Hunter on the Brink: The Renewable Fantasy That’s Pushing Hardworking Families to the Edge

The Hunter is crumbling. And yet, the government insists everything is fine. Today, Energy Minister Chris Bowen made a “big announcement” in our region. But look closely—one name was conspicuously missing: Dan Repacholi. He chose Singleton over the Hunter watching over some immigration ceremony no one asked for, keeping his distance from Bowen as the next renewable disaster was unveiled. Maybe he just doesn’t want to be near failure. Who could blame him?

Remember the battery factory? Broke before it even got off the ground. Now comes the Hunter Offshore Wind Project—another boondoggle no private investor will touch. Dead in the water, abandoned before it even leaves the drawing board. And the people who built this region? They’re paying the price.

The Hunter was built on hard work. Men and women who spent decades in the mines, putting their backs into the earth, keeping the lights on for everyone else. And now? They’re being pushed toward the welfare line—slowly, methodically, as if hard work no longer matters. These are people who believed in this region. Who believed that if you worked hard, you could provide for your family. That belief is being stripped away.

This government has three basic jobs: ensure people can afford food, housing, and energy. On every count, it is failing. Walk into Woolworths or Coles and witness the shameful security measures designed to stop people from stealing food. Not because they want to steal—it’s embarrassing—but because they have no choice. Grapes cost $17 a kilo. Electricity bills soar into the stratosphere. And the ABC? Funded by the very government causing the pain, spinning the story to blame coal, gas—anything but their policies.

And the young? Burdened by HECS debt, now indexed so it can never be fully paid off. Twenty percent wiped away, sure—but the rest chained to them forever. Debt is modern servitude.

The Hunter stands at the edge of an economic apocalypse. Families who built this place are being forced to compromise, to scrape, to queue. The people who made this region strong are being abandoned, while politicians in Canberra pat themselves on the back for their “green vision.”

This isn’t progress. This is a tragedy. And the Hunter is watching, powerless, as it unfolds.