Prime Minister Turnbull snubbed Nobel prize winner International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
Turnbull Government criticised for not congratulating ICAN on Nobel Peace Prize, ABC News 10 Dec, 17 By Europe Correspondent James Glenday in Oslo, Norway Anti-nuclear activists have attacked the Turnbull Government for not formally congratulating an Australian-born group, which will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway later today.
Key points:
- The UN treaty banning nuclear weapons remains opposed by all nuclear powers and many of their allies
- Anti-nuclear activist Sue Coleman-Haseldine says the Government “should be ashamed” for not congratulating the group
- Australia has long argued banning the bomb outright will not lead to any meaningful reduction in nuclear weapons
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the prestigious award for successfully securing the backing of 122 countries to set up a controversial UN treaty banning nuclear weapons.
But the document is somewhat symbolic because it remains opposed by all nuclear powers and many of their allies — NATO and Australia, for example, have fought against it.
“The Government should be ashamed of themselves [for not congratulating the group],” South Australian Indigenous anti-nuclear activist Sue Coleman-Haseldine said.
“Australians helped win this.
“They [the Government] could have said ‘Congratulations — even if I don’t agree with you’. They could have said that. But they haven’t………
Karina and Rose Lester, daughters of the late Yankunytjatjara Elder Yami Lester who went blind after British nuclear testing in South Australia in 1950s, said they were proud an Australian organisation would win the Nobel Peace Prize.
ICAN helped bring attention to their community’s struggle, Karina Lester said.
“The British government thought that our country was barren, nothing and nobody was out there,” she said.
“But there were communities, Anangu communities there as well.
“So it was really important for us as Anagu community to get that voice out to the international world to say we’re on that same journey as everybody else.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-10/nobel-peace-prize-australian-government-accused-of-shame-job/9244194
Unrealistic call for rural Australians to host Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs)
Volunteers wanted – to house small modular nuclear reactors in Australia,Online Opinion, Noel Wauchope , 11 Dec 17,
We knew that the Australian government was looking for volunteers in outback South Australia, to take the radioactive trash from Lucas Heights and some other sites, (and not having an easy time of it). But oh dear– we had no idea that the search for hosting new (untested) nuclear reactors was on too!
Well, The Australian newspaper has just revealed this extraordinary news, in its article “Want a nuclear reactor in your backyard? Step this way” (28/11/17). Yes, it turns out that a Sydney-based company, SMR Nuclear Technology, plans to secure volunteers and a definite site within three years. If all goes well, Australia’s Small Modular Reactors will be in operation by 2030.
Only, there are obstacles. Even this enthusiastic article does acknowledge one or two of them. One is the need to get public acceptance of these so far non-existent new nuclear reactors. SMR director Robert Pritchard is quoted as saying that interest in these reactors is widespread. He gives no evidence for this.
The other is that the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant in Australia is prohibited by both commonwealth and state laws.
But there are issues, and other obstacles that are not addressed on this article. A vital question is: does SMR Nuclear Technology intend to actually build the small reactors in Australia, or more likely, merely assemble them from imported modular parts – a sort of nuclear Lego style operation?
If it is to be the latter, there will surely be a delay of probably decades. Development of SMRs is stalled, in USA due to strict safety regulations, and in UK, due to uncertainties, especially the need for public subsidy. That leaves China, where the nuclear industry is government funded, and even there, development of SMRs is still in its infancy.
As to the former, it is highly improbable that an Australian company would have the necessary expertise, resources, and funding, to design and manufacture nuclear reactors of any size. The overseas companies now planning small reactors are basing their whole enterprise on the export market. Indeed, the whole plan for “modular” nuclear reactors is about mass production and mass marketing of SMRs -to be assembled in overseas countries. That is accepted as the only way for the SMR industry to be commercially successful. Australia looks like a desirable customer for the Chinese industry, the only one that looks as if it might go ahead, at present,
If, somehow, the SMR Technologies’ plan is to go ahead, the other obstacles remain.
The critical one is of course economics. …….
Other issues of costs and safety concern the transport of radioactive fuels to the reactors, and of radioactive waste management. The nuclear industry is very fond of proclaiming that wastes from small thorium reactors would need safe disposal and guarding for “only 300 years”. Just the bare 300!
