Media Release from Gomeroi Traditional Custodians.

The Gomeroi Traditional Custodians fear that Shenhua Watermark are using obstructive tactics to interfere in the Public hearing process of the NSW Planning and Assessment Commission which affords all people the opportunity to raise their concerns relating to the proposed mine.

“We fear procedural fairness is being hampered by the deliberate inappropriate actions of Shenhua Watermark  -a foreign owned company which is owned by the Peoples Republic of China” stated concerned and upset Elders of the Gomeroi Traditional Custodians community

They – Shenhua – are visitors to Australia and visitors to Gomeroi country, yet believe they can actively work to restrict the voices of the community in the PAC determination process and interfere in the lores and customs and communications protocols established by the traditional owners of this Country by restricting the numbers and representation of our people to discuss concerns and cultural values with the PAC

We have had a terrible and traumatic experience by Whitehaven Maules Creek whereby we have denied access to lands for ceremony at our burial site for more than 18 months and here we are with Shenhua Watermark taking steps to restrict the participation of our community in a Public Hearing process which is the last resort process before the PAC make a determination to forever destroy our traditional homelands by the approval of this mine. Once the PAC make a determination we are not able to use the legal merit appeals process other developments would enable us to use as we cannot challenge the statements of Shenhua’s EIS assessment and mitigation management if the mine is approved.

Mr Paul Jackson Shenhua Watermarks manager is trying to sight workplace health and safety and security factors as the reason for such outrageous and disgraceful behaviour….and this is occurring even before they have an approval. We fear these very early signs are a dire warning of what is yet to come and the treatment our Elders and community will receive if they get the approval to start their destruction.

We don’t know what men and women over the age of 70 and families with young children will do to be such a security risk. We ask  Paul Jackson “ Please explain.”

We are very appreciative that the NSW PAC are taking the steps to attend significant grinding groove sites with some of our Elders and young warriors, because if the mine is approved Shenhua intend to as a solution to cut these highly significant grinding groove site up like a jigsaw puzzle and shoved to one side for 17 years and then shove them back into some post mining landscape and we are supposed to be grateful that Shenhua intend to do this.

We wonder what the People of the Chinese Republic would feel if we wanted to carve up the Great wall of China and then marginalise their concerns by saying – stop belly aching we will put it back in  17 years’ time -what’s your problem.   Is this what the average Australian would believe to be a fair go for our people and to our highly important cultural sites?

The GTC Community are very appreciative of the PACs commitment to undertaking a considered approach to their decisions but Shenhua actions to limit  the voice of our community in a public hearing process is based on some untested and poorly documented security risk is highly questioned and raises concerns about prejudicial interference in the justices afforded to other Australians

Shenhua Watermark serious and disgraceful error in judgement in this instance is completely unacceptable and will be challenged by our community……. Shenhua Watermark you are formally put on notice- These Gomeroi Traditional Custodians will not tolerate these injustices. Will other Australian tolerate this treatment of Aboriginal Elders people and sacred cultural sites.

Media Contact: Dolly Talbott
Phone 0413131983

Details

21 Elders and community will meet with the PAC and take them on the Shenhua proposed mining site to visit the two highly significant grinding groove sites.

This will be followed by a community meeting at the Breeza hall Breeza at 2pm with the excluded community and Elders

A briefing session will be provided to media at 330pm relating to the outcome of the day at the Breeza Hall.

Media Briefing
Location: Breeza Hall, Hogarth St, Breeza
Time: Monday, 12 January 2015, 3:30pm

TOKYO 8 January 2015: The campaign to protect the Leard State Forest, near Narrabri, has gone global, with a group of Japanese and Australian people rallying in Tokyo at corporate offices and the Australian Embassy to call for the protection of the Koala from open-cut coal mining.

The group includes members of Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN) and Australia’s Front Line Action on Coal (FLAC) who are opposing the destruction of forest and farmlands by Whitehaven Coal and Idemitsu Kosan. Protests are taking place at the Tokyo offices of Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC), Itochu, Idemitsu and the Australian embassy.

“Over the past year, more than 300 ordinary citizens have been arrested taking peaceful action to stop Whitehaven Coal and Idemitsu from destroying the Leard State Forest. Today, we are extending our protest actions to Tokyo where Whitehaven’s partner companies are profiteering from the destruction of forest and climate,” said Sakyo Noda, a spokesperson for Front Line Action on Coal.

Leard State Forest is the largest remnant of bushland left on the Liverpool Plains and includes critically endangered box gum woodland, home to 396 native species, and 34 threatened species, such as the Turquoise Parrot, Corben’s Long-eared Bat and the Koala.

