When Napthine stepped up to the plate after Baillieu’s swift and teary departure, we saw a glimmer of hope for a state that seemed doomed to a future shadowed by mountains of dirty coal. After all, Napthine’s electorate houses the biggest wind farm in the state and numerous times he has publicly lauded the benefits of wind energy.

Yet, only two months in office and Napthine has proved that he too is willing to trade away the state’s environment and the health of its residents for a future in bed with the coal industry.

In the last few months the new Premier has endorsed Baillieu’s anti-wind farm laws, watered down the Department of Sustainability by merging it with that of Primary Industries and declared the state “open for business”.  A new department responsible for both developing the brown coal industry and protecting our environment doesn’t bode well for our climate future.

In a daring banner drop this morning at Flinders St Station, Quit Coal activists let Premier Napthine know that he’s taking Victorians down the wrong track.

Scaling the iconic building, the activists unfurled an 84 square metre banner that read, ‘get off the coal train, Denis and on track for renewables’.

More Quit Coal activists supported on the ground flyering the hundreds of commuters that passed by, holding banners, and liaising with the police and media. The action was picked up by The Age, The Australian, ABC News, 3AW, Channel Ten (make sure you watch the news tonight!) and even by Australian Mining!

Descending after over two hours, all three were arrested and have been charged with trespass, bringing items that are likely to endanger another person or damage property and a causing a common nuisance. They are likely to face court and large fines.

“We’re urging Denis Napthine to act quickly and act strongly to bring down Victoria’s emissions, help mitigate catastrophic climate change and secure a safe future for all Victorians,” said Quit Coal spokesperson, Chloe Aldenhoven

The actions of these three brave activists add to the growing momentum for civil disobedience in Australia that includes the recent occupation of a coal export ship by Greenpeace activists and the rapidly increasing anti-CSG movement across the country’s east coast.

When governments stop listening and the media distorts the truth, civil disobedience is a necessary action.

Already this year, we’ve seen record breaking heatwaves and natural disasters on mass, along with scientific evidence backed by the IPCC that proves the world is on track for a 4-6 degree temperature rise by the end of the century – an extremely dangerous prospect for people, oceans, animals, agriculture, you name it. If governments do not take action now, the future is looking dire. It’s up to us to show governments that we simply won’t accept that.

Here’s what we’re urging Premier Napthine to do:

1. Repeal Baillieu’s restrictive wind-farm policy

Research by Friends of the Earth estimates that the wind policy championed by Baillieu has cost Victoria around $887 million in lost or stalled investment, and massively slowed Victoria’s transition to clean energy.

These wind farm laws stand in stark contrast to laws around coal and unconventional gas mine development. While one single household can halt the development of a wind farm within 2kms of their property, not even an entire community has any legal power to stop the development of a coal mine right next door to their local primary school.

These restrictive and highly disproportionate anti-wind farm laws were put in place under the guise of reacting to community concerns but over the years we’ve seen no response whatsoever to community concerns about the health impacts of coal mining which, unlike the concerns around wind farms, are backed up by years of scientific evidence.

In Gippsland, vast tracks of our prime agricultural land are currently under exploration for coal and unconventional gas mining and communities lack the legal means to do anything to stop it. Not only are these developments a threat to the health of local communities they are also a threat to our food and water supply.

Gippsland produces approximately $1.3 billion of food each year and is a water catchment area that supplies a large proportion of Melbourne’s drinking water.

There is a dangerously high risk that contaminated air and water will directly impinge on the state’s ability to produce healthy, clean food and water.

2. Institute a moratorium on all new coal and unconventional gas projects
Government regulation of the unconventional gas industry is unbelievably lax. In the last year, as a result of coal seam gas mining, we’ve seen serious environmental damage – massive amounts of methane bubbling up in Queensland’s Condamine River and heavily contaminated soil in the Pilliga forest are just two examples. We’ve also seen growing numbers of residents living among operational coal seam gas wells presenting symptoms consistent with gas exposure.

Now, rural communities in Victoria face the same threat with over 30 mining exploration licences covering vast tracks of Gippsland. The current moratorium is an inadequate band-aid and is likely to be removed in May when the National Harmonised Framework, a regulatory framework on CSG, is released.

It’s hard to believe this framework, developed by energy and resources ministers from across Australia will be unbiased and reliable when you consider the new Energy and Resources Minister, Gary Gray, is a former climate change denier and when we’ve just discovered that the former QLD government knowingly accepted dodgy environmental impact assessments to rush through the approval of an enormous coal seam gas mine. How can we rely on a government so deeply entwined with the coal and gas industries to produce an unbiased report? Once again the fox is in charge of the hen house.

3. Cancel plans to allocate for export an extra 13 billion tonnes of brown coal in the Latrobe Valley.

Last year Baillieu committed millions of dollars to the expansion of the brown coal industry in the Latrobe Valley. This stuff is bad news. Not only does it emit 30 percent more greenhouse gas than black coal due to its high moisture content, mining it would require the development of huge, new open-cut coal mines in the Latrobe Valley. This puts at risk the health of local communities who would suffer the adverse health effects of living near an open-cut coal mine – an increased risk of cancer, lung disease and asthma.

With the world on track for 4-6 degrees of warming, when burning coal is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, it is mindnumbingly asinine that the government would consider going ahead with a massive brown coal project that would contribute billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere each year.

