higher power bills because of their pursuit of renewables."	The fact is that in 2024 wind power is (together with solar power) one of the cheapest forms of electricity generation available.
"Our community doesn't want to carry the burden of replacing proven coal and gas power with renewables."	As I have shown above, there is very little burden. Does Mr Hastie really think that the local people would prefer to see good farm land turned into ugly coal mines with the resulting emissions and fatalities from air pollution?

Mr Hastie's misleading card drop

One of Mr Hastie's cards with its dishonest message

The card in the image on the right appeared in my letter box on 2024/03/20. I suppose it appeared in every one of the many thousands of letter boxes in Mr Hastie's electorate. Mr Hastie plainly has plenty of money to spend on his scare campaign; is it provided by the fossil fuel industry?

True to form his card contained more lies.

The wind farm will not be destructive. Of course Mr Hastie doesn't explain how it could possibly be destructive, he's not interested in facts, he only wants to frighten gullible people. On the other hand the fossil fuels that Mr Hastie loves certainly are destructive - consider the very recent report from the World Meteorological Organisation that I have referred to on another page on this site.

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And the wind farm will not be dangerous. Again he doesn't explain how it could possibly be dangerous, he can't because it won't. It's just another lie.

Whether or not it is ugly is a matter of opinion. Many people, myself included, think that wind turbines are majestic and a symbol of a more sustainable and less damaged future. I would call Mr Hastie's coal mines ugly, wouldn't you? (See the next section.)

Mr Hastie's preference

Mr Hastie calls wind turbines ugly.

He praises 'proven coal and gas'.

He would rather see farm land like this, in the beautiful Bylong Valley of NSW...
... turned into this.

This, a very small part of the Ulan coal mine near the Bylong Valley, apparently is Mr Hastie's idea of beautiful.

People like Mr Hastie are wanting exactly this. They want to see the Bylong Valley ripped up for coal strip mines.

This is the choice we have, clean renewable, sustainable energy, or polluting coal and gas. People demand cheap and plentiful electricity; the Earth demands lower emissions. How could any reasonable person prefer coal to renewable energy?

I know what I would prefer.

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More lies: in Mr Hastie's emails

Wind power reliability

Mr Hastie sends frequent emails to his supporters (and to me!) In the emails he repeats the same lies and misleading statements over and over. Perhaps he thinks that a lie told often enough will be believed. Indeed, I seem to recall that researchers have found there to be some justification in that theory.

Variable or unreliable? Using 'unreliable' in regard to wind farm output when the correct term is 'variable' shows either ignorance or a desire to be intentionally misleading. I don't believe that Mr Hastie is ignorant on this point. Wind turbine output varies depending on the wind speed. Wind speed can be, and is, forecast, so the output of a wind turbine can be predicted. In addition, many modern wind farms have battery backup so that the output can be held constant in spite of variable wind speed.

In an email that Mr Hastie sent out on 2nd April 2024 he said that wind turbines were unreliable. This is quite false, they are highly reliable. On the other hand Mr Hastie's beloved fossil fuelled power stations are unreliable.

Wind turbines have been shown to be 98% reliable (that is, they are unexpectedly out of commission 2% of the time). And since there are usually 20 or more turbines in a wind farm, if one fails unexpectedly it makes little difference to the generation of the whole wind farm. I've written at some length on wind power reliability on my page on 'Wind power problems, alleged problems and objections'.

On the other hand, as the reference below records, in 2018 alone there were 135 breakdowns in gas and coal power stations.

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Impact of a failure, wind turbine or fossil fuel power station

What impact on the power grid will there be if there is a failure?

Eraring coal fired power station consists of four 720 megawatt generation units, so if one of these fails unexpectedly there is a sudden and serious loss of 720MW to the grid.

Most Australian wind turbines in use at present vary in rated capacity from two to five megawatts. So, as an example, should a four megawatt turbine running at 75% capacity fail unexpectedly the output of the wind farm might drop from, say, 60MW to 57MW, a drop of 3MW. Not a big deal. And, of course, if there is battery firming, the battery will kick in an hold the wind farm output constant.

So the truth of generation reliability is the opposite of Mr Hastie's claim. There is very little reliability problem in wind power and major reliability problems associated with fossil fuel generation, especially coal-fired power stations.

