Candidates quizzed on climate change, renewables, with some calling for nuclear power

Ovens Valley candidates were quizzed on climate change and renewable energy during Monday’s public forum hosted by Wangaratta Landcare and Sustainability Inc. Around 90 community members gathered in the Uniting Church, with more watching a live stream of the forum, to hear from candidates Tim McCurdy (Nationals), Steve Manning (Independent), Dr Julian Fidge (Libertarian), James Rouel (One Nation) and Ben Gilbert (Greens). Each was asked: If elected, will you advocate for more action on climate change and will you support sustainable renewable energy projects in the Ovens Valley? Mr McCurdy said he was always happy to advocate, and supported solar and wind turbines that were “very good in the right place”, but warned that you can’t ride roughshod over communities that don’t want them. “We need to make sure that we can continue to produce food for the world, for our state, for our country,” he said. “If we continue to ride roughshod over our communities who are producing agricultural food for us all, we will be in trouble.” He said the Coalition had a plan to get more solar panels on all factories in Melbourne, and in car parks, rather than on prime agricultural land. Mr Manning said meeting targets to reduce the impacts of climate change was important, as was better consultation around renewable energy and their community benefit programs. “We have to make sure communities are properly consulted and if they are to host such infrastructure the economic benefits flow through to them,” he said. Dr Fidge said he supports nuclear energy as a means of increasing action on climate change. “Nuclear energy is well proven and should be tried in Australia,” he said. “I support an increase in solar...people who host solar farms should reap some of the benefits...be given free electricity in the middle of day as a reward for having these unsightly things in our domain.” Dr Fidge said more investment should be made into Landcare to tackle climate change because volunteers have generated extremely good results for the environment. Mr Rouel while he absolutely doesn’t debate climate change is real, One Nation policy is to dump net zero. “From my perspective, at what cost does it come? What is the point of going for 100 per cent renewable energy when we see pensioners every day that can’t put their heaters on at night,” he said. Mr Rouel said he would be “very open to nuclear”. He said he has no issue with renewables on roofs, factories, places like that, “but they don’t belong on our farms, or taking over out townships”. “We need better consultation because they are tearing our communities apart in our region and its needs to be addressed ASAP,” Mr Rouel said. Mr Gilbert raised a few eyebrows when he said he was a big fan of “nuclear” - instantly defining the source as “the big ball of it in the sky (our sun)...and we don’t have to spend a cent”. “Without a doubt the legacy of our generation will be the decisions we make to mitigate climate change,” he said. ‘The Greens are advocating community-owned renewable energy.” You can view the full recording of the forum on Youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJA0EujnMGo&t= 793s

Candidates quizzed on climate change, renewables, with some calling for nuclear power

Wangaratta Chronicle, Wednesday, 11 November, 2026

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