The Australian Senate is currently debating a Bill introduced by Cory Bernardi, to remove Australia’s laws prohibiting nuclear power development. The case put by SMR Technologies, as presented in The Australian newspaper is completely inadequate. The public deserves a better examination of this plan for Small Modular Reactors SMRS. And why do they leave out the operative word “Nuclear” -because it is so on the nose with the public? http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=19460&page=2
Despite the Turnbull government, Australia quietly waking up to the existential threat of climate change
And as 2017 draws towards a close, Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg is putting the final touches to a review of Australia’s climate policies due for release by month’s end…..
Scrutiny
While festive seasonal distractions may dim the chance of an immediate and close scrutiny of his climate review, the challenges for the Turnbull government will still be waiting when politicians reconvene in the new year.
International attention will also remain, whether at this week’s One Planet Summit in France to assess the progress on the Paris climate deal two years on, or late in 2018, when all nations will be pressed to increase their ambition to curb the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming.
On the emissions front, Frydenberg has already had his options significantly reduced.
The government’s signature National Energy Guarantee aimed at providing a more reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity supply locks the power sector into the same 26-28 per cent pollution reduction that the whole economy is supposed to track.
Even if Frydenberg can convince the states to sign up – a huge ask unless there is a major power outage over the summer – such an approach won’t be the best.
“Electricity production in OECD countries is always part of the cheapest options to decarbonise the economy, and it’s also a big source of emissions,” said Yann Robiou du Pont, a researcher at Melbourne University’s Australian-German Climate & Energy College.
“There are fewer assets to transform and they’re usually closer related to governmental decision-making.”
In Australia’s case, the electricity sector is the largest source of emissions, accounting for about a third of the total, and home to many ageing and relatively dirty coal-fired power plants.
Another big source, land clearing, is again on the increase in states such as Queensland and NSW……..
Mr Robiou du Pont notes the Climate Change Authority’s own recommendation that Australia’s fair contribution to emission cuts would be much higher than the Abbott-Turnbull government’s offer, given the country’s high per capita pollution and also relative wealth – if not political will – to transform its economy.
The authority – which the Coalition government tried but failed to abolish – called for a 25 per cent cut of 2005-level emissions by 2020, and 54 per cent by 2030. That’s roughly double the government’s ambition.
‘Not serious’
Mark Butler, Labor’s climate spokesman, said his party is sticking with a 45 per cent emissions reduction goal that “is consistent with the Paris Accord goal of limiting global warming to below two degrees”.
“It is clear that the government’s approach of a pro rata allocation of abatement between sectors will ensure the costs of meeting any emission reduction target will be higher than they need to be,” Butler said.
“The electricity sector has a lower cost of abatement than most other sectors in the form of renewable energy, and renewable energy is already the cheapest option to replace ageing coal-fired power stations that will inevitably retire,” he said.
(Energy giant AGL is expected to announce details within days of what its plans are post-2022, when it closes the ailing Liddell coal-fired power station in the Hunter Valley.)
Sectors like manufacturing and livestock agriculture have a much larger cost of abatement and few ready-to-deploy abatement technologies.
“The government’s insistence each sector meets targets based on a pro rata division of the national emission reduction target just confirms they do not take climate change seriously,” Butler said.http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/existential-threat-climate-change-risks-finally-grab-australias-attention-20171206-h00am7.html
11 December More REneweconomy news
RenewEconomy-
Zibelman: Resisting energy transition like trying to resist internetAEMO boss Audrey Zibelman says energy transition as unstoppable as the internet, because economics and technology have changed. Some baseload may be needed in the future, but it doesn’t need to be coal.
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CRC awards Solar Analytics $1.9M for Smart Home Energy Management SystemSolar Analytics evolves from a solar monitoring platform to a holistic Smart Home Energy Management System with the announcement of a $1.9 million grant from the Australian Federal Government.
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Flinders’ renewable frontierThe Flinders Island community can look forward to a secure and cleaner energy future thanks to its new Hybrid Energy Hub.
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Construction begins at Kennedy wind, solar and battery storage hubConstruction begins on first 60MW of proposed 1200MW Kennedy Energy Park, the world-leading wind, solar, and battery storage project in north Queensland.
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ERF review fails to douse doubts over Coalition key climate policyCCA review of Coalition’s Emissions Reduction Fund fuels concerns the scheme is an expensive, inefficient and risky way to cut carbon.