Some references on reliability

Reliability of wind turbines

How Long Do Wind Turbines Last? Average Lifespan Explained; Energy Follower, written by Alexis Phillips, last updated 2022/01/14. "Wind turbines have a reliability of 98%."

Unreliability of fossil fuel power stations

Gas & Coal Power Plants: 135 Breakdowns in 2018; The Australia Institute media release dated 2019/02/01.

This section added 2024/04/25

Mr Hastie's Anzac Day email

Mr Hastie said in an email that he sent out in relation to Anzac Day that those who fought were “Protecting our freedom, our democracy, and our way of life.”

Andrew, if your idea of:

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• our freedom includes a politician feeling free to mislead his constituents;
• our democracy includes politicians who are willing to lie when it suits their selfish aims; and
• our way of life should include dishonest scare campaigns from our politicians;

I really doubt that many who fought in Australia's past conflicts would agree with you.

This section added 2024/05/01

Email: The 'stunning beauty of our region'

If the wind farms are built the closest turbines will be 20 kilometres off the coast. People will hardly see them. They certainly will not impact the beauty of the region.

In the same email Mr Hastie implied that development of the wind farm zone would be a threat to our national security, typically without explaining how.

Mr Hastie in a email of 2024/04/30 wrote the ridiculous claim that "The stunning beauty of our region will be damaged and compromised."

On giving this some more consideration I thought that these claims are so ridiculous that perhaps the email didn't come from Mr Hastie? Perhaps someone is maliciously using his email address in order to discredit him? So I emailed him on his 'aph.gov.au' email address to check. Typically, he did not reply, so we can take it that he did write it.

I'd have to wonder about his opinion of his supporters. Can he have such a low opinion of their intelligence as to think that they would believe this nonsense?

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What Mr Hastie doesn't say (and apparently doesn't care about)

It is notable that Mr Hastie doesn't mention the possibility of environmental damage from offshore wind farms. With his love for fossil fuels and his apparent lack of concern for the harm that burning them causes we can only suppose that he doesn't care about environmental damage.

I've written about the possible environmental impacts of offshore wind farms elsewhere on these pages.

Why does Mr Hastie really oppose the offshore wind farm zone proposal?

One of the Toora turbines in Victoria Can Mr Hastie really believe that these turbines are ugly? Does he just say that because it suits his anti-sustainable, pro-fossil fuel, stance? I see them as graceful and elegant and as a sign of a more sustainable future.

Everything I've written above shows that Mr Hastie cares little for the truth. As I've written in regard to his scare campaign elsewhere on this page, 'we know that he is lying' and 'he knows we know he is lying'. Consequently the reasons he has given for his opposition seem unlikely to be his real reasons.

So one has to wonder what are his real reasons for opposing the proposed zone? Several possibilities come to mind:

1. The proposal comes from a Labor government, Mr Hastie is a loyal Liberal (to the point of doing everything the party tells him to do, see his voting record in parliament). Does he oppose the wind farm zone simply because he's been told to by the party bosses?
   
   
2. If the wind farm zone is approved and the wind farms are built the fossil fuel industry will suffer big financial losses. Is Mr Hastie concerned that he and his party will loose the very generous backing they now receive from the fossil fuel industries?
   
   
3. Is Mr Hastie simply devoted whole-heartedly to the fossil fuel industry? (Is he effectively employed by them?)
   
   
4. Does Mr Hastie really dislike wind farms for some personal reason?

The most likely reasons for Mr Hastie's opposition to the proposal seems to me to be some combination of the first three above.

Mr Hastie's voting record in parliament

Make your vote count for the things that you believe in. If you vote for a politician who is a member of one of the major parties - Liberal, National or Labor - you are voting for a party machine. If you vote for a community independent you are voting for a person who has a conscience and has the good of your community at heart.

A good parliamentarian will vote for the legislation that he believes to be good legislation. Most parliamentarians in the big parties, including Mr Hastie, vote for whatever their party bosses tell them to vote.

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This link records Mr Hastie's voting record in parliament - They Vote for You. It notes that "Mr Hastie has never voted against the majority of [his] party since entering parliament" suggesting that whatever the question may be he puts party loyalty above any other consideration. A community independent can vote for what they believe in, they don't have to follow a party line.

