DEAR News Of The Area,

DURING the recent council election, I was asked why so much of the Port Stephens community was opposed to a floating industrial zone on our ocean.

I replied that many of us are haunted by the thought that our grandchildren would see hordes of massive metal towers in the ocean – and ask us why we let it happen.

Our sleep is disrupted by genuine concern that our beautiful coastal environment, our unique coastal ecosystem, our coastal communities and our way of life might change irreparably.

So, at No Coastal Turbines Port Stephens, we are stepping way out of our comfort zones because we feel that we must: that we care strongly enough about this cause in a world that tends to defer to the powerful.

It has, we believe, fallen to ordinary people like us to speak up and stand for what we see is right.

Indeed, it is this ordinariness that is perhaps the most compelling aspect of the Port Stephens situation.

We are 70-year-old grandparents, 45-year-old parents and 25-year-old tradies – all proudly wearing our logo of the blue whale tail.

We are business people, fishers and sailors, intellectuals, communicators, builders, retired couples, truck drivers and electricians – a broad demographic and wide cross section of the community.

And, for standing up for what we believe is right, we’ve sometimes been vilified and derided.

Yet we are simply real people: pointing out energy business practices that we believe focus on profits over communities.

People will protest when they’re not adequately consulted on urgent matters that affect them directly.

To be listened to by authorities is, we feel, a fundamental right.

So our ranks are growing rapidly and we are stepping up our mission of inviting conversation, persuasion and change.

Thank you.
Ian ROBERTS,
Fingal Bay.