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Know your NEM: Liddell plans could drown in Snowy 2AGL’s plans for Liddell are vague and lacking, most likely because the company is waiting to see what the Coalition aims to do with Snowy Hydro.
Policy delay -“the new form of climate denialism”.
‘Existential threat’: climate change risks finally grab Australia’s attention, SMH, Peter Hannam, 10 Dec 17 “………...‘New denialism’
Submissions to recent and ongoing Senate inquiries also indicate that whichever parties take government at the next election, many agencies already have preparations underway to adapt to climate change.
Peter Whish-Wilson – the Greens’ spokesperson for Healthy Oceans who led a Senate inquiry into the impact of climate change on the marine environment that last week released its report – said policy delay was “the new form of climate denialism”.
“Whether you stick your head under the water up on the Great Barrier Reef and see the devastation first-hand or you talk to the defence force personnel involved in planning for natural disasters in the Pacific, you know that the effects of global warming are upon us and that without action the future is looking grim,” Whish-Wilson said.
“We now need to think about the increase of marine heatwaves as part of the range of climate impacts we need to prepare for, like we do with bushfires and droughts,” he said.
‘Threat-multiplier’
For its part, the Defence Department’s report to a separate Senate inquiry into the implications of climate change for Australia’s national security detailed how it expects the “threat-multiplier” effect will hinder its “warfighting role”.
“The national security threats that may emerge include inter-group rivalries, water, food and resource shortages and irregular migration,” it said. “Many of the states in Australia’s region face some or all of these challenges, in addition to being vulnerable to climate change impacts such as temperature and sea level rise.”
Defence noted how it deployed 1000 staff to help Fiji recover from its $2.5 billion hit from Cyclone Winston, a category-5 storm in 2016. The HMAS Canberra was part of the deployment, along with planes that delivered 520 tonnes of humanitarian aid.
In its submission, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection said “climate change effects could permanently alter normal business, including the accessibility of assets and capability”.
Interestingly, it noted that “there is no internationally agreed position on expanding the current definition of a refugee or impetus to create a new international protection obligation to encompass people displaced by climate change”………
Pacific nations are watching with concern the Australian and Queensland governments’ efforts to promote the huge Adani-owned Carmichael mine, which threatens to open up a massive new coal province.
“The execution of the Adani project will be a huge carbon bomb for us in the Pacific,” Fruean said.
She dismissed the characterisation of funds from rich nations to help her people cope with worse weather extremes and rising sea levels.
“I see it as climate debt,” she said. “We wouldn’t need that aid if it weren’t for these countries investing in fossil fuels, and really creating the damage that we’re seeing in our islands today.” http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/existential-threat-climate-change-risks-finally-grab-australias-attention-20171206-h00am7.html
Traditional Owners fighting Adani make demands of new Labor Govt
New Queensland polling released showing support for mine delay wanganjagalingou.com.au/wj-make-demands-of-new-labor-govt-on-adani/ ‘Brisbane, 8 December 2017.
‘With the announcement of a new majority Qld Labor government, and
with the National Native Title Tribunal set to decide today whether to register Adani’s sham Indigenous Land Use Agreement,
the Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners Council have presented a clear set of demands.
‘Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) Traditional Owners Council Spokesperson Adrian Burragubba said,
‘“Our fight to protect our country and heritage will continue until Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk acknowledges
that we are the people from that land, and Adani does not have the consent it requires from us for this destructive mine.
‘“We call on the Palaszczuk Government to stand up for our rights and not the interests of Adani.
We have written to our more than 100,000 supporters in the wider community this morning,
asking them to press the Premier and Deputy Premier to demand that the returned Palaszczuk Government –
‘acknowledge that Adani and the Queensland Government do not have the consent of W&J Traditional Owners for the Carmichael mine
remove Queensland’s ‘signature’ from Adani’s contested Indigenous Land Use Agreement
rule out extinguishing Native Title to allow Adani to proceed, even if the ILUA is registered by the NNTT
stop opposing the rightful W&J Traditional Owners in court and wait for all our cases to be heard, and
end Adani’s special treatment – which will enable the destruction of W&J country and heritage – including keeping the Premier’s election promise to veto Adani’s $1BN taxpayer-funded loan”’
‘“This follows an an authorisation meeting of our Claim Group on 2 December at which,
for the fourth time since 2012, our people voted unanimously to reject an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) with Adani. … ‘
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 10th December 2017
‘International Human Rights Day and the International Declaration of Human Rights
https://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/irag/
‘The Universal Declaration of Human Rights empowers us all.