“Koalas are the iconic Australian animal. Many Japanese people go to Australia to see Koalas. But the Japanese public doesn’t know the fact that our own state run bank, JBIC, and trading and energy giants such as Itochu and Idemistu are destroying koala habitat. We are calling for JBIC and Japanese companies to halt these projects to save the Leard Forest and threatened koala habitat.” said Akira Harada, spokesperson for JATAN.

Whitehaven’s Maules Creek mine is co-owned by Japanese companies Itochu and J-Power, with 15% and 10% stakes, The Japanese Bank for International Cooperation is funding Idemitsu’s loan facility for the Boggabri Coal project, in contravention to the bank’s. own social and environmental responsibility policies as well as their duty as signatories to the Equator Principles.

The group will be presenting a letter to the companies and embassy on behalf of the Leard Forest Alliance detailing the destruction of the forest as well as the major impacts on the local community, climate and indigenous heritage. The Leard Forest Alliance is calling on JBIC to adhere to its policies and withdraw its funding, and Itochu, J-Power and Idemitsu to stop work on the Maules Creek and Boggabri mines.

Further Information

Twitter updates @FLACCoal and #LeardBlockade

MAULES CREEK, 24 December 2014: A man has suspended himself from a rail bridge crossing the Namoi River blocking a coal train being loaded at Whitehaven Coal’s controversial Maules Creek mine from leaving the site. The train blocked at the Maules Creek mine is believed to be the first containment of coal from the site after a test train – twice disrupted by activists – left the site last week. The rail bridge also services Idemitsu Resource’s Boggabri Coal mine.

Ben Solity, a 31 year old logistics consultant, cited deep concerns about the impact the mine will have on water and the climate, saying, “Farmers need water to continue to put food on our tables – so why are companies like Whitehaven allowed to take it with preference over farmers? Farmer’s jobs are only going to get harder for them as the effects of climate change driven by coal takes hold. Why are our governments selling out our water and our climate for a quick buck when food security is at stake?”

Leard Forest Alliance spokesperson Phil Evans said, “Australians do not want coal for Christmas – and Whitehaven are trying to sneak it into their stockings whilst everyone is distracted. Just more slimy behaviour from this disgraced company – and project – that has seen Australians lose faith in mining approval processes in this country.”

“We need a stop to this farce immediately – stop work and then have a good long, hard look at how successive NSW governments, embroiled in mining related corruption, have allowed the Maules Creek mine approval to stick.”

Both Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek and Idemitsu’s Bogggabri mines have approval to expand into the critically endangered Leard State Forest this February – sparking this warning from the protest group.

“They have a battle on their hands if they think local farmers, traditional custodians and concerned citizens are going to allow this wholesale destruction. The forest, water, climate and culture are all too precious to lose – and we won’t take this lying down.”

The Leard Forest Alliance is a group made up of local farmers, prominent environmental groups with a treaty of protection with the Gomeroi traditional custodians of  the area. Over 300 people have been arrested since the campaign began over 2 and half years ago.

UPDATE 09:00: Regular police have arrived – no Police Resuce yet. Ben remains in place.

UPDATE 14:30: Ben has just unfurled a banner reading “Whitehaven Coal – No Water – No Future”

UPDATE 16:15: Police Rescue have arrived on site.

UPDATE 16:35: Police Rescue are trying to get to Ben with a Cherry Picker supplied by Whitehaven Coal.

UPDATE 17:00: Ben says Police Rescue are taking apart the bridge to get to him!

UPDATE 18:30: Police Rescue have begun to cut off the now locked on Ben.

UPDATE 19:30: Ben has been arrested and taken to Narrabri Police Station after 13 hours.

Further Information:
Phil Evans, Leard Forest Alliance Spokesperson, 0490 064 139

Twitter updates @FLACCoal and #LeardBlockade

Newcastle, 15 December: A peaceful blockade has halted the first train load of coal coming from the controversial Maules Creek coal mine on its way to Newcastle’s Kooragang Island coal export terminals this morning.

A group of 22 people met the train this morning. Eight people have occupied and stopped the train and are refusing to leave.

The train was stopped during the night and delayed for over 6 hours by a protestor who locked onto locomotives needed to push the coal over the Great Dividing Range. The 58 year-old protestor, Bruce, from Northern Rivers, has been arrested. Speaking about why he took action, Bruce said:

“Australia’s response to climate change is headed completely backwards. “If we can stop this new coal mine we set a precedent for the rest of Australia to stand up.”

