A debate about the safety of wind farms in the event of a bushfire was sparked during a Moyne shire decision about making a submission to a federal government inquiry.
The submission addresses the issue of roadside vegetation and droving within the shire while also acknowledging its climate emergency declaration.
But Cr Jim Doukas took issue with references in the submission to wind farms which he said made out that they were "the greatest thing since sliced bread when it comes to firefighting".
"If you look at Dundonnell, how are you going to fight a fire in there with all the rocks. You're only kidding yourself," he said.
"If turbines are still going, it's only going to fan force the fires and make it worse."
But Cr Ian Smith, a fire brigade captain said, the wind farms had made an "incredible difference" to the firefighting capacity in the stones.
"Prior to the construction of the wind farm, as captain, you would never send a crew into that area but now with the wind farms I think there's 59 kilometres of road you'd ride your push bike on," Cr Smith said.
"It's a great outcome for that stoney area there to have safe accessible tracks through."
Cr Doukas also took issue with references to the new powerlines in the submission.
"Here we have high-voltage power lines going down unused road. It's bad enough going down a road we use but when you're in the outback what happens?," he said.
"Are they going to do the maintenance that's required or do they get covered in the odd bird's nest or debris?
"A lot of those power lines go through cropping country. Dust and chaffing interferes with the power lines. I really do have a problem with those references.
"You should have sat back and had a closer look at what we said about fighting fires and wind farms and high voltage transmission lines."
Despite the debate over wind farms and power lines, the motion to make the submission to the inquiry was carried unanimously by councillors.
The federal government launched the inquiry into past and current vegetation and land management policy, practices and legislation and their impact on the intensity and frequency of bushfires in early December.
Cr Smith said the submission addressed many of the issues the shire was confronted with after the St Patrick's Day fires and problems it had last year with drovers and roadside grazing.
Cr Wolfe said the submission stated its position on a climate emergency and advocated for better roadside vegetation removal regulations and the relaxing of roadside droving regulations. Mayor Daniel Meade said Moyne had been lobbying the state government to improve roadside vegetation regulations.
