Jim Willmott Property Rights Australia Gold Coast 13th September 2023

Jim is a committee member on the National Rational Energy Network (NREN) and also has a role as Chair of Property Rights Australia, a grass roots community organisation fighting to protect people's private property rights. Please see link to the PRA website https://propertyrightsaustralia.org.au/. He operates a beef property in the South Burnett region in southern Queensland near Kingaroy.

Jims current role on NREN is to capture the social impacts on rural and regional communities from the development of industrial scaled wind, solar, battery energy storage systems, pumped hydro and high voltage transmissions lines and associated infrastructure. The South Burnett region like yours is also experiencing a rapid influx of renewable energy projects convened by a host of different developers aided and abetted by the Federal and State governments.

He is proceeding with 2 key projects to assist in raising awareness of the impacts caused by the transition to renewable energy in rural and regional Australia and bringing change to current energy policy. Both of these projects are briefly described below:

Social Impact Survey on rural and regional communities located in areas of renewable development activity across Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia. The K-10 survey will be used as the objective measure of well-being across these communities. This information will be valuable in formally recognising the potential range of social impacts produced from both State and Federal government energy policy and used as one of the key levers to bring change to this madness.
· A published book highlighting the plight of rural communities that are experiencing the impacts of renewable developments. This publication will be a series of stories from individuals landowners, community group representatives and other NGOs. A publishing house has come forwards and agreed to cover all cost of publishing, editing and marketing. All profits from book sales will be directed back into a fighting fund used to support ongoing efforts against the current State and Federal government energy policies.