Jonathan Moylan from Frontline Action on Coal said, “Over the last twelve months, hundreds of people have been arrested slowing down construction of the Maules Creek mine. The fate of our country, and people everywhere, depends on coal being left in the ground. In the absence of leadership from the industry or the Government to shut down coal exports and prevent dangerous climate change, ordinary people have taken extraordinary action to stop this mine.

“A growing number of people are standing up to the coal industry’s plans to ship increasing volumes of coal and fuel dangerous climate change. Doctors, people of faith, IPCC scientists and earlier this month, former Wallabies captain David Pocock, have all taken action to halt construction at Maules Creek. Even Malcolm Fraser last week tweeted about Maules Creek, referring to the coal sector as an ‘industry of a past age’.

Local Newcastle mother, Vanessa Wiebford said, “I want my daughter to have a future without the horror of extreme heat and fire, and uncertain water and food production. I am bitterly disappointed in Australia’s political leadership and their unthinking support for expanded coal exports at a time when we’re already seeing alarming signs of dangerous climate change.

“If they’re not going to act to prevent this, then all parents have a duty to risk arrest to try and stop it ourselves.

2014 is now expected to break the record as the hottest year in Australia’s history. Heatwave conditions were observed in many parts of the country during our hottest spring on record this year, and the Bureau of Meteorology is predicting a return to El Nino conditions at a time when much of Queensland and parts of New South Wales are already drought declared.

The burning of coal exported from Australia is this country’s biggest single contribution to climate change, and production and export of coal increased in the last 12 months.

“With the international climate negotiations in Lima failing to deliver the scale of action needed, people around the world will next year have to take their future into their own hands like never before. Ordinary people are stepping up to do what it takes to stop the fossil fuel industry’s dangerous expansion plans,” said Moylan.

UPDATE 6:00 am: Coal train is stopped.

UPDATE 8:15 am: The five activists have been lower from atop the coal wagon by police.

UPDATE 9:00am: The coal train starts moving again after 3 hours at a stand still.

UPDATE 12:30pm: Four activists released after being processed at Waratah police station.

Media Enquiries

• On the ground:  Jonathan Moylan: 0431 289 766    |    Vanessa Wiebford: 0409 021 976
• Off-site: Charlie Wood: 0427 485 233
• Photos Available at: http://bit.ly/13nps8U

GUNNEDAH, 4 December 2014: Sustained protest against Whitehaven Coal’s controversial Maules Creek mine in the Leard State Forest continues this morning, as two men chained themselves to a concrete barrel at Whitehaven Coal’s Gunnedah coal handling and preparation plant. 31 year old Maules Creek farm-hand Adam Ryan and 37 year old, Sydney based father and corporate lawyer, Matthew Drake-Brockman have taken action to protest against what Drake-Brockman describes as the ‘lax approval processes’ that allowed the scandal-plagued mine to go ahead.

Mr Ryan, born in nearby Wee Waa, cited concerns about mining impacts on water and the subsequent effect on the local agricultural industry, saying “this mine is destroying the community that I have known my whole life. The time for standing by has passed, we have to stand up for our community.”

Mr Drake-Brockman was involved in a 2007 lawsuit against the then Planning Minister regarding planning approval processes, with the case focussing on the fact that the approval did not take into account the impacts of climate change.

Mr Drake-Brockman said, “The whole process between what goes on in parliament and what goes on in industry is not transparent – there is no way the public can know what’s going on. There is not a great deal of room for input from the public in this system – if there was we would already be moving away from coal and into renewable energy.”

Drake-Brockman continued, “It has become necessary that we all stand up and become citizen activists against the corrupt state government and Whitehaven Coal and to stand in solidarity with farmer’s, whose livelihood and health are under threat, and will only get worse with climate change.”

In the last week there have been 10 arrests including high profile former Wallabies captain, David Pocock, prominent local farmer, Rick Laird and IPCC contributing author, Prof. Colin Butler. The long running protest camp has seen thousands flock to protest the mine and over 290 arrests take place.

Leard Forest Alliance spokesperson, Phil Evans said, “Hundreds of Australians including doctors, professors, World War II veterans, sports players and young people have stood alongside local farmers and risked arrest to say that the Maules Creek project is wrong and should not go ahead. Surely, this sends a signal that something is broken with the way we decide on whether coal mines go ahead.”

“We need an immediate stop to work whilst there is a long, hard look at the planning approval process – so that ordinary Australians can have faith in their government’s independence from big coal and the big end of town.”

Whitehaven Coal’s share-price fell to new lows this week dipping to $1.07 on Tuesday.

UPDATE 12:30pm: Police have arrived on site.

UPDATE 4:30pm: Both men have been arrested and taken to Gunnedah police station to be charged.

