10 July

The anti-renewables and soon anti-data centre movements in rural and regional areas (again copying the US, where these viral outrages emanate from) are an existential threat to the survival of regional life. Regional towns in almost every case began as resource-extraction for big cities. Agriculture and mining, look at every regional town in NSW and you’ll discover in almost every case those were the reason they came to exist in the first place. All regional towns struggle to survive, without that original industry. At best they become ‘tree change’ locations, theme parks for stressed city folk. Renewable energy and data centres are the centre of new industry globally now. The regions can be the focus of that shift. But I’m sure social media-driven viral outrages will oppose that every step of the way. Those viral outrages are created by city folk. Regional people need to know that better than they do now.