A farmer has accused the ABC of selectively editing an interview to highlight the real issues he has with wind turbines in his region.
Grant Piper, a cattle rancher in central west NSW near the town of Dubbo, said an episode of ABC’s 7.30 aired in early February left out what he most wanted to show, which was the extent of the encroachment by wind farms. .
Dissatisfied with what was left on the cutting room floor, Mr Piper filmed a video a few days after the broadcast to show the spot where he had taken the program makers so they could see the size of a proposed wind farm nearby of his property.
Mr Piper said two wind farms with more than 200 turbines each more than 200 meters high would enclose his property.
NSW farmer Grant Piper made his own video to show what the ABC left on the cutting room floor
During the segment, Mr. Piper was given about a minute to explain his position, with his contribution embedded at three points of the segment’s seven-minute running time.
“I went there and spent the whole morning with them,” Mr Piper told Daily Mail Australia on Friday.
“We understand that they only have a five- or seven-minute segment, we understand that.
“What we said and what we tried to convey was knowledge, facts and information that people could chew on to inform people.”
Mr Piper said the broadcast report could only have achieved ’empowering people in their entrenched position’.
“It didn’t move the conversation forward, it didn’t teach either side how to have an informed discussion,” he said.
“It just reinforces the deep-seated narrative that farmers don’t want it, but renewables are good.”
In the video, shared to One Nation senator Malcom Roberts’ Facebook page, Mr Piper heads to a hilltop to demonstrate “what the 7.30am report didn’t show you”.
“This is what I brought them here to show them, as usual, the good old ABC Christmas picks and edits to sell a message and basically talk for seven minutes and not communicate anything to you.”
Mr. Piper gestures to the proposed locations of two wind turbine properties that will surround his property.
During the ABC report, Mr Piper was given about a minute of airtime to get his points across
“There are currently over a thousand turbines in the projects, each of which consists of over 2,000 tons of concrete in the base, 600 tons of steel in the tower… plus I don’t know how many tons of carbon fiber and epoxy in the blades,” he said.
Mr Piper said the wind turbines will emit particles of Bisphenol A, the chemical used in making polycarbonate plastics for the wind turbine blades, also known as BPA.
“BPA is an endocrine disruptor and that will erode over the life of those turbines and spread fine BPA across land and into waterways,” Mr Piper claimed.
“So what’s that going to do to fertility and livestock health and people’s health… but they don’t want to talk about that.”
Whether wind turbines emit BPA particles that can harm the fertility of humans and animals remains a hot topic of debate among renewable energy proponents and opponents.
Mr Piper states that BPA will be regarded in the future in the same way asbestos is now.
“The blades erode over time, but the points go 300 or 400 miles an hour and they erode,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“All that dust and particles, you couldn’t think of a better way to spread it over land.
‘We work for generations, centuries of work raising livestock and fertility is the first thing you need.
‘If you don’t have fertility, the numbers don’t add up. if you get even a two or three percent reduction in your herd, it will destroy the progress of the last 300 years.
“It’s no small thing.”
In his video, Mr Piper refuted the idea that farmers are well compensated if they have wind turbines.
“Compared to the capital value loss on the land and the production loss on the land, the compensation offered is not really significant,” he said.
“It is also a major barrier to food production in this country and we will suffer in the long run, as will our children, as they will forever have to pay the bills for these foreign companies.”
Mr Piper said city residents may not realize what is involved.
‘It’s not like the city where they acquire your land to build a railroad or a roundabout or something, where tHey, buy your whole block‘ he said.
“(In rural areas) they buy an easement and put a power line on it that lasts forever and only offset the easement a little bit and a few percent against the rest of the property, but it doesn’t really offset the loss of capital value
“If you subdivide a hundred hectares and put a damn power line on it, you’ll never sell the damn thing, it’s worthless.”
In his video, Mr Piper showed how his property would be landlocked by proposed wind farms
‘Once you’re thrown into this uncertainty, what does that do to your business investments and future plans?
He said most people who have installed wind turbines on their properties are “taking their foot off the pedal.”
‘They no longer farm primarily, they no longer have to farm.
“The noise or other things get them moving, so most of them are absentee landowners.”
Mr Piper’s estate is located in what the NSW Government has declared the Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone, meaning the region is intended to be a major hub of renewable projects.
According to Mr Piper, there were 54 renewable energy projects in the works for the area, consisting of more than 1,000 turbines and nine million solar panels.
He said operators needed an average of 140 hectares per turbine 25 square kilometers for an 850 megawatt solar park.
Heavy duty transmission lines would also have to be installed to carry power from renewable energy sources, which Mr Piper said normally meant farmers having to subdivide their properties.
“During construction, they can’t move from one part of their building to another part of their building,” he said.
“Would you buy a property if it had electrical cables running through the inside or around the edge of it?”
The 7.30 report asked whether Mr Piper was a ‘NIMBY’ who only objected to renewables because they were in his backyard.
Mr Piper made no apologies when he said he didn’t want them near him, pointing out that people in Sydney don’t want them from the northern beaches or Bondi Beach.
“(Teal MP) Zali Steggall has something on her website saying I don’t support wind farms on the northern beaches,” he said.
“I mean, how hypocritical do you have to be.”
Ms Steggall’s website states: ‘For the record, I have solar panels on my house, I drive an electric car and I do not support wind farms along Warringah beach.’
As for whether he was disappointed by his role on the ABC, Mr Piper said he was not surprised.
“All these once trusted institutions that you once supported – the ABC or the CSIRO or the BOM – have been destroyed, they have no integrity or credibility left,” he said.
‘We know that. Everyone with open eyes and ears knows that.’
The ABC has been contacted for comment.