Further Information:

Phil Evans

Leard Forest Alliance Spokesperson

0490 064 139

Pictures and footage for media use: https://www.mediafire.com/#ir1c4tq4oncu2

Twitter updates @FLACCoal and #LeardBlockade

Today, Wednesday December 3, marks the 160th anniversary of Eureka Stockade, the birthplace of Australian democracy. The diggers of Ballarat, stood together in one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Australian history. They stood together under the southern cross and pledged an oath,

“We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties.”

Today, we must once more take this stand, truly by each other and those who have gone before us as the non-transparent extractive industries, minerals councils and corrupt governments – local, state and federal, do their best to divide and therefore conquer us and our land.

Standing by your mates and your neighbours is the Australian thing to do. United, we must stand! If we are divided we will be incapable of fighting this tyranny. Just recently, a group of our neighbours from the Pacific Islands came to our shores calling for help from their neighbours – and Australians answered that call to rise up and support their Pacific island mates. The Pacific Climate Warriors blockade and subsequent actions showed the spirit of the Eureka stockade is alive and well in Australia – and is a democratic, inclusive and empowering force that is re-awakening in Australia and joining force with similar traditions across the region. We’re all in this together fighting for land, water and our future while suffering under a corrupt and unjust government ruled by overseas mining companies.

In the rural fire service, if a fire goes for too long, gets out of hand or gets too big, they declare a section 44 which means they bring in resources from outside the local area. This is the australian thing to do, by standing with your mates in times of hardship and conflict – this is the Australian thing to do.

Peter Lalor made a stand as a leader of the outlaws. At first a warrant was put out for his arrest on charges of sedition, others in the movement were tried on charges of treason. Peter Lalor lost an arm in battle. Through his stand, he went on to lead a 30 year political career, birthing Australian Democracy and becoming Speaker of the House.

We must all stand together, we are all in this together, fighting for land, water and our collective future as a democratic, inclusive and progressive Australia.

Farmers, Original people of Australia, greenies, religious groups, business people in the first time in Australian history are standing together in solidarity against a common enemy. To not stand by your mates in trouble or need is a very un-Australian thing to do. We will not be divided and we will not be conquered.

We are the protectors of country, water and future, we must and will do the same.

“The lion does not care about the opinion of the sheep it eats” Game of Thrones

When the government does not care about the opinion of the people, we must give them something other than our opinion – and all we have left is civil disobedience.

“When freedom is outlawed, only outlaws are free”. Tim Robbins, Still Life with a Woodpecker
“If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.” Thomas Jefferson
“We have not inherited this earth from our ancestors, we have borrowed it from our children and it is the children of tomorrow that we stand for and fight today” Proverb

Stand and Protect,
Love and Respect

Muzz

**Muzz is down in Ballarat for the anniversary.

The Maules Creek local community and the Leard Blockade camp are joined this weekend by a contingent of 30 Canberrans including Australian Wallabies Rugby Player David Pocock, ANU Professor of Astrophysics Frank Briggs and ANU Philosophy lecturer Bruin Christensen.

The group is here to highlight that the Maule’s Creek mine will not only destroy an endangered box-gum forest, desecrate sacred Gomeroi sites, impact water supplies and damage community health, but will affect the global community by locking in further dependence on dirty fossil fuel emissions.

A fellow Canberran and IPCC contributing author, Professor Colin Butler, was arrested on Wednesday for his protest at the Gunnedah Coal Handling Plant in an effort to highlight the impacts of coal on the health of local and global community.

Pocock, Briggs, Christensen and the rest of the Canberra contingent are using the visit to call on the ACT Government to cease investing in Whitehaven Coal and to join the rapidly growing fossil fuel divestment movement.

Further Information:
Phil Evans
Leard Forest Alliance spokesperson
0490 064 139

Media Release from our Leard Forest Alliance Partner Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC)

Around 20 anti-coal activists in the Leard State Forest, near Narrabri, are being joined today by an expert contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Professor Colin Butler appears to be the first current IPCC contributor[1] to have engaged in civil disobedience.

Professor Butler – an Australian Buddhist, a doctor and epidemiologist – is one of a number of religious protesters who will be involved in non-violent direct action today. They are blocking the gates to Whitehaven Coal’s coal rail loader at Gunnedah.

Professor Butler said, “Primarily I am going to fulfil what I see as my responsibility as a professor of public health in Australia, an incredibly fortunate nation that should not be so wedded to coal. Australia is in a frenzy with its expansion of coal mining and export. It is immoral that we are profiting from something that, in the huge dose we are administering it to the planet, is so obviously toxic to the future.”