Human rights are relevant to all of us, every day.
Our shared humanity is rooted in these universal values.
Equality, justice and freedom prevent violence and sustain peace.
Whenever and wherever humanity’s values are abandoned, we all are at greater risk.
We need to stand up for our rights and those of others. …
‘In the coming year IRAG Alice Springs will be calling on people all around the country and overseas
to support us in our stand to have people’s human rights upheld, and
their rights under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
‘This will be a campaign to have the Stronger Futures laws repealed as this is destroying people and our culture.
‘We are working on strategies to call on all politicians to listen to what we are saying.
Governments need to work with us instead of treating people like children.
‘IRAG is grateful for all your support in the past
and we look forward to working with you in the future.
IRAG UPDATE
‘IRAG group is meeting regularly to plan a strong campaign for the next year.
We need more people to join us as there is much work to be done.
Please send us a message via our Facebook page if you are interested in joining us.’
11 December REneweconomy News
RenewEconomy
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Maoneng lands Australia’s biggest solar PPA with AGLChina-Australia renewable energy firm lands PPA with AGL for construction of 300MW of large scale solar – the biggest contract so far in Australia.
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AGL proposes 1.6GW wind and solar, plus storage, to replace LiddellAGL confirms plans to invest in 1.6GW of wind and solar, plus storage and other technologies, to replace the ageing coal clunker, Liddell, which it will close in 2022, much to the annoyance of the federal Coalition.
Call For Senate Inquiry Into South Australia’s Nuclear Dump Sites
Going Ballistic Over “Pathetic” Nuclear Dump response
*Call For Senate Inquiry Into SA’s Nuclear Dump Sites After Minister Squibs on Senate Documents Order
NXT Senator Rex Patrick and SA-Best Leader Nick Xenophon say the only way to get answers for the communities of Kimba and Hawker on the reasons their townships were selected as a potential radioactive waste dump sites is through a Senate inquiry into the consultation and selection process.
Both Senator Patrick and his SA-Best colleague, Nick Xenophon, are gobsmacked at the totally inadequate response by Senator Matt Canavan, the Minister for 
Resources and Northern Australia, to a Senate order to produce all the documents he used to determine there was ‘broad community support’ to continue exploring Kimba as a site for the low-level waste dump.
On Wednesday Senator Patrick successfully moved the motion for the Minister to make public all the information gathered by Government departments.
Earlier in the year the Minister advised he would need a figure in the range of 65% community support to progress plans in Kimba. Three ballots have been run in Kimba and none have reached 60%.Yet despite not hitting the criteria he set himself, the Minister selected two Kimba sites for further assessment.
Senator Patrick sought the Senate order after the Government refused to provide a local community member with a definition of ‘broad community support’ under freedom of information laws.
“When I asked for all the information used by Minister Canavan on how he came to make his determination to proceed to the next phase of consultation, all I got was a disingenuous response saying that there was no threshold which constituted ‘broad community support,” Senator Patrick said.
Nick Xenophon said: “None of the information used to make the decision was provided. We need to see and share with the community what was put to him to make his decision.”
Senator Patrick will move for the Senate inquiry into the contentious issue when parliament resumes next year.
“If I cannot get satisfactory answers, then there’s no choice but to ask the Senate to look into the process undertaken to date and the Government’s reasoning in moving forward to the next stage of the assessment despite the deep division in the community,” he said.
“I made it very clear to the Government during my first speech in the Senate that I had a strong interest in accountability and transparency.
“I want to work constructively with this Government but my enthusiasm to do so is contingent on them embracing a key principle of responsible government – openness and transparency.
