Australia’s Martin Ferguson – determined to stall Renewable Energy
It is high time that Australia got rid of its so-called Minister for Energy, Martin Ferguson.
This is a man who cannot be trusted, yet who is in charge of Australia’s policy and progress on renewable energy.
Progress? Martin Ferguson would be more aptly called the Minster for Stopping Renewable Energy. For that is the aim of Ferguson in his role as lackey of the nuclear industry.
Ferguson is quoted this week,in Dow Jones News Wires, saying that: Nuclear power could feature more predominantly in Australia’s energy debate if renewable energy sources such as wind and solar don’t evolve enough to provide reliable electricity around the clock, – Christina Macpherson
IAEA’s inadequate report on Lynas’s rare earths project’s safety
“the report seems to say things are okay, but read between the lines. The IAEA is trying to say in a very nice way that Malaysia cannot do it.”
Fuziah, who is PKR vice-president, said that she would provide an alternative report with the help of an Australian radiation consultant.
Fuziah ‘tears up’ IAEA report, Free Malaysia Today , Tashny Sukumaran, June 30, 2011, KUALA LUMPUR: Kuantan MP and staunch anti-Lynas protester Fuziah Salleh today “tore up” the IAEA report, claiming that it had glossed over several important aspects related to the Lynas Corp rare earth plant in Gebeng, Kuantan. Continue reading
Australia’s second Invasion, Aboriginal land for uranium industry
In the Northern Territory, the Gillard government is in effect driving Aboriginal communities into apartheid areas where they will be “economically viable”. The unspoken reason is that the Northern Territory is the only part of Australia where Aborigines have comprehensive land rights; and here lie some of the world’s biggest deposits of uranium..
……The most powerful political force in Australia is the multibillion-dollar mining industry. Canberra wants to mine and sell, and those bloody blackfellas are in the way again. But this time they are organised, articulate, militant. They know it is a second invasion. Having finally uttered the forbidden word, white Australians should stand with them…..
The invasion of Australia Australia’s forbidden word has been uttered at last. And with it is comes a new Aboriginal articulacy, John Pilger, guardian.co.uk, 1 July 2011 The City of Sydney council has voted to replace the words “European arrival” in the official record with “invasion”. Continue reading
Australian uranium companies’ share price tumble
Uranium Companies, Bloomberg, by Shani Raja, 2 July 2011, Mining companies sank as an index of metals traded in London dropped 3 percent through June 30, driven by reports showing that manufacturing growth in China, the U.S. and Europe slowed in May. Speculation that rising inflation may prompt Chinese authorities to raise interest rates cut the shares.
Uranium miners Paladin Energy Ltd. (PDN) and Energy Resources of Australia Ltd. (ERA)tumbled more than 30 percent as the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant continued to roil the global nuclear-energy market. Paladin’s valuation, at 1.6 times its assets, has fallen so much it may become a takeover target, Citigroup Inc. said in a June 21 report…… http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-01/australia-stocks-post-first-quarterly-loss-in-year-as-oil-prices-retreat.htmlhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-01/australia-stocks-post-first-quarterly-loss-in-year-as-oil-prices-retreat.html
Residents concerns stalling Lynas’ rare earths project
Rare earths plant stalled amid worries, By Lou Kilzer, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, July 1, 2011 “…….The Malaysian plant near Kuantan is owned by Australia’s Lynas Corp., a company set to begin large-scale mining of rare earths from a site called Mount Weld in Western Australia. There is widespread concern among Malaysians about possible radiation exposure because the ore from rare earths often contains radioactive thorium
Soo Jin Hou of the Kuantan Environmental Watch Group predicted on Malaysia Today, a popular news blog, that the plant “will cast a shadow over Kuantan town. Real estate prices will plunge, residents who are able to relocate will flee and those who are not will be in constant fear of radiation exposure.”….Rare earths plant stalled amid worries – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_744730.html#ixzz1QvwLbYF8
UK govt and nuclear industry collude to “spin” Fukushima disaster
“There is a risk that this event could impact on the global industry. We need to ensure that the anti nuclear chaps and chapesses do not gain ground on this. we need to occupy the territory and hold it… We need to get into context – show that the events in Japan…. are all part of the safety processes of this 1960s reactor. We also need to pull out the additional safety of Gen III…
Should also highlight and show that this is what has happened even with the 1960s reactor in Japan, radiation release has been controlled – the reactor has been protected.
We really need to show the safety of nuclear. We need to quash any stories trying to compare this to Chernobyl… We do not want to be on the back foot with this. People at new build sites are likely to be following closely…. The mitigation with nuclear is so high that the risk is minimal – as demonstrated in Japan””
UK government and nuclear industry email correspondence after the Fukushima accident, guardian.co.uk, 30 June 2011
Emails released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal the level of coordination between government departments and the nuclear industry during the Fukushima crisis.
Australia’s Future Fund investing in 15 international nuclear weapons companies
Australia’s Future Fund investing in nuclear weapons?
It is a well-known fact Australia is a vocal opponent of nuclear weapons and their manufacture.
So, it comes as a complete surprise that the Australian government-owned Future Fund has investments in fifteen foreign-owned companies involved in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Sandra Kanck, state President of the Australian Democrats, supports the abolition of nuclear weapons and she spoke to Jess Wingard.,,
Australia’s new colonialism – Aboriginal land grab for mining corporations
the Howard government’s 2007 intervention suspended all Aboriginal land rights…… more likely to simply allow free access for corporations……. The effect of this 21st century land-grab on indigenous peoples is as catastrophic as that of the earlier waves of imperial aggression. ..
First Nations festival kicks off in London New Internationalist, 3 July 11, by Michael Walling “………..Australia’s Native Title legislation was fiercely resisted by the mining companies; but its practical benefit for indigenous people is limited anyway, since the title to land does not include any rights to minerals in the land, or to trees and vegetation on it. Continue reading
Solar power for Queensland’s Sunshine Coast
Australia’s Sunshine Coast gives green light to 10MW PV plant Recharge, 30 June 11 Energy Parks Australia (EPA) has been given the go-ahead to build one of the country’s largest solar plants – a 10MW facility on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. The A$40m ($43m) project – the first of what the company hopes will be a pipeline of six – was approved by the Sunshine Coast Regional CouncilThe 50 hectare site on former sugar-cane land at Valdora, about 125km north of Brisbane, may include a biofuel plant alongside the PV installation.
EPA is looking for domestic and international investors to back the project.
The solar facility would be one of the biggest in Australia, apart from the utility-scale projects announced earlier this month under the government’s Solar
Flagships programme…. http://www.rechargenews.com/energy/solar/article264517.ece
Melbourne anti nuclear rally calls for sacking of Martin Ferguson
VIDEO http://melbourneprotests.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/protest-as-martin-ferguson-arrives-at-growth-conference-in-melbourne DUMP FERGUSON NOT NUCLEAR WASTE“Ferguson should also be held to account for continuing to promote Australia’s uranium industry despite its role in the Fukushima disaster.
Anti-nuclear activists from Friends of the Earth joined the protest outside the ‘Economic and Social Outlook Conference 2011′ at Melbourne University to voice concern against resources minister Martin Ferguson’s radioactive agenda. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 