Australia continues to ignore its role in the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe
In March 2011 people all around the world held our breath as the Fukushima nuclear disaster played out on our screens.Later as the headlines, albeit not the radiation levels faded, it was confirmed that Australian uranium directly fuelled Fukushima. Rocks dug in Kakadu and northern South Australia were the source of the radioactive fallout threatening Japan and well beyond.
The line of connection was made clearly from a failed reactor complex on Japan’s East coast to the back of a big yellow truck at an Australian mine-site.
This week the man who steered Japan through the critical early days of the continuing crisis is touring Australia with a simple message: there can be no nuclear ‘business as usual’ in the shadow of Fukushima.
Mr Naoto Kan was the Japanese Prime Minister at the time the Fukushima nuclear crisis started in March 2011 after a powerful earthquake and tsunami caused chaos across Japan……..
Against a context of domestic nuclear promotion with Bob Hawke urging Australia to become the world’s radioactive waste dump and PM Abbott cutting treaty corners and hawking uranium sales to India on a visit there early next month, Mr Kans cautionary tale is timely.
Mr Kan has already spoken in Darwin and visited the embattled Ranger uranium mine in Kakadu where he met with the regions Mirarr Traditional Owners. The Mirarr have the longest lived experience of uranium mining of any Aboriginal people in Australia.
This experience was previously summed up by Mirarr leader Yvonne Margarula with the potent phrase, ‘None of the promises last – but the problems always do.”
Following the Fukushima meltdown the Mirarr leader wrote a powerful note to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon stating, “Given the long history between Japanese nuclear companies and Australian uranium miners, it is likely that the radiation problems at Fukushima are, at least in part, fuelled by uranium derived from our traditional lands. This makes us feel very sad”.
Along with the sadness was a desire for scrutiny, a view shared by Ban Ki Moon when he formally called in September 2011 for Australia to conduct ‘an in-depth assessment of the net cost impact of the impacts of mining fissionable material (uranium) on local communities and ecosystems’.
Sadly, and culpably, to date there has been no meaningful response from any Australian government, uranium company, uranium industry body or regulator to the fact that Australian uranium fuelled Fukushima…….Let’s hope that this week Mr Kan’s clear message is heard and heeded: Fukushima is a game changer with Australian fingerprints and our shared energy future must be renewable, not radioactive.https://newmatilda.com/2014/08/29/fukushima-australia%E2%80%99s-radioactive-rocks-and-responsibility
Federal Anti Environment Minister Greg Hunt is angry with solar power advocates
Greg Hunt explodes over solar industry’s anti-LNP marginal seat campaign Independent Australia Sophie Vorrath 26 August 2014, Environment Minister Greg Hunt is furious about the Australian Solar Council launching a marginal seat campaign against the Government over its attacks on the renewables industry, writes Sophie Vorrath (via Renew Economy).
Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt has launched an extraordinary attack on the head of the Australian Solar Council (ASC), John Grimes, after comments the ASC chief made on ABC radio, criticising the Coalition’s“broken promises” on support for renewable energy.
Hunt described Grimes as a “total failure of an industry leader” on Brisbane ABC 612 Mornings program last Thursday, and said he should be “utterly ashamed” of comments he made suggesting the environment minister had been “sidelined” in a government that was firmly anti-renewables.
The comments by Hunt come just a few weeks after he accused the left of “being against electricity”, and comes as polling shows that Government is under severe pressure over its renewables policy and the outcome of its controversial RET Review panel.
Grimes, speaking ahead of last Thursday’s launch of the “Save Solar” campaign – a campaign that will target marginal federal seats across Australia – accused Prime Minister Tony Abbott of personally leading a push to curtail renewables growth in Australia…….http://www.independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/greg-hunt-explodes-about-solar-councils-anti-coalition-marginal-seat-campaign,6815
Naoto Kan warns Queensland’s Premier on poor prospects market for uranium
Better Market Your Uranium Someplace Else, Japan Appetite No Longer Huge as Before – Former PM Tells Australia Queensland Premier Campbell Newman International Business Times, By Esther Tanquintic-Misa | August 28, 2014 Campbell Newman, premier of Australia‘s Queensland state, has gotten an advice from former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, and that is to market the country’s uranium to someplace else. This, as a new study said the bill of damages from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown will zoom to over $105 billion, double than the earlier estimates released by authorities in 2011.
