About emPOWER: supporting Regional Engagement during the Energy Transition
Join us as we share insights, stories, and strategies from stakeholders and experts about the unique dynamics, opportunities, and challenges of engaging in regional Australia. emPOWER’s goal is to support respectful and effective engagement during the energy transition.
Beyond Co-existence: Can Regions Shape Their Energy Future?
Can regions move beyond simply responding to the energy transition and start shaping it?
While much of the national conversation focuses on the politics of renewable energy, regional communities are getting on with the job of managing change, balancing risk and opportunity, and planning for their future.
In this episode, Wendy Agar speaks with Chris Sounness, CEO of Wimmera Southern Mallee Development, about one of Australia's most innovative approaches to regional collaboration.
Together they explore the lessons from the nationally recognised Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Energy Collaboration, why renewable energy host landholders need support beyond commercial agreements, and why Chris believes it's time to move beyond co-existence and rethink the relationship between agriculture and renewable energy.
why Chris has coined the term ‘Agri Energy’Together Chris and Wendy explore:
Why collaboration matters during the energy transition.
Lessons from the Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Energy Collaboration.
Supporting renewable energy host landholders.
Why "co-existence" is no longer enough.
How Agri-Energy could help regional Australia thrive.
This episode is part of the Regions at the Helm series, supported by The Energy Charter, exploring how regional communities can help shape better outcomes through the energy transition.
If you work in renewable energy, community engagement, agriculture, local government or regional development, this conversation offers practical insights into how communities, industry and government can work together to shape better outcomes.
Produced at The Podcast Boss podcast studio in Brisbane
20 Jul 2026
When Facts Aren't Enough: Working with Outrage During Community Engagement
Our instinct is often to explain more, provide more information or try harder to persuade.
But when emotions are running high, facts alone rarely change minds.
People don't respond to technical risk alone. They respond to how that risk feels. Understanding that difference is at the heart of outrage management.
In this episode of emPOWER, Wendy Agar sits down with Kelly Parkinson, who has spent decades helping organisations navigate community outrage during major infrastructure and development projects around the world. Working alongside internationally recognised risk communication expert Peter Sandman, Kelly has helped organisations prevent, reduce and work through community outrage, while training practitioners and leaders to build trust when projects become stuck.
Kelly first joined the emPOWER podcast in Episode 3 to introduce the foundations of Outrage Management. In this conversation, we build on those ideas and continue the discussion from our previous episode, ‘Who Looks After the People Leading Change?’ with Andrew Brier, moving from how we look after ourselves to how we work effectively with others when conversations become difficult.
Together, Wendy and Kelly unpack:
Why facts and evidence rarely reduce outrage on their own• What outrage really is and why understanding it changes everything• Why many of the biggest barriers to good engagement sit inside organisations, not communities• The practical strategies that help build trust when emotions are high• How to recognise the psychological drivers behind people's concerns• Why listening, empathy and validation are often more powerful than persuasion• What great community engagement looks like when conversations become difficult
Whether you work in community engagement, land access, renewable energy, infrastructure, mining or government, this conversation offers practical, evidence-based strategies for navigating difficult conversations with greater confidence, empathy and effectiveness.
This episode is part of our Working in the Middle: Engagement on the Ground During the Energy Transition series, proudly supported by Powerlink Queensland.
Produced at The Podcast Boss podcast studio in Brisbane
6 Jul 2026
The Hidden Cost of Community Engagement. Who Looks After the People Leading Change?
Community engagement is incredibly rewarding work, but anyone who's done it knows it can also be emotionally demanding.
You're often working with people who are worried, frustrated or uncertain about change, while balancing project pressures, competing expectations and emotionally demanding conversations. The impact is cumulative, and over time it can take a real toll.
In this episode of emPOWER, Wendy Agar speaks with Andrew Brier, who has spent decades working at the intersection of communities, government and major energy and resource projects, about the often-overlooked reality of 'working in the middle' and what it really takes to stay safe while helping others navigate change.
Drawing on decades of experience across Queensland's coal seam gas industry and the renewable energy transition, Andrew shares the lessons he's learnt about preparing yourself, recognising risk early and staying effective without carrying the weight of every conversation home.
Together, Wendy and Andrew unpack:
Why community engagement is emotionally demanding work• The hidden risks practitioners face that organisations don't always see• How to care deeply without carrying everything home• What great leaders do to support engagement teams• Lessons from the coal seam gas industry that still matter today• Why preparing yourself is just as important as preparing for the stakeholder
Whether you work in community engagement, land access, renewable energy, infrastructure, mining or government, this conversation offers practical insights into protecting the people leading change.
This episode is part of our Working in the Middle: Engagement on the Ground During the Energy Transition series, proudly supported by Powerlink Queensland.
Produced at The Podcast Boss podcast studio in Brisbane
Who has been a guest on emPOWER: supporting Regional Engagement during the Energy Transition
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Tony Wolfe
Karin Stark
Andrew Bomm
Tony Mahar
Rod Stowe
Podcast Authority Score: 15 / 100
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Wendy Agar host the show. Published by Wendy Agar.
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