For Alex O’Brien, the media spokesperson for Responsible Future (Illawarra Chapter), opposing the Illawarra’s newly declared offshore wind zone is so important that he has volunteered countless hours on the campaign. On Monday he even took the day off work to join a group of protestors at Wollongong Harbour.

“The community is upset by this project. It's not the right technology for our New South Wales coast,” Alex said yesterday.

Officially declared on Saturday, June 15, the final wind zone is further out to sea and smaller than the original area. Stretching from Stanwell Park to Kiama, it is 20km from shore at its closest point and reduced by a third to 1022 sq km.

Alex does not see either change as a win, describing it as the Federal Government “pretending to make concessions”.

"This is just the Labor Party pretending to actually engage with the community and listen to them,” Alex said, adding that people were "hurting" and felt let down about the “industrialisation of our coastline”.

On Monday morning, Alex, fellow Responsible Future committee members Grant Drinkwater, Amanda De Lore and the association’s president, Jenny Cullen, were among about 100 people who gathered at Wollongong Harbour ahead of a waterfront press conference with Nationals leader David Littleproud and Nationals Senator for NSW Ross Cadell.

While WIN News and national TV crews filmed the scene, the group chanted “No wind turbines” and displayed signs reading “Save the planet, does not mean destroy the ocean” and “No coastal wind factory Illawarra”.

David Littleproud opened the media conference with a promise to attendees, saying, “The National Party as part of a future Coalition Government will not allow this to happen to you. There will be no wind farm.

“There is a better way to do this.”

David said this region would not be a nuclear site.

“We're not taking a linear pathway to achieving net zero,” he said.

“Our plan will be very clear, when we announce it.”

Monday’s crowd – who were mostly older, including retirees, due to it being a work day, Alex said – gave the visiting politicians several cheers during the press conference.

“Everyone wants to talk to us, but not the Labor Party,” Alex said.

“So for the leader of the National Party, the deputy leader of the Coalition, to come down to the Illawarra to speak to the community, to actually listen to their concerns and make a strong statement that he's going to scrap this project if the Coalition elected is exactly what this community wanted to hear.”

Commercial fishery owner Mark Horne stepped up to the mic to express his disappointment at the wind zone declaration. “It comes on the back of a very significant milestone for our company,” Mark said. “We're approaching 25 years of catching fresh seafood in the Illawarra for the Illawarra and for the world. Our main focus in the Illawarra is eastern rock lobsters. And on the back of 12 months ago, we were awarded a MSC certification, meaning we have worldwide recognition now.”

Mark said he is still unsure what impact a wind farm 20km offshore might have on his sustainable fishery. “It's mainly the transmission lines that worry us the most,” he said.

“There's so many questions that haven't been answered. And to give a green light in the middle of the whale migration season here is just so hypocritical.”

After Monday's gathering, Responsible Future has two more major events planned: public forums in Fairy Meadow on June 25 and Kiama on July 9.

Everyone – including politicians from all parties – is invited to attend. Speakers have not yet been announced but Alex said it would be a chance for the group to share its research.

“The community has a right to know how much of a gamble offshore wind is for the Illawarra.

“I'm not against renewables and nor is the association, but we need a better way – from the energy options, from the way they're rolled out, from the way communities are consulted – and we need to stop the division in the community.

“It's important – we all want to live here. We don't want to be angry with our neighbours because they hold a different view.”

Responsible Future members care about the environment, he said. During the often fierce debates online, several members have been upset to be dismissed as supporters of fossil fuel companies.

Alex himself is a Wollongong local, attracted to the city four years ago by family ties and the coast’s natural beauty.

“Before that,” he said, “my wife and I were fortunate enough to travel around the world. A big driver for doing that trip was to see as much of the world before it was destroyed by mankind and climate change.

“When we came back to Australia, we decided that, a few months after our daughter was born, we wanted her to grow up not in a city, but in a natural environment. So we relocated, as many in our community have, to our beautiful coastline.”

Alex previously lived in Newtown for several years where he transitioned to a plant-based diet, a decision he made for the sake of the environment and his love of animals. He has also campaigned against the captivity of animals and unethical pet breeders. It was his career in wealth management – where he’s worked for 15 years at a senior level – that drove him to become involved in the campaign against offshore wind: “I have seen how profit drives investments. I have seen how investors profit off people and the environment.”

Working in the financial world also opened his eyes to greenwashing, “where things are labelled ethical, they're labelled green, but the reality is they're not”.

“So when this project came about, I could see all the hallmarks of it being greenwashed, being profit driven. And that's why I got involved. I could not sit and see that type of process being followed.

“This is just a very unsuitable project for the Illawarra.”

“I definitely believe that mankind has had a significant negative impact on the environment. The fact is we need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. We need to reduce carbon emissions.”

Scientists also need to use technology to reduce emissions in agriculture, Alex said, and the government should make better investments in public transport. “We as a society have to look at our excess consumption.”

Alex personally welcomes the efforts "helping the country better understand the costs of energy projects" by Aidan Morrison, director of Energy Research at Australia’s Centre for Independent Studies, and is concerned about renewable cost blow-outs (“We don't want this to be a Snowy Hydro”). He thinks the ABC's recent Four Corners report on ‘Wind Wars’ was a “hack job” and objects to politicians and the media supporting the “tribalisation of our communities”.

“That's not what the Illawarra is. We're a great group of diverse people that have enjoyed that coastline and, you know, we should be looking at ways to heal the community, not further divide it.”

Read more about Saturday’s announcement here and find today's opinion piece by UOW's Michelle Voyer and Ty Christopher here.