Australia could soon be home to its first offshore wind farm, with the landmark Star of the South project proposed for Gippsland South in Victoria. If it goes ahead it is expected to create thousands of jobs during construction and power as many as 1.2 million homes with clean, renewable energy.
Building offshore wind would be a gamechanger for action on the climate crisis, and could play a critical role in the post-Covid recovery effort.
But if governments go slow, we could be waiting years to see this game changing offshore wind project to deliver action on climate.
In April 2020, the Star of the South officially kickstarted the environmental approvals process after being referred to both the federal and Victorian governments.
We can’t let this opportunity go by -- governments need to take action now and put the building blocks in place to create thousands of jobs in offshore wind.
Star of the South was first publicly proposed in 2014. Delaying any further only means wasting an opportunity to create jobs while cutting emissions.
We’re calling on both the Morrison and Andrews governments to trigger the next steps in the planning process and bring on a legal framework as a matter of urgency to pave the way for offshore wind and create thousands of good climate jobs.