“When it comes to decisions made about the people and supposedly for the people, they must be open about them, particularly when it comes to a nuclear dump site, “ said Senator Patrick. Follow links to the response from Minister Canavan and Senator Patrick’s Senate motion
https://www.pdf.investintech.com/preview/437f7094-dbb4-11e7-9f8d-0cc47a792c0a/index.html
Having won the Queensland election, Annastacia Palaszczuk will be vetoing the Adani coal megamine
Annastacia Palaszczuk finally wins Qld election
The veto of a federal loan for Adani’s controversial $16.5 billion Carmichael mine will be one of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s first jobs once her government is sworn in she says…. (subscribers only)
http://www.afr.com/news/politics/annastacia-palaszczuk-finally-wins-qld-election-after-tim-nicholls-concedes-20171207-h015mi
For Australia’s cities, climate change is already here
Heatwaves, infrastructure and resilient, The Saturday Paper Greg Foyster 9 Dec 17 It’s 5pm on a Friday after a week of 40-degree days in Melbourne, and commuters are lined up at platforms on Flinders Street Station, desperate to get home.
But something’s wrong – all the departure screens are blank. Commuters check their smartphones, craning sunburnt necks. Train tracks have buckled, carriage airconditioners have conked out, and now a bushfire threatens transmission lines to the east, the city’s umbilical link with Latrobe Valley power stations. As blackouts cascade across the suburbs, Twitter bristles with the hashtag #Meltbourne. More than half a million people are stranded.
This scenario is fiction, but based on fact. On February 6, 2009, after a string of 40-degree days, telecommunications, public transport, power and lifts really did start to fail. “The city itself very nearly failed,” explains Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle. “We somehow got through that Friday night and got the 850,000 people who were in the centre of the city home. Black Saturday was the next day.”
Doyle shared this anecdote at the opening of Refuge, an arts event held last month that turned North Melbourne Town Hall into a heatwave emergency relief centre. It’s part of the city’s new “resilience” strategy, published in May 2016, to prepare for disasters.
Sydney is also working on a resilience plan, Continue reading
Australia’s top companies ignore climate change, and we let them
the mis- or non-management of climate risk is rampant in corporate Australia.
Whether the situation stays like this is up to investors
http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/companies-ignore-climate-change-and-we-ve-let-them-get-away-with-it-20171208-p4yxjg.html Julien Vincent , 8 Dec 17
Last week, APRA Executive Board member Geoff Summerhayes warned the transition to a low carbon economy is already underway and “institutions that fail to adequately plan for this transition put their own futures in jeopardy, with subsequent consequences for their account holders, members or policyholders.”
The speech followed a Centre for Policy Development discussion paper on how companies can follow the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
The TCFD has set the standard for climate risk disclosure since its draft recommendations were released a year ago. Its final recommendations were backed by over 100 companies with a combined market capitalisation of over $3 trillion, which should give an idea to how seriously the TCFD is being taken.
But is it though? Market Forces has just examined the ASX top 50 companies’ responses to the TCFD. Only seven had delivered on the key recommendation to disclose information on how their company performs in a scenario where global warming is held below 2°C, while 31 don’t even mention the TCFD recommendations, let alone implement them.
It isn’t the first warning sign that corporate Australia is failing to manage climate risk. Continue reading
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons to receive Nobel Peace Prize on Deccember 10th
Nobel Peace Prize: Does an Australian-born anti-nuke group’s award achieve anything? ABC News By Europe correspondent James Glenday , 9 Dec 17 It has been dubbed an “ambassador boycott”, a Nobel Peace Prize ceremony snub.
When an Australian-born movement to ban nuclear weapons receives the world’s most prestigious award this weekend, Russia will be the only declared nuclear power with a top diplomat present.
Israel is sending an ambassador, though it does not confirm or deny it has nuclear warheads, while the US, the UK and France have chosen to make a statement — they will only be represented by deputies.
The prize winner, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), claims the “ambassador boycott” by western countries is aimed at undermining its work.
It has fought for a global treaty banning nuclear weapons, which now has 53 signatories.
But the document remains somewhat symbolic because no nuclear powers have signed it and neither have many of their close allies.
Australia, for example, has long argued banning the bomb outright — while emotionally appealing — will not lead to any meaningful reduction in nuclear weapons and may divert attention from existing treaties aimed at preventing nuclear proliferation.
Thus far, the Turnbull Government has stopped short of congratulating ICAN, which began in Melbourne……..
There has been controversy and contradictions surrounding the Nobel Peace Prize ever since it was founded by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish businessman who invented dynamite and traded arms……..