4. Invest in and support renewables

Finally, we need to look at a realistic and sustainable future energy supply. Victoria has the means to become a solar and wind powerhouse but it needs the government’s support to make it happen. It has high wind speeds, available network capacity, an abundance of suitable development sites and access to the pool of three billion dollars the federal government has assigned to invest in large-scale renewable energy projects as part of the Renewable Energy Target (RET).

A strong renewables sector means jobs and regional development, a transition to clean energy and a safer climate for all.

Premiers come and go but climate change will be a long-term challenge for Victoria. This issue requires politicians to be visionary, to be honorable and to think beyond their term.

Ted Baillieu’s recent resignation gave the Coalition government the opportunity to shake things up but they are fast taking Victoria down the wrong track.

The new Premier, Denis Napthine, must show he is listening to community concerns about coal and unconventional gas mining. He must support action on climate change and transition Victoria from polluting fossil fuels to clean renewable sources of energy.

For more photos of today’s amazing action, check out our Facebook page and don’t forget to sign the petition!

We’ve even got some footage of the banner unfurling!

City and country come together to oppose CSG threat to ‘precious’ Gippsland

Metropolitan activists launched a campaign this week to support the increasing resistance to coal and coal seam gas mining encroaching on Gippsland.  The campaign aims to activate Melbourne’s food and coffee culture against the threat to farmland in Gippsland from controvertial coal and coal seam gas development.
Quit Coal activist Jessie Gartlan said the campaign arose as people in Gippsland became more vocal and organised in their opposition to the expansion of coal and coal seam gas industries in Victoria.
“Coal and invasive gas mining industries have destroyed communities in Queensland and New South Wales. Communities in Gippsland understand this and are aware that the exploration licenses over their properties pose the same threat. The emerging resistance here is undeniable,” she said.

“We want farmers and rural communities to know they have our support in standing up against the expansion of destructive coal and coal seam gas industries that are threatening their well-being, their ability to produce Victoria’s food supply, and their way of life,” she said.

The Melbourne campaigners added that stopping these industries was in their own best interests too. “Coal Seam Gas and Coal mine expansion doesn’t just affect rural communities” said Quit Coal member Madeleine Egan. “Gippsland produces 25% of Australia’s milk, milk we drink every day in the city.  So much of our beef, potatoes and other produce come from areas directly threatened. And some of these gas exploration licenses cover Melbourne’s drinking water catchment areas.  If something goes wrong and that water gets contaminated during the mining process, where does that leave us?”

“It’s good to know we have the support of people in the Melbourne area” said Gippsland resident Peter Negus. “People in the city need to know where their food comes from.  This mining is a real threat to Melbourne’s food and water supply, and our farms and communities. We need help from people in the city to stop these industries before they wreck it all. You can’t eat coal seam gas”

The launch is coinciding with the May 2^nd premiere of ‘Gippsland is Precious’, a short documentary about the threat coal and coal seam gas pose to agriculture in Gippsland and the growing local resistance to new mining projects.  Local North Fitzroy bar and cinema ‘Longplay’ will host the event, with screenings of the film throughout the night, commencing at 7pm.

For more information contact:

Chloe Aldenhoven (spokesperson) chloe.aldenhoven@gmail.com 0432328107

For more information on Coal Seam Gas visit lockthegate.org.au

You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why. Gina Rinehart is coming to town! And given Ms Rinehart’s voracious appetite for exploiting the land to make a profit, we’ll need to do a lot more than pout.

Gina Rinehart is the richest woman in Australia and the magnanimous CEO of Hancock Prospecting, a company that mines vast amounts of iron ore from Western Australia’s Pilbara and plans to build one of Australia’s largest coalmines in the Gallilee basin in QLD. For the first time, Ms Rinehart has taken an interest in Victoria (other than trying to wrestle control over our media) by buying shares in Lakes Oil.

Lakes Oil is a small company based in Gippsland that has shiny dreams about discovering vast amounts of coal seam gas (CSG) and turning the region into a giant money-making gasfield. In fact, many other companies share their dream, indicated by the blanket of exploration licences that cover the entire region. So far Gina and her counterpart’s attempts have been thwarted by a lack of finances and by pesky restrictions on the hazardous operating practice of fracking. But with her dream team of Alexander Downer (ex-Lib and best friend of the fossil fuel industry) and Ian Plimer (rampant climate denier) now on the board at Lakes Oil, combined with her voluminous pockets, this shouldn’t take long for Gina to rectify.

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Its 11am, quiet and hot at the Poowong footy oval. Soon the cars start rolling in, and it feels like a stop-motion animation as suddenly the empty footy ground is filled with cars and their occupants rush to the shade of the clubhouses.  A great racket rises over the hill, it sounds like the plane is early, but in fact it’s a group of Harley-Davidson riders heading down to be part of the 50-metre human sign declaring Poowong ‘CSG Free’.

Within a few minutes, someone calls out that the plane will be here, and the crowd brace themselves for the heat and head over to the marked out letters using their yellow triangle signs, the unmistakable calling-card of the ‘Lock the Gate’ movement, as sunshades.  An overwhelming cheer erupts as the beautiful little Cesnar birddog warplane flies over the crowd, over and over again, taking photos and video of the community spelling out ‘WE R CSG FREE’.

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