As this year closes, Western Victoria stands in the thick of the Environmental Effects Statement, carrying the strain of a process that was meant to listen yet so often echoed only its own authority. We have watched federal and state governments falter across portfolios, stumbling from promise to promise, but nowhere has the mismanagement felt more personal than in the energy transition forced onto our region without care, competence, or consent. The grand speeches delivered in Canberra and Spring Street have not protected the farms they cannot find on a map, nor the families whose futures they redraw with a ruler.

Still, here we are. Holding fast. Giving evidence. Reading every chapter they hoped we would skim. Our community has carried this weight with a steadiness that governments failed to show. And next year, it will be our turn. Our voices, our lived reality, our fire-weather, our roads, our farms, our history, our children’s inheritance. What we say will not be polite decoration at the edge of a prewritten plan. It will be the truth born from country, and it will cut through every glossy tagline and every lazy assumption made about us.

Western Victoria has never been a silent place. It is a place of strong backs, straight talk, and long memory. The EES may have been written elsewhere, but the consequences will be carried here, on our soil, under our skies. And as we move into the new year, we carry the same steady conviction that has shaped every submission, every hearing, every post and update: this region will not be sacrificed because distant governments found it easier to impose than to understand. Our community will stand, speak, and hold the line.

The wind does not blow this far left.

A statement of defiance from a community that knows its own winds, its own risks, and its own worth, and refuses to be bent by an ideology pushed so far left it has become unnatural, misguided, and blind to the realities of the land and the people who live on it.

I come from a place
Where the fences lean in like they’re listening,
Where the soil keeps records
Long after governments forget.

We were told it was progress.
We were told it was clean.
We were told it was necessary,
Said gently, like a mercy.

But mercy does not arrive with survey pegs.
Mercy does not hum at night.
Mercy does not split a farm
Into what is kept and what is taken.

My blood is red out of fury
At a Labor government deaf to its own.
From plans made far from paddocks,
From decisions shaped by distance
Where country is counted as mass.

They call it transition.
They call it inevitable.
They call us resistant,
As if grief were a failure of education.

But we know the weight of land
Because it raised us.
We know fire because it hunts us.
We know silence because we’ve stood in it
After the decisions were made.

My blood is red out of fury
From ministers flying straight through,
Who never stayed long enough
To learn what the wind here knew.

The wind does not blow this far left.
It turns back before it obeys.
But the fire remembers every promise
That Labor walked past and betrayed.

My blood is red out of fury.
It does not bend or wait.
It does not yield to process
When the process comes too late.

My blood is red out of fury.
It knows an unjust claim
When land is stripped of voice
And renamed in someone else’s name.

My blood is red out of fury.
It draws the line right here.
No further, not one step more.
This ground is not for sale or fear.

This project stops with us.
It goes no further through.
My blood is red out of fury,
And it will see this injustice through.

THE LIGHTS ARE FLICKERING: WHY THE COMING BLACKOUTS ARE A MONUMENT TO RUSHED POLICY, AN EMERGENCY OF GOVERNMENTS MAKING

The lights are flickering across Victoria, and it is not the fault of the farmers, the councils, or the communities who have dared to speak truth to power.

It is the direct consequence of a government that mistook a press release for a plan, legislating the closure of coal-fired baseload generation without securing the infrastructure to replace it.

This is not a natural crisis. It is an emergency of their making.

The Victorian Auditor-General has already sounded the alarm: the state is in the grip of a “disorderly transition” that puts energy security at severe risk. Projects meant to replace firm capacity are delayed, transmission lines are years behind schedule, and the grid is teetering on a knife-edge.

A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME

The June 2025 “Dunkelflaute” (Dark Doldrum) event was the warning shot, when the wind stopped blowing and a coal unit failed, wholesale prices hit $16,000/MWh and 83% of the annual gas budget was burned in five days.

Yet even then, the government doubled down, banning new gas connections and suppressing investment in the very safety net that kept the lights on.

DAMAGE CONTROL

Instead of admitting their failure, the government has turned to damage control.

They are pushing ill-designed, overpriced, and destructive band-aid solutions under newly created authorities that are intended to instil a sense of competence and trustworthy authority, but simultaneously stripping away planning protections, silencing community consultation, and weaponising lawfare against those who dare to resist.

Farmers are threatened with new compulsory acquisition legislation, councils are painted as obstructionists, and communities are told they are the problem.

But this narrative is a lie.

BLAMING THE WHISTLEBLOWERS

The delays are not caused by rural opposition; they are the inevitable result of a “crash or crash through” mentality that bulldozed process and ignored the people most affected.

Farmers are not anti-renewables. They are anti-poor planning.

A Federation University study has shown that the mental strain in regional Victoria comes from the feeling that the transition is being “done to them” rather than with them.

Had the government engaged respectfully, had they set realistic timelines instead of chasing arbitrary targets, these projects would already be underway. Instead, they chose haste over honesty, spin over substance.

GOVERNANCE BY COERCION

The government is not just failing but actively abusing its power to strip communities of their rights in order to create the illusion of progress.

Now, as the summer of 2025–2026 looms, the government’s next move is clear: they will blame the very communities who have been demanding accountability.

They will unleash political advertising and misinformation campaigns to deflect from their own ineptness.

But let us be crystal clear, when the air conditioners hum and the grid falters, this is not the fault of Western Victoria’s paddocks or the Latrobe Valley’s families. It is the failure of Spring Street.

THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS FOR ‘GOOD MEN (AND WOMEN)’ TO DO NOTHING.

This old saying has never been truer. Opposition to this reckless transition is not only warranted – it is demanded.

Communities have every right to call out the flaws, to resist destructive shortcuts, and to insist on a fair, planned, and secure energy future.

The government may try to hide behind spin, but the truth remains: this crisis was created by poor planning, rushed timelines, and a refusal to listen. The emergency belongs to them, and them alone.

SPIN CAMPAIGNS

The coming months will see the government unleash every tool in its arsenal of spin – slick advertising campaigns, polished political news statements, and carefully crafted marketing designed to shift blame away from their own failures.

They will point fingers at farmers, councils, and communities, hoping to distract from the reality that rising energy prices and a fragile electricity grid are the direct result of their rushed, ill‑conceived policies.

But the public must read between the lines and see these tactics for what they are: underhanded attempts to mask incompetence.

This is not government leadership grounded in technical expertise or social merit; it is damage control from an ineffective and inept government clinging to arbitrary political timelines instead of delivering the secure, well‑planned energy transition Victorians deserve.

Manufacturing a Green Emergency for Power

Victorians have been inundated with dire proclamations from the Labor government about a “climate emergency” that demands immediate, drastic action. Ousted former Premier Daniel Andrews and his ministers touted their renewable energy agenda as nothing short of salvation not only for the planet, but for jobs, bills, and the state’s soul.

Acting on climate, they insist, will“create jobs, stimulate innovation, attract investment, cut energy costs, protect our environment and support our economic recovery”. It’s a perfect political package: who could oppose saving the world while also keeping lights on and bills down? By framing their agenda as a moral crusade for the future, Labor paints itself as the righteous vanguard – and any dissenters as troglodytes standing in the way of progress.

Exaggerated Promises, Hidden Costs

Scratch the green veneer and a more cynical picture emerges, one now being blindly pushed by Premier Allan. Labor’s renewable plan is sold with wildly optimistic promises tens of thousands of jobs, cheaper power, negligible sacrifice. Brandising a PwC analysis claiming 60,000 new jobs by 2035sharewise.com.au, and official estimates boast a $9.5 billion economic boost and 59,000 jobs from the transitiontheguardian.com. But these figures deserve a hard look. In the past, Victorian officials heralded thousands of new renewable energy jobs, only for independent analysis to reveal the vast majority were short-term construction gigs – just 660 permanent roles out of 4,000 claimed in one initiativeenergycouncil.com.au.

Likewise, the much-hyped promise to “keep the lights on – and bills down” rings hollow when no clear plan is provided for lowering power costs sharewise.com.au. The government trumpets investing $1 billion in state-owned renewables while downplaying the reality that reaching 95% renewables by 2035 requires a massive $35 billion in new infrastructure investmentinvest.vic.gov.au. This suppression of costs is nothing new for Labor.

Borrowing From the Propaganda Playbook

There is a whiff of déjà vu in Labor’s tactics. Governments have often overstated threats and spun selective data to advance their agendas. John Howard’s government infamously peddled the false “children overboard” tale – baselessly claiming asylum seekers threw children into the sea – to stoke fear and claw back an election lead in 2001unsw.edu.au. In the United States, George W. Bush’s administration painted nightmare scenarios of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, even as officials knew their “dire warnings” were built on sketchy evidence cfr.org. Both cases followed a formula: overplay an existential threat, adopt a mantle of moral urgency, and sideline critics as naive or disloyal. Sound familiar? Victorian Labor’s climate narrative borrows from this playbook. The government declares its renewable plan “world-leading” and itself “shoulder to shoulder” with global climate saviors, implying moral superiority. Any questioning of its cost or pace is swatted away as if only a villain would dare hesitate in this righteous race.

Political Self-Interest in Green Wrapping

Let’s be clear: climate action is necessary. But there’s a chasm between earnest policy and the self-serving spin we’re seeing. Even admirers note that Andrews “saw the political opportunity” in the energy transition theguardian.com – harnessing climate as a wedge to shore up power. He masterfully recast the end of coal as the triumphant return of public ownership, delivering a populist slap to the privatising oppositiontheguardian.com.

Every aspect of Labor’s plan, from lofty job projections to aggressive targets, doubles as a political cudgel: bolstering its progressive credentials and boxing in opponents who fear being branded anti-climate. Dissent is marginalized – union worries about transitional support, industry cautions about grid security, taxpayer concerns about ballooning costs all find little airtime in Labor’s narrative. The government that once rammed through pandemic lockdowns under “trust the science” now employs a similar moral absolutism on climate: trust us, or you’re against the planet.

Conclusion: Climate Truth or Consequences

Victoria needs honest climate solutions, not a greenwashed PR campaign. By overstating the urgency, benefits, and simplicity of its renewable revolution, the Labor government is gaming the issue for political gain. Yes, we face a climate crisis – but exaggerating outcomes and bulldozing debate is a dangerous path. It risks undermining public trust when promises inevitably collide with reality. If Labor truly cares about a sustainable future, it should welcome scrutiny, confront trade-offs openly, and stop treating climate policy as a personal PR toolkit. Otherwise, today’s triumphalist spin will become tomorrow’s cynicism, and the crucial public buy-in for climate action could evaporate. The climate fight is too important to be reduced to a partisan power play. Victorians deserve leaders who level with them – not just about the urgency of action, but about the costs, challenges and honest efforts needed to tackle climate change without the gloss of propaganda.