Dr WEBSTER (Mallee) (25/03/25 17:38): In my limited time I want to tell you what Labor is doing to regional Australia through the words of a constituent of mine, Kate Vance of Landsborough West. Kate came up to me at the Wimmera field days recently. By her own admission, she isn't political. It was only when she opened her mouth to speak to me that she broke down in tears with her children at her side. It was when Kate, a deep thinker, actually verbalised the impact of Labor's railroading of regional communities for its dystopian vision of the nation that the tears started flowing.

This is what she had to say:

I do not wish to take sides in the renewable debate. I believe most people, rightly or wrongly, make the best decisions they can. I can speak only for what my own lived experience has been, viewed through the eyes of my passion which is health. I have experienced within myself, and witnessed in my family, my friends, and my community the mental anguish that is becoming synonymous with renewable energy. The political paraphernalia sold to those in the city is peppered with catch-cries of saving the planet, but at present, this seems to be at any expense to the wellbeing of the people. Are the people not the planet too?

The structure of the current system allows private companies to approach landholders, encourage them to make life-changing decisions, and then have them sign confidentiality agreements preventing them from discussing these decisions with close family, friends, or neighbours. This is not nurturing the mental health of rural people.

She goes on:

How on earth did I allow myself to be controlled to the point where I cried alone for weeks because I felt I couldn't speak to my own parents about the sale of a neighbouring farm that belonged to my own family? I had a basic human need to talk to the people I love and a piece of paper prevented me from feeling worthy enough to do so.

She goes on:

The microtrauma of the constant presence of ever-encroaching infrastructure involving regular and unpaid interactions with paid liaison personnel is draining and costly. We know that trauma has lasting effects. What is happening below the surface that we are yet to see in a measurable health sense in rural areas?

She goes on:

The government spends millions of dollars on mental health campaigns encouraging people to ask one another "are you okay?", and yet when the farming community is crying out—in the best voice they know how—that they are very much not okay, the response has been to treat them like dangerous extremists. This hurtful hypocrisy, and the emotions that flare as a consequence, are polarizing and dividing our communities.

Kate says:

I have sat in community groups where people are too afraid to even consider applying for windfarm grants because of the potential for angry divide amongst the people they are trying to represent. Some groups would simply rather have no money. I want to be able to exist in my local area where people are free to speak openly and honestly about the things affecting them and their families. Suppression of truth always has a cost somewhere. The suicide statistics of farmers suggest this is one population that has nothing left to cover that cost.

She says:

I have witnessed good people on both sides of the debate forget their most basic human kindnesses in the midst of all of this. Is this really who we are? This behaviour is not a reflection of what has bonded rural communities together over a long time. We have become what we are by supporting one another through hardships, and banding together in the toughest of times.

I continue to see the most incredible advocacy and a beauty in unity that perhaps some of rural Australia has never before known. But I have also been present in a roomful of angry people and wondered if some of those bearing the brunt of this public vitriol felt as sick as they looked, only to eventually realise I was the one feeling sick. I have hated seeing and hearing people turning on one another in desperation and divisional defence of their own positions. We all need each other right now. We need one another's kindness more than ever. We need one another's respect. We need to value ourselves and our communities, no matter what is happening around us.

I have needed to hear myself acknowledge that no matter how much understanding I have shown for the process of what is happening, there have been times when I was very far from okay. I think the collective voice that many farmers are not happy has been heard. There are also some very happy farmers who have been public in their support for what is happening and appear, at face value, to genuinely believe renewable energy infrastructure has placed them, their families, and their farms and businesses in a better position. But how many people, like me, have cried alone feeling like they were cut off from their support people by a rollout binding them to dealing with life-changing decisions in lonely and isolating circumstances? … Thank you …

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