While Japan may restart some of its 54 idled nuclear power plants, Kan said Japan’s appetite for the yellow cake uranium won’t be “anywhere the same levels of uranium it has in the past.”
Kan was in Australia last week on a trip sponsored by the Australian Conservation Foundation. A previous staunch supporter of nuclear power, Kan is now against uranium mining, having seen the effects of the Fukushima Daiichinuclear power plant meltdowns in March 2011.
Kan was Japan’s prime minister at the time of the Fukushima nuclear disaster three years ago.
“Even if some did restart it would be practically impossible to return to the kind of levels of operation that were in place before the March 2011 disaster,” Brisbane Times quoted Kan………
He also stressed the appeal of the yellow cake to fuel nuclear power plants had simmered down, and thus Queensland has China as the only potential country it can export its primary product.
“The trends we are seeing in the United States and Europe – and also because of the very high costs of nuclear power – we are not seeing a growth in this market,” he said………http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/564339/20140828/uranium-japan-appetite-kan-australia-queensland-newman.htm#.VADXudJdUnk
John Pilger calls for a Treaty with the Aboriginal people
He calls for a treaty with Australia’s Indigenous people….. All the advances of the latter 20th century – “Mabo, native title, Wik and so on” – have been distractions, he adds. A treaty is the main game.
“Until that happens then Australia will be, even compared with other colonial states, quite primitive. Compared with New Zealand, the United States and Canada, where there are many problems, in Australia there isn’t even the will or the goodwill to recognise these problems. There’s an indifference that easily becomes cynicism.”
John Pilger: Australia is a land of excuses, not the land of the fair go
In the leadup to his appearance at Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas, the film-maker and journalist renews his call for a treaty between Australia and its Indigenous peoples
Interview by Steve Dow theguardian.com, Wednesday 27 August 2014
Tony Abbott’s government has declared a “civil war of rich against poor” with the Indigenous population at the coalface as the country’s “people most denied”, the film-maker and journalist John Pilger has warned.
This year’s Australian federal budget was “a copy of the kind of declaration Margaret Thatcher made when she came to power”, says Pilger on the line from Britain before his return to Australia to appear at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House.
“It’s going to involve attacks on people’s working rights, social rights, right throughout the country, in a country that has declared itself – or [its] mythology has – as the land of a fair go.”
In his 2013 film Utopia, Pilger brought attention back to the Indigenous disadvantage in remote Australian communities, dismantling the Howard government’s basis for its Northern Territory intervention (the claim of widespread child abuse by Aboriginal men) and arguing that a new “stolen generation” of Indigenous children is emerging.
Call for investigation into the conduct of the Review Panel on the Renewable Energy Target
Clean energy industry calls for inquiry into renewable energy target review, SMH, August 27, 2014 Lisa Cox National political reporter “……the clean energy industry demanded an investigation into the conduct of the inquiry and Greens senators called for the full contents of the report.
The review, led by climate sceptic Dick Warburton, considered a number of scenarios but is expected to settle on two recommendations. The first would suggest the renewable energy target be wound up for all but current participants in the scheme.
The second option recommends a scaling back from the current target of 41,000 gigawatt hours of renewable energy production annually by 2020 to about 27,000 GwH.
The government’s response to the report is still some weeks away………
The clean energy industry has warned moves to abolish the target threaten more than $10 billion in investment, 5000 existing jobs and 18,000 jobs into the future.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has previously said the RET puts “significant” pressure on electricity prices but government commissioned modelling for the review showed that consumers would be $56 better off, on average, a year from 2021 if the target was kept in place.
Lane Crockett, executive general manager at Pacific Hydro, said a wind back of the RET would mean “a transfer of about $8 billion to existing gas and coal generators”.
“This is a bizarre situation to be in – it was a promise by this government before the election to keep the RET,” Mr Crockett said. “Frankly, if they do this, I would call for a Senate inquiry into what’s gone on.
“There’s certainly the numbers in the Senate to get an inquiry up.”
Labor, the Greens and the Palmer United Party have all said they will block attempts to change the RET during this Parliament, meaning the government currently does not have support in the Senate if it wants to change the target.
On Wednesday, Greens leader Christine Milne said that attempts to change the target would be “economic vandalism” after the Senate passed her motion calling for the Warburton review to be released in full after weeks of speculation about its contents.
“They have caused such investment uncertainty and sovereign risk for the renewable energy industry that it is absolutely outrageous that they are sitting on this report,” Senator Milne said.