This year the award is worth 9 million Swedish kronor, more than $AU1.411 million. “That money helps a young NGO [like ICAN], one that doesn’t have much access to funds, one that is perhaps being denied funds because of some political problems,” Dr Lewis said.
“ICAN was founded in Australia. It’s something that Australians have achieved.”……..
ICAN is, of course, hoping the prize will convince more people to back its bomb ban.
But it also wants more public debate about the pace of nuclear disarmament — many nuclear experts agree things have moved too slowly, for too long.
“I would hope [ICAN’s work] generates some momentum within existing processes for disarmament,” Mr Dall said.
“If it doesn’t, then the long-term impact could be that nothing is going to happen and that really is the worst possible long-term impact.”
Regardless, the prize, the controversy and “ambassador boycott” is all invaluable for ICAN itself.
Anything that prompts more global coverage of nuclear weapons and the destruction they can unleash, is much more useful to it than any number of diplomatic niceties in Norway this weekend. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-09/does-the-nobel-peace-prize-achieve-anything/9242626
Did thorium pollution cause cancers and deaths in the Tweed Valley?
Cancer cluster fears after more than 20 deaths https://www.tweeddailynews.com.au/news/cancer-cluster-scare-black-sand-suspect-in-deaths/2748511/ by Alina Rylko 22nd Aug 2015 Updated: 14th Aug 2017 A MULTI-GENERATIONAL tragedy costing dozens of lives on a short stretch of road in the Tweed Valley is claimed to be evidence of a cancer cluster.
Adani coal project in a financial pickle, as Australian and Chinese banks refuse funding
Is this the end of the road for Adani’s Australian megamine?
Australian and Chinese banks have turned it down, and analysts say Adani’s failure to secure funding for the Carmichael mine leaves it high and dry, Guardian, Michael Slezak, 7 Dec 17 , Adani’s operations in Australia appear to be hanging on by a thread, as activists prove effective at undermining the company’s chances of getting the finance it needs.
China seems to have ruled out funding for the mine, which means it’s not just Adani’s proposed Carmichael coalmine that is under threat, but also its existing Abbot Point coal terminal, which sits near Bowen, behind the Great Barrier Reef.
The campaign against the mine has been long. Environmentalists first tried to use Australia’s environmental laws to block it from going ahead, and then failing that, focused on pressuring financial institutions, first here, and then around the world.
The news that Beijing has left Adani out to dry comes as on-the-ground protests against construction of the mine pick up. Two Greens MPs, Jeremy Buckingham and Dawn Walker, have been arrested in Queensland for disrupting the company’s activities.
Is China’s move the end of the road for Adani’s mega coalmine in Australia, and will the Adani Group be left with billions of dollars in stranded assets?
Environmental laws fail to halt mine
Despite the mine threatening to destroy some of the best remaining habitat of threatened species of birds and lizards, federal environmental laws proved unable to stop the mine in the face of a government that wanted it to go ahead.
The initial federal approval for the mine was overturned after it was revealed the then-minister for the environment, Greg Hunt, had ignored his own department’s advice about the mine’s impact on two vulnerable species, the yakka skink and the ornamental snake.
But Australia’s environmental law leaves very little opportunity for challenging the merits of a minister’s decision – it only allows for challenges on whether those decisions considered everything required by the law. As a result, the minister needed only approve it again, after formally considering the impact on the two species.
Another court challenge argued the approval was invalid because the emissions caused by the mine – which would be greater than those of New York City – were a threat to the Great Barrier Reef. Hunt argued in court, successfully, that there was no definite link between coal from Adani mine and climate change.
It became apparent Australia’s environmental laws were unable to stop a project like this if the government of the day was determined to push it through……. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/07/is-this-the-end-of-the-road-for-adanis-australian-megamine
1 This month
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/235274195556
19 May – Webinar- Webinar: No Nuclear Weapons in Australia
Start: 2026-05-19 18:00:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
End: 2026-05-19 19:30:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
20 May – Webinar – The dangerous world of AUKUS, US, military occupation and suppression of dissent
National Webinar, 20th May, 2026, 6.30pm AEST. Confronting laws restricting/suppressing protest speech and action
Speakers: Former Sen. Rex Patrick, Lawyer Nick Hanna ,Arthur Rorris ,Jorgen Doyle, Sen David Shoebbridge,
Facilitator Kelley Tranter.
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 