justice

In the Parliament last week, Independent member for Nanango Dorothy Pratt spoke passionately about the impact that the Queensland Government's experiments with underground coal gasification and coal seam gas is having on her constituents. We were so moved by this speech, we thought we'd share it with you.

Minister Stephen Robinson and Department of Environment and Resource Management Director-General John Bradley will finally face the community of Kingaroy on Wednesday August 25th, to address a public meeting of locals citizens concerned about Cougars Energy’s Underground Coal Gasification project. He will be accompanied by three members of an industry expert panel appointed to assess the impact of the project, and in particular the contamination event that became public in mid-July.

ABC Radio presenter Steve Austin interviewed Scott Collins on the 30th July, 2010. Mr Collins is a property owner at Tara and the resident who purchased his own gas testing equipment to check for gas well head leaks. It was his complaint that lead to the state government inspection of well heads around Tara.

A brief diversion from coal to mention the inspiring efforts of some of our friends in the Climate Justice Fast. It's day 16 of the hunger strike (yep, they haven't eaten a thing for 16 days!) and today one of the Australian fasters, Paul, made a great vlog post on civil disobedience.

This is very pertinent given that Steve and Nathan from Six Degrees will be facing court tomorrow for disrupting coal loading during last month's Brisbane Coal Port Blockade.

When: Saturday 7 November, 2 - 4pm
Where: Upstairs, Yeronga Bowls Club, 11 Querrin St, Yeronga

The hopes of many people lie with the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December
– however, even if an effective and immediate solution is not reached at Copenhagen, what alternatives exist?

At the beginning of June, Queensland awoke to find Premier Anna Bligh having ordered the privatisation of $15 billion worth of significant state assets, including Queensland Motorways Ltd, Forest Plantations Queensland, Queensland Rail's coal freight business and the Abbot Point Coal Terminal.

In the following weeks, this move has been seen by environmentalists and unions alike as a direct attack on Queensland workers and the global climate. Despite its rhetoric about real action on climate change, we have seen the Bligh Government firmly commit to immediate financial gain ahead of the welfare of its citizens.

The release of the Queensland budget yesterday provides an important insight to the government's credibility on the climate change - particularly when you compare their investments in renewable energy and climate adaptation against their continuing subsidisation of the coal industry.

We've done a bit of a comparison, and the figures stack up this way: even on a conservative account,subsidies to the coal industry in the budget is 23 times greater than the TOTAL climate change initiatives (including renewable projects, adaptation, energy efficiencies and disaster preparation).