Bowen commits to overhaul of renewables approval process after regional furore

But over the past two years, with the accelerated rollout of renewables across Australia, regional communities could be forgiven for thinking they are still on the front line.

The latest salvo occurred in the Illawarra, where the government's proposal for a offshore wind zone across 1461 square kilometres of ocean drew over 14,000 submissions, more than double every other zone proposed so far combined.

While Mr Bowen insists the government is pursuing sensible policies designed to lay down the arms of the last decade, he also doesn't mind taking a potshot at his opponents, saying the Coalition is arguing for "no action on climate change".

This is a stance his counterpart, the Liberal National Party's Ted O'Brien disputes, instead putting forward the Coalition's "balanced energy mix" plan, including nuclear power, as the solution to cut emissions and drive down power prices.

But in between these two hyper-partisan positions are the cities and towns of regional Australia, where under either party, the bulk of new renewable energy generation and storage will be located.

In a survey of regional Australia and the ACT, conducted for ACM, publisher of this masthead, the vast majority of respondents said there was an information deficit when it came to renewable projects, with both governments and developers on the hook.

Mr Bowen says he is listening to the concerns of regional communities, and that beyond the noisy edges of the debate there is a silent majority supportive of the renewables rollout.

"Those two extremes of the domain are, of course, the most vocal and most prominent, but I I think that the majority of people, including in regional Australia, have sensible views," he said.

"They want to have a say, they want to make sure those concerns are met, but they're not saying, 'Don't do it'. They're saying, 'Get on with it'.

"I think the general attitude of most people can be summed up that way, in the cities and the regions, 'Get on with it, get it right, and stop talking about it'."

But behind much of the conflicts tearing apart rural towns and regional centres is a consultation system in need of significant reform.

Late last year, Andrew Dyer, Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner, delivered to the government his report on community engagement in the rollout of renewable energy and transmission infrastructure.

During the review, Mr Dyer found poor engagement practices on the part of developers and government were creating distrust and acrimony in regional communities.

In some cases, renewable energy developers were consulting with communities on projects unlikely to ever see the light of day, leading to uncertainty, anxiety and "consultation fatigue".

Mr Bowen acknowledged the current scheme for speaking to communities about the renewable energy projects in their backyard "wasn't up to scratch".

"The consultation process that we inherited wasn't up to scratch, particularly around transmission," he said.

"It happened very late and by and large decisions had already been made when communities were consulted. Communities are pretty smart, they can see, 'Oh this decision has already been made, this consultation is not real'."

In this year's federal budget, the Albanese government committed $20 million to improve consultation processes, which will include the establishment of an accreditation scheme for renewable energy developers, one of the recommendations of the Dyer report.

But some observers are calling for a more hands-on role for government in the renewable energy rollout, particularly as delays, such as the three-year delay in the New England Renewable Energy Zone, see projects pushed back and timelines squeezed for Australia to meet its renewable energy targets.

University of Wollongong associate professor Michelle Voyer, a former public servant, has been on the front line having these conversations with communities, and now researches how to improve these for better outcomes for communities and the environment.

She says Australia is unique in its hands-off approach, which often pits overstretched local communities up against well-resourced renewable energy developers.

"Most governments around the world do take a much more proactive involvement in this," Dr Voyer said.

The adversarial process, in which communities are encouraged to put forward doubts or concerns, and developers in competition with one-another are invited then to address these, leaves little room for collaboration and co-design. Startlingly, the recently approved Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone in NSW generated 401 submissions, with only three in support.

In approving the project, the NSW government imposed nearly 100 conditions.

"At the moment, there's an absence of these forums for negotiation in the current system that we've got here," Dr Voyer said.

"There's actually so much common ground, and the process today does very little to focus in on that and create opportunities."

With a federal election around the corner, finding this common ground may be increasingly difficult. Mr Bowen said he would like to see a greater focus on community benefit, as part of future renewable energy projects.

"It's a perfectly legitimate question for a community to ask, 'What's in it for us'?" he said. "We've got to have a better answer."

Getting to the government's target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030 and increasing the proportion after that will require governments and communities to navigate through a morass of misinformation and disinformation, as well as vested interests pushing their own barrow.

Mr Bowen himself is often the target of this, with some of the most popular posts in Facebook pages set up to oppose renewable energy projects using AI-generated images of him "steamrolling" local communities. It's something he is aware of, but shrugs off as part of the job.

"I've got pretty broad shoulders, I talk to my international colleagues about this who say we're the most controversial figure in our country," he said.

But as the bipartisan commitment to net zero by 2050 appears to be increasingly fragile due to diverging attitudes towards renewable energy infrastructure, for regional communities, the climate wars may be over, but the energy wars have only just begun.