Wind farms are a “complete fraud” that “only exist on taxpayer subsidies”, the Warrnambool Standard reports Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Peter McGauran as saying yesterday on a visit to Victoria’s western districts.

Follow the link. The picture of McGauran and his host, Speaker David Hawker, is worth a thousand words. Not that the Standard‘s copy isn’t bad. Their journo, Madeline Healy, has done a sterling job:

Mr McGauran’s comments on wind farms revealed a difference of opinion between himself and fellow Coalition MP, member for Wannon David Hawker, who hosted the minister’s visit to the region.

Mr Hawker said he had been supportive of the many wind farm projects that had been proposed for the south-west.

“It’s bringing jobs and investment to the district,” he said.

Mr McGauran said he was speaking as member for Gippsland, another wind farm hot spot, where he said most locals had come to hate wind projects.

“They devalue the land and to see hardworking individuals have their properties devalued so considerably is immoral,” he said.

Mr McGauran said the wind farm industry was driven only by tax subsidies and not by efficiency.

“They generate next to no electricity, for heaven’s sake, when the wind is not blowing,” he said.

“It can’t be stored and their contribution to the electricity grid is so small that it is hard to even measure.”

There are some beautiful subtexts here concerning strife between the Liberals and their country cousins.

The Nationals are only just hanging on in Victoria and McGauran has had a go at Hawker for pushing state Liberal candidates over the Nats – particularly after the bitter battle which saw the Liberals take Warrnambool and do their darndest in Wimmera. And as a good party boy, McGauran no doubt recalls Hawker’s role pushing for the Nationals to lose their automatic right to front bench slots.

McGauran has shown great dedication to his work. He and his people know that Hawker has happily promoted wind farms in his electorates, despite the objections of a number of locals. A few choice words from the Minister and the issue is back in the headlines of country papers.

No doubt his comments will go down well with RARA voters who see wind farms as a tax scam along the same lines as emu farms and eucalypt plantations. But what will the Nats offer? A nuclear plant?