“This is incredible that we have a government that says Australia is open for business and does everything it can to destroy an industry and the jobs associated with it.” http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/clean-energy-industry-calls-for-inquiry-into-renewable-energy-target-review-20140827-10974m.html#ixzz3BoqyUPrE
Renewable Energy Target TOO successful: Abbott’s fossil fuel mates don’t like it.
Success. The Renewable Energy Target’s greatest failing, SMH, August 29, 2014 – Peter Martin Economics Editor, The Age The good news is the Renewable Energy Target has been a success. It’s built up a wind and solar power generation industry at a very low cost to electricity users. In six years’ time it’ll start to push power prices down. The bad news is the panel doesn’t like it.
It thinks it’s been too successful.
Originally intended to snare 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity generation industry by the end of the decade, it’s on track to grab 28 per cent, all the while having an impact on prices the panel says “appears to be small”. What’s not to like?
It’s killing the coal-fired power generation industry. The panel doesn’t put it that crudely. It refers instead to a “transfer of wealth among participants in the electricity market”. If by 2020 retailers are required to buy 41,000 gigawatt hours from new pollution-free suppliers, the old polluting suppliers are going to sell 41,000 gigawatt hours less.
It would have hurt in any event, but a time when electricity use is sliding (thanks largely to the carbon tax) it means what was to have been 20 per cent is on track to become 28 per cent.
The abolition of the carbon tax gave coal-fired power generators a windfall. Kneecapping the Renewable Energy Target will give them a second helping…………..: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/success-the-renewable-energy-targets-greatest-failing-20140828-109m7t.html#ixzz3Bore9HGW
Deep cultural divide between Australia’s whites and Aboriginals
Why was there a clash of culture between white and black and what was the nature of the clash? http://17ryanc.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/why-was-there-clash-of-culture-between.html I share and learn by Chelsear 28 Aug 14 Ever since the Europeans settled on the shores of Australia in the late 17th century, the differences in white and black cultures, has been notable both physically and emotionally. The contrast between aboriginal and European people ran deeper than the colour of their skin and what they wore, the gulfs existing between both cultures, seemingly irreconcilable. Relationships between the Europeans and Aboriginies deteriorated quickly due to these differences.
When the whites sailed to Australia, their journeys were recorded in diaries, with pen and paper. Their memories and findings were documented in these for personal pleasure and safe-keeping. The Aboriginies recorded their history orally. With no need for pen and paper, stories and skills were passed down from generation to generation by words only.
Another difference noticible, is the fact that the Europeans were a strictly individualistic race. This was the polar opposite to the Aboriginies, who relied completely on eachother to survive, and helped any tribe members in need, putting others first. The white peoples concept of land was determined by how much wealth or status the person had. The land was divided and given to the richest of people, giving them the rights to the property. The Aboriginies on the other hand, shared their land, and had no concept of individual ownership. This lead back to their spiritual beleiefs, of having a harmonious relationship with the land and environment around them. I believe it was these beliefs and differences, that created a great divide between these two cultures, and eventually led to violent confrontations, along with the unnecessary deaths of many innocent people from both cultures.
Australia’s pro nuclear lobby in the spotlight
Australia – uranium and nuclear power, Online opinion By Helen Caldicott -, 26 August 2014
“………… an 
ardently pro-nuclear group in Adelaide has arisen led partly by Barry Brook a Professor of Climate change at Adelaide University, who is an adamant supporter of uranium mining and nuclear power in Australia and is promoting small modular reactors http://www.huffingtonpost.com/helen-caldicott/small-modular-reactors_b_5653378.html.
To make matters worse former Prime Minister Bob Hawke is advocating that Australia enrich uranium and become the repository for the world’s nuclear waste. “We would get an enormous stable flow of income which could be used for the benefit of the world and our own benefit” he says. Nuclear waste must be isolated from the environment for 1,000,000 years according to the US Environmental Protection Agency – a scientific impossibility.
These people clearly do not understand the carcinogenic and medical dangers arising at all stages of the nuclear fuel chain, nor do they understand radiobiology, genetics or teratology. Furthermore nuclear power does not alleviate global warming because it is supported by a massive industrial infrastructure which creates large quantities of global warming gases including CO2 and CFCs. It is hugely expensive – $12-15 billion per new reactor, and unable to gain funding from Wall Street it is totally government subsided. And most importantly, investment in nuclear power would take money away from desperately needed renewable energy.http://progressillinois.com/quick-hits/content/2014/05/18/report-new-nuclear-power-technology-would-siphon-resources-away-renewa.
