Wollongong's climate wars are about to get messy, but it didn't have to be this way

The contention proposal of an offshore wind zone has divided the community, something clearly spelt out in the submissions received on the draft zone.

No one in the region needs reminding of the ugly turn the debate took during the consultation period, however the arrival of Nationals Party leader David Littleproud signalled the next phase was only to become more fractious.

With the Coalition largely absent from the region during the consultation period, the fact the member for Maranoa came to Wollongong with the Hunter-based Nationals senator for NSW Ross Cadell was unprecedented and telling.

Even Mr Littleproud acknowledged this in his remarks to journalists.

"We've come here today as Nationals with not a strong record in the Illawarra," he said.

But with indications the party is open to running a candidate in Whitlam, and with Peter Dutton attending a fundraiser for Liberal Andrew Constance's campaign for Gilmore in Nowra on Tuesday, June 18, the Illawarra should prepare to buckle in for another bruising campaign.

But it didn't always need to be this way.

The number one stated concern for both supporters and detractors of the proposed offshore wind zone is the environment.

With public consultation designed to flush out concerns and opposition to the zone, it's no surprise that the tone of the period was marked by loud voices of dissent.

But the declaration of the zone was perhaps a missed opportunity to take a different approach to a once in a generation opportunity for the Illawarra.

An offshore wind zone isn't a solar farm on land, wind turbines on a hill or transmission line past a highway. It's a major step into a world that many of us look at every day, but very few of us know anything about below the surface.

The unprecedented nature of the project allows for new approaches to delivery. The Illawarra has an opportunity to say what this will look like.

Will it be independent scientific research about what lies beneath the waves 20 kilometres offshore, with red lines about impacts to the marine environment?

Will it be a nature-positive approach? Not just mitigating any impacts but improving the area and leaving it better off than how we found it.

Or will it be a defined community benefit scheme, with a floor set for local content and developers incentivised to go above that.

There is no reason why any or all of these approaches are not possible, but a fractured and politically tinged shouting match will leave the Illawarra with none of these.

Our hyper competitive, proponent-led approvals process is about to begin. Proponents who are preparing their feasibility licence applications will now ramp up conversations with local suppliers and community groups to enable them to pitch their bona fides to Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen, but these will be shrouded in commercial-in-confidence and non-disclosure clauses, due to the billions of dollars at stake.

Having watched this debate play out for the past two and a half years, writing more than 40 articles along the way for the Illawarra Mercury, it's saddening to leave the paper for a role at our Canberra stablemate having seen many of the worst fears I had when this kicked off playing out.

Changing course will be like turning around a cargo ship pulling into Port Kembla - challenging but not impossible. Like the three tugs - Ruby, Bass and Flinders that guide each vessel into port - it will require strength and a willingness to work together, even when each ship might be pulling in different directions.

Do we need a community champion, a non-partisan figure that can reach across the divide, and find areas of common ground?

Or could otherwise opposed groupings form a coalition and identify shared interests, while retaining their independence on issues specific to them.

These might seem like pie-in-the-sky wishes from an eternal optimist, however the Illawarra's regional rival Newcastle offers a case study of how to get things right.

As the shutdown of the BHP steelworks in the Hunter loomed, key players in the region, who otherwise were at loggerheads came together to chart a way forward for the thousands of workers who could have lost their jobs and avoid the destructive impact of ripping out the industrial heart of the region.

Now, many in the Illawarra would be grateful to have the thriving regional economy the Hunter has, with the alliance that formed 20 years ago now shepherding the city through the end of coal exports.

Back in the Illawarra there will be some who will never want to have the turbines in no matter the form and to an extent that is understandable.

But with the climate crisis already here, and the Illawarra home to some of the most carbon intensive industries in NSW, we all have an obligation to do our part. The Illawarra offshore wind zone presents an opportunity to do this, but only if it works for the Illawarra.