“Coal causes health impacts at every turn. Workers and local communities are exposed to toxic dust, and pollution from power plants is causing premature deaths in countries such as China and India. There are the direct impacts of heat waves and super-storms and the indirect impacts such as changes in the incidence of vector-borne diseases. If not curbed, the longer term impacts of global warming will be far worse,” he said.

Whitehaven Coal share values have dropped from $2.03 in late August to $1.19 last week, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. The company has been plagued by declining international coal prices and protest activity over its controversial Maules Creek mine.

“Having considered the implications of climate science for public health for many years, I regret that more conventional ways to influence Australian opinion do not seem to be enough,” Professor Butler continued.

“With the sophistication and affordability of renewable sources of energy today, it would be madness not to use them. These alternatives lend themselves to small-scale, decentralised energy delivery systems which are more accessible to impoverished communities.”

Professor Butler is one of a number of Buddhists and Christians participating in protests organised by the multi-faith organisation, Australian Religious Response to Climate Change.

Uniting Church Rev John Brentnall said, “Like many other Christians, I interpret the word ‘neighbour’ to include not just the people who live next door but all of humanity. Not just the ones who are alive now, but the ones in the generations to follow. I also include all living creatures … By protesting about what is happening to the Leard Forest, I am ‘loving my neighbour’.”

UPDATE 11:45AM: Colin was arrested and taken into custody at Gunnedah Police Station.

UPDATE 2:45pm: Colin has been released and charged with Trespass and Intentionally rendering useless a road belonging to a mine

Media contacts:
Thea Ormerod (Australian Religious Response to Climate Change) 0405 293 466
Murray Drechsler (Leard Forest Alliance spokesperson) 0418 754 869
Professor Colin Butler (IPCC Contributor) 0458 973 416

[1] Professor James Hansen, climatologist and former head of NASA, has been arrested on numerous occasions, but is no longer an IPCC contributor.

-MAULES CREEK 5 November 2014: Batman returned today to shut down Whitehaven’s Maules Creek project. A person dressed as Batman has scaled Whitehaven’s largest excavator, the Hitachi Super Digger. This action comes on the heels of Monday’s report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finding that damage to the environment caused by fossil fuel use continues to increase. Today is the fourth consecutive day of the Release the Bats Act Up stopping work on Whitehaven sites.

The Hitachi ex8000 Super Digger is a key piece of ‘ultra class’ mining machinery with a 75 tonne scoop capacity. This equipment is essential if Whitehaven is to get coal out on their forever-shifting date for first coal.

Lewis Laurence, 23, who is on the excavator said “We want to draw attention to the human cost of climate change, the real cost of this mine to the global community. What happens here affects fishermen thousands of miles away, who may no longer have homes to return their boats to. Instead of asking ourselves, ‘Where were we? What did we do?’ We need to ask ourselves, ‘What are we doing now?’ ”

The United Nations IPCC report suggests that we are doing very little, warning of catastrophic climate change just around the corner if we do not act now. According to the IPCC a predicted increase in the global temperature of 2⁰C is a threshold beyond which impacts would be irreversibly damaging. Whitehaven’s Maules Creek project is increasingly detrimental to our climate and environment, globally as well as on a local scale.

“Whitehaven have been given permission to destroy a large portion of the Leard State Forest for open cut coal and will leave behind a ‘void pit’ which will collect water and poison the local aquifers,” said Mr. Laurence

“Whitehaven will face no charges and will accept no responsibility for their destruction unless people stand up,” said Emily Rose, Leard Forest Alliance Spokesperson

The Leard Forest Alliance is calling for a stop work order on the Maules Creek project while a full and proper audit of the planning and approvals process at state and federal levels is conducted.

“This mine should never have been approved. The potential damage to local aquifers and impacts on climate display a single-minded interest in profit from our state and federal government. We must heed the international consensus, and leave coal in the ground,” said Ms. Rose

This last week has already seen a number of Whitehaven sites shut down through peaceful civil disobedience including: the co-owned Idemitsu and Whitehaven Tarrawonga Haul road, access to the Maules Creek mine site, the Maules Creek Hitachi excavator, as well as Whitehaven’s Narrabri North underground mine which also halted a supply train carrying 6000t of coal.

There have been over 270 people arrested as part of the campaign to defend the Leard State Forest.

UPDATE 7:00AM: Police Search and Rescue arrive at the scene.

UPDATE 8:00AM: Confirmation that Lewis has been arrested and taken to Narrabri Police Station.

Further Information:

Twitter updates @FLACCoal and #LeardBlockade