Each large reactor contains as much radiation as 1000 Hiroshima bombs, and uranium becomes one billion times more radioactive in a reactor, creating 200 new dangerous radioactive isotopes……..http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=16621
$15 billion in large scale renewable energy projects on hold, in uncertainty ov Renewable Energy Target
The Implications of Axing RET Sourceable, Marc Howe, 26 Aug 14 The potential demise of the Renewable Energy Tax (RET) is already taking its toll on Australia’s clean energy sector, with major projects annulled due to developers’ concerns about their economic viability in the absence of government-backed incentives……..
A total of $15 billion in large scale renewable energy projects are reported to be on hold as a result of jitters over RET, with next to no new financing committed during the past 18 months.
With Australia’s clean power sector already so heavily shaken by uncertainty surrounding the future of RET, what will the implications be for the country’s broader energy sector should the Abbott government succeed in reducing it, or bringing about its total demise?
According to a recent study commissioned by environmental groups, a reduction in RET would come as a huge boon for coal and gas suppliers, who could look forward to an additional $10 billion in profits over the next decade and a half.
Modelling by the Jacobs Group for the Climate Institute, the Australian Conservation Foundation and WWF-Australia found that reducing RET’s goal to 20 per cent renewable energy by 2020 as advocated by EnergyAustralia and Origin Energy would provide huge economic benefits to these conventional power providers.
………While the big three power companies would reap huge gains from a watered down RET, Australia’s burgeoning yet still fledgling renewable energy sector would suffer from heavy adverse effects. Jacobs’ modelling also found that Australia would see a decline in new renewable energy investment of $8 billion in current dollar terms by 2040.
The Australian Solar Council said the country’s solar energy sector would be “gutted” by any reduction in RET, while a cancellation of the measure completely would have even more disastrous effects.
According to Australian Solar Council CEO John Grimes, the total removal of RET would halve demand for solar power almost immediately.
“If the government goes ahead with its plans to axe the RET, demand for solar will fall 40 – 50 per cent straight away,” he said. “Thousands of Australians will lose their jobs. Hundreds, if not thousands, of small businesses will shut up shop.”
– See more at: http://sourceable.net/the-implications-of-axing-ret/#sthash.X4jJVwt7.dpuf
Online Green Electricity Guide gives thumbs down to Simply Energy, Energy Australia and Origin Energy
Green guide ranks big energy providers in the red, SMH, August 15, 2014 Lucy Cormack Some of Australia’s biggest energy providers have been ranked the worst performers on a green energy scale, among them Energy Australia and Origin Energy in NSW.
The online Green Electricity Guide produced by Greenpeace Australia and the Total Environment Centre ranks electricity retailers, state by state, on seven criteria relating to carbon emission rates, solar power offers, GreenPower products and investments in fossil fuels.
The highest-ranked companies in NSW were Diamond Energy, which relies predominantly on solar generation, and Momentum Energy, the owner of Australia’s biggest hydropower generator.
Among the biggest energy providers with a poor ranking were Simply Energy, which predominates in the Victorian and South Australian electricity markets, and Energy Australia and Origin Energy, ranked consecutively the least efficient in green energy in NSW.
Senior Greenpeace campaigner Reece Turner said the days are gone of customers staying with one power company for life. “There’s now a new breed of retailers investing in renewables, eager to snare customers with an appetite for a renewable energy future,” he said.
The guide has encouraged Kylie Hitchman and her family to switch from Origin Energy to Diamond Energy this month. “I’m very disappointed with Origin Energy. Initially we started with them because we thought they were the cleanest and greenest,” she said.
Ms Hitchman said the smaller and 100 per cent renewable Diamond Energy was a better fit. “It follows my ethics to go with someone like them,” she said………
In Victoria, the advocacy group GetUp! and a Victorian energy provider are trying to encourage consumers to switch to companies that have a greater commitment to renewable energy. Their campaign urges people to switch from the big energy providers and use Powershop, an online company that monitors energy companies’ prices and offers customers a monthly review of their energy usage and recommends better deals.
Powershop has added 10 per cent of its total customer base in the past two months as a result of the campaign, which GetUp! believes has providers like AGL on the offensive.