Andrew Hastie voted consistently against increasing investment in renewable energy; A page in "They vote for you",

This section added 2024/03/30

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

A hydro-power station that incorporates pumped-hydro energy storage. This one is Tumut 3 hydro power station in the Snowy Mountains. Renewable energy can be combined with energy storage, such as this pumped hydro installation, to allow renewable energy generation around the clock, wether the wind is blowing, the sun is shining, or not.

Solzhenitsyn once wrote, in relation to the Russian government:

"We know they are lying,
they know they are lying,
they know we know they are lying,
we know they know we know they are lying,
but they are still lying."

In relation to Andrew Hastie and the proposed offshore wind farm zone I will modify this a little:

"We know he is lying,
he knows he is lying,
he knows we know he is lying,
we know he knows we know he is lying,
but he is still lying."

The Russians have to put up with a lying government. We don't have to tolerate lying governments or politicians; we can throw them out.

This section added 2024/03/30

Ethical standards

People like Hastie are an enigma to me. How can he possibly have any self respect?

I can’t understand how anyone can have such a total lack of ethical standards as to lie, apparently shamelessly, with the aim of holding back essential action on climate change. People like Hastie are condemning future generations, and all life on earth, to sharing a greatly damaged planet. Does he not care about ethical standards at all?

What is there in our lives more important than upholding a high standard of personal ethical behaviour?

I had a lot of respect for my father, who died about 36 years ago. I occasionally wonder how he would feel about what I've done with my life since then. I believe he would be proud of me.

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I wonder whether Mr Hastie ever thinks about what his father would think of his dishonest attack on the renewable energy that we must have if our children and grandchildren are to inherit a world that is not greatly damaged by climate change?

I have written on another page about how, if we want to behave ethically, we can consider what a respected mentor from our past would think of what we are about to do. Does Mr Hastie have any such respected mentors? If so, does what those mentors would think of his behaviour concern him?

I wonder too, what Mr Hastie would consider to be a successful life? One in which he achieves notoriety and money, or one that he can look back on and be justifiably proud of?

This section added 2024/03/28

Roll Model

Six before breakfast Perhaps Mr Hastie and Mr Trump aim to get to the point of thinking up and pretending to believe six lies before breakfast. Apologies to Lewis Carroll who had the Red Queen say "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Donald Trump seems to be very popular in the USA in spite of being an habitual liar. I've remarked on my page about Mr Trump that, while we shouldn't be surprised that there are people in this world as despicable as Trump, we have every right to be surprised that so many people are willing to vote for and support such a man.

Perhaps Mr Hastie has noted this and thinks that he can behave the same way in Australia and get away with it. Perhaps he feels that the other Liberals will support his behaviour just as, in the USA, most Republican politicians are supportive of Trump.

How can a man, either Trump or Hastie, live with their consciences while intentionally misleading people, making unfounded claims and lying?

Do we want politicians in Australia who follow the Trump model?

Concluding remarks

References and related pages

External sites...

Political

Let's replace Mr Hastie with an honest, progressive, climate aware community independent.

Voices for Forest: "We are a community group from the SW of WA. Our aim is: ensure that the entire Forrest community is heard and understood by the next representative. Our values are our guiding principles: Community, Environment, Respect, Integrity, Positivity and Sustainability."
The present Member of Parliament for Forest is Nola Marino, who, like Mr Hastie, is a Liberal. Forest is the next federal electorate to the south of Canning.

We know politicians lie – but do we care?; The Conversation, 2022/02/14

Why people vote for politicians they know are liars; The Conversation, 2019/12/19

Environmental

Climate change impacts; The Australian Museum. This extensive article goes into impacts on: heat, fire, drought, extreme weather events, sea level rise, coral reefs, biodiversity, communities and human health.

Climate change indicators reached record levels in 2023: World Meteorological Organization

The future will be green or black; an essay by David B Lauterwasser

Australian Marine Spatial Information System: Offshore Renewable Energy Infrastructure. This site provides a little information about declared and proposed offshore renewable areas.

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References and related pages on this site...

Replace Mr Hastie with an honest, progressive community independent

Politician's responsibilities; many polies are shirking their responsibilities

Vote smart

The climate change that Mr Hastie apparently doesn't care about

Offshore wind farms

Western Australia's proposed offshore wind farm zone

Wind power in Australia

Wind power problems, alleged problems and objections

Wind power lies

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