“The big power companies are trying to win back customers who have switched to Powershop,” GetUp! spokesman Matt Levinson said. “AGL is offering customers who have switched to Powershop huge discounts of up to 39 per cent to try and win them back.” ….
GetUp! said it plans to make the Powershop campaign a national one, following the success of the Victorian trial. : http://www.smh.com.au/environment/green-guide-ranks-big-energy-providers-in-the-red-20140821-104mw0.html#ixzz3BcvGw1WS
World is moving away from nuclear power, says former Prime Minister of Japan
Former Japanese PM Naoto Kan urges Australia to wean world off uranium, focus on renewables http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-22/move-towards-renewables-former-japanese-pm-tells-australia/5691118 By Kate Wild and Xavier La Canna
Japan’s prime minister during the Fukushima disaster says Australia should be trying to wean other countries away from nuclear power, not increase exports of uranium.
Naoto Kan, who was prime minister from June 2010 to August 2011 is in Australia to lobby for a greater use of renewable energy sources.
He said the world was moving away from nuclear power, and Australia should not get in the way of that.
“Rather than looking at making contributions through exporting and making it more possible for more countries to be relying on nuclear power, all countries including Australia should be making efforts to do what can be done to reduce such dependence on nuclear power,” Mr Kan said.
“I hope that Australia can be exporting not uranium or coal for example, but electricity created through renewable sources,” he said.
When he was Japanese PM, representing the Democratic party of Japan, a tsunami caused a nuclear incident in which three nuclear reactors melted down at the Fukushima nuclear power plant and forced widespread evacuations.
“We were very close to the scenario of having to evacuate people in a 250 kilometre radius,” he said.
“This would have included also Tokyo, which would mean 40 per cent of the entire Japanese population – close to 50 million people.”
His party initiated policies to see nuclear power phased out in Japan by the 2030s, but this policy was overturned by the Liberal Democratic Power, which regained office in 2012.
Australia is thought to have the world’s largest uranium resources, and mines exist in the Northern Territory and South Australia, while Queensland recently lifted a 30-year ban on uranium mining.
Western Australia is also looking to develop its uranium industry.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott will soon travel to India to finalise a deal for Australia to sell uranium to their energy-hungry economy for the first time.
Tony Abbott soon off to India to sign uranium export deal
Tony Abbott expected to sign uranium deal with India on visit next month, The Guardian 19 Aug 14 PM’s scheduled visit follows completion of negotiations surrounding arrangements for the export of uranium Tony Abbott is expected to sign a deal to sell uranium to India during a visit to the country next month.
The Australian prime minister’s scheduled visit follows the completion of negotiations surrounding arrangements for the export of uranium, according to multiple news reports.
Indian officials convinced their Australian counterparts that the uranium would not be used for nuclear weapons, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.
The Times of India reported earlier this month that negotiations between the two countries had concluded and the deal was likely to be signed during Abbott’s visit to India in early September
The Australian government would not confirm the reports on Monday, but the assistant minister for infrastructure, Jamie Briggs, told the ABC it would be a welcome development if true.
Labor’s treasury spokesman, Chris Bowen, said the former government had been working on arrangements to sell uranium to India.
“The Labor party put in place the policy framework to allow that to happen so if that has been progressed that’s something that’s welcomed,” Bowen said.
In 2012 the then prime minister, Julia Gillard, visited India and announced the two countries would begin negotiations for a nuclear safeguards agreement. ….http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/18/tony-abbott-expected-to-sign-uranium-deal-with-india-on-visit-next-month
Hype about Olympic Damn Uranium Mine – too good to be true?
Olympic Dam: mining’s double century resource, In Daily, KEVIN NAUGHTON | 20 AUGUST 2014 “…..Outlining its new corporate strategy in a global statement last night, BHP listed Olympic Dam as a core asset with a longer life than any other asset in his portfolio…….The limits of the mine’s mineralisation is yet to be determined; however, it remains a resource that is difficult to recover and process……..Shortly after picking up the asset, BHP began work on a major expansion of the mine.
It aimed to triple production by removing the dirt above the resource and building a massive open cut mine.
The capital cost of that project didn’t stack up when presented to the company’s board in 2012 and the project was cancelled.
BHP is now working on a longer, slower extraction process. It’s currently conducting research trials at geology laboratory Bureau Veritas’s Adelaide site.
The mining process called heap leaching is being tested in a three-year trial. The ore is “heaped” and a mix of acids and other chemicals drip through the ore.
It’s still in its experimental stage and any expansion of the mine is at least six years away……..http://indaily.com.au/business/2014/08/20/olympic-dam-mining/
Pollutimg industries will gain from weakening of Australia’s Renewable Energy Target
Weaker RET = $10 Billion Windfall For Big, Dirty Energy http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=4445 18 Aug 14 It’s becoming even clearer why Big Energy in Australia want the Renewable Energy Target gone; or at least gutted.
According to modeling by Jacobs; even just reducing the national Renewable Energy Target (RET) would generate $10 billion in extra profit over the next 15 years for coal and gas-fired power generators – and households and businesses will pay more for their power.
Jacobs states reducing the large-scale RET in the way some power companies have recommended would net Energy Australia $1.9 billion in extra profit between 2015-2030 and Origin Energy would rake in $1.5 billion.
But there’s more – AGL’s extra chunk of change would be significantly boosted to $2.7 billion if its goal of buying government-owned Macquarie Generation succeeds.
The sting in the tail of this mega-profit bonanza will be borne, as always, by electricity consumers and the environment. Wholesale prices will rise an average 15 per cent and retail prices 2.5 per cent by 2030. The latter doesn’t include the inevitable price hikes in relation to network costs, which make up a good chunk of a bill.
Jacobs also state $8 billion in new renewables investment would be lost and Australia’s electricity related emissions would balloon by an extra 2 million tonnes a year by 2030 under the reduction scenario. Jacobs’ modeling was carried out for the Climate Institute, Australian Conservation Foundation and WWF-Australia. The full report can bedownloaded here (PDF).
While the Abbott Government may have its sights set on disemboweling the RET; if it should do so it would be at great risk. Many Australians are passionate about renewables and an overwhelming majority of submissions to the Renewable Energy Target Review were in support of the RET. After the black eyes the Government has worn over the recent Budget; treading on the RET could be the proverbial straw.
Still, it wouldn’t be the first time a government has acted in opposition to the will of the people and defied logic – a good reason for perhaps going solar now and taking advantage of the thousands of dollars in incentives while they are still available. For example, a 5kW solar power system can attract up to $3,120 in subsidies depending on installation location.
Democracy under threat in Tasmania
Proposed anti-protest laws a ‘brutal strategy’, Bob Brown tells Hobart rally http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-16/hundreds-fill-the-hobart-city-hall-to-oppose-state-anti-protest/5675720 17 Aug 2014, Hundreds of people who rallied in Tasmania today against proposed anti-protest laws have been warned the State Government intends to misuse the prison system. More than 500 people packed into Hobart’s City Hall to protest against laws that would see on-the-spot fines and jail sentences for people who disrupt workplaces.
Former Greens leader Bob Brown labelled the laws discriminatory and out-of-balance, telling the crowd that: “These laws would have jailed Gandhi and Jesus Christ himself.”
Many see the laws as aimed at anti-forestry protesters, who have disrupted logging in state forests by protest actions.
Richard Griggs from Civil Liberties Australia told the rally the proposed laws would create mandatory prison sentences for people who on two occasions gathered on public land to protest, if they slowed or hindered a vehicle registered to a business.
“This is a misuse of the prison system by our Government. Prisons should be used by government to make the community safer, not as a way to frighten the community into silence,” he said. He said competing rights of workers to enter their workplaces, and those of people have a right to protest, were currently managed by the laws of trespass and public nuisance.
Mr Griggs said people were at the rally to stand up for the right to peaceful protests, which was a fundamental democratic freedom. Greg Barns from Australian Lawyers Alliance agreed, saying: “You can be 18, 19 years of age, you’re fired up at a protest, and you decide to run into some business premises, you end up getting a mandatory conviction. I will not be bullied or cowered by their brutal strategy.”
Previously, the Greens have compared the laws to those of Nazi Germany, while Labor’s Lara Giddings has described the legislation as draconian.
The State Government rejects the criticisms. Resources Minister Paul Harriss said the protest showed there was no issue with peaceful demonstrations. “The legislation currently before the Parliament does in no way diminish or take away from the opportunity for anyone to peacefully and legally protest.” he said.
The bill has passed the Lower House and will now be considered by the independent-dominated Upper House.
1 This month
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
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 