50+ groups sign joint civil society statement on domestic nuclear power
Friends of the Earth Australia is proud to be among the 50+ groups to sign the following statement calling for a clean, green, nuclear-free future.
The statement has been submitted to the federal inquiry into nuclear power (you can read the FoE submission about ‘small modular reactors’ here and our statement about nuclear power and climate change here).
The strong level of trade union support for a nuclear-free future is very welcome, with key national unions and peak union bodies including the ACTU endorsing the statement below.
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Our nation faces urgent energy challenges. Against a backdrop of increasing climate impacts and scientific evidence the need for a clean and renewable energy transition is clear and irrefutable. All levels of government need to actively facilitate and manage Australia’s accelerated transition from reliance on fossil fuels to low carbon electricity generation.
The transition to clean, safe, renewable energy should also re-power the national economy. The development and commercialisation of manufacturing, infrastructure and new energy thinking is already generating employment and opportunity. This should be grown to provide skilled and sustainable jobs and economic activity, particularly in regional Australia.
There should be no debate about the need for this energy transition, or that it is already occurring. However, choices and decisions are needed to make sure that the transition best meets the interests of workers, affected communities and the broader Australian society.
Against this context the federal government has initiated an Inquiry into whether domestic nuclear power has a role in this necessary energy transition.
Our organisations, representing a diverse cross section of the Australian community, strongly maintain that nuclear power has no role to play in Australia’s energy future.
Nuclear power is a dangerous distraction from real movement on the pressing energy decisions and climate actions we need. We maintain this for a range of factors, including:
- Waste: Nuclear reactors produce long-lived radioactive wastes that pose a direct human and environmental threat for many thousands of years and impose a profound inter-generational burden. Radioactive waste management is costly, complex, contested and unresolved, globally and in the current Australian context. Nuclear power cannot be considered a clean source of energy given its intractable legacy of nuclear waste.
- Water: Nuclear power is a thirsty industry that consumes large volumes of water, from uranium mining and processing through to reactor cooling. Australia is a dry nation where water is an important resource and supply is often uncertain.
- Time: Nuclear power is a slow response to a pressing problem. Nuclear reactors are slow to build and license. Globally, reactors routinely take ten years or more to construct and time over-runs are common. Construction and commercialisation of nuclear reactors in Australia would be further delayed by the lack of nuclear engineers, a specialised workforce, and a licensing, regulatory and insurance framework.
- Cost: Nuclear power is highly capital intensive and a very expensive way to produce electricity. The 2016 South Australian Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission concluded nuclear power was not economically viable. The controversial Hinkley reactors being constructed in the UK will cost more than $35 billion and lock in high cost power for consumers for decades. Cost estimates of other reactors under construction in Europe and the US range from $17 billion upwards and all are many billions of dollars over-budget and many years behind schedule. Renewable energy is simply the cheapest form of new generation electricity as the CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator concluded in their December 2018 report.
- Security: Nuclear power plants have been described as pre-deployed terrorist targets and pose a major security threat. This in turn would likely see an increase in policing and security operations and costs and a commensurate impact on civil liberties and public access to information. Other nations in our region may view Australian nuclear aspirations with suspicion and concern given that many aspects of the technology and knowledge base are the same as those required for nuclear weapons. On many levels nuclear is a power source that undermines confidence.
- Inflexible or unproven: Existing nuclear reactors are highly centralised and inflexible generators of electricity. They lack capacity to respond to changes in demand and usage, are slow to deploy and not well suited to modern energy grids or markets. Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are not in commercial production or use and remain unproven and uncertain. This is no basis for a national energy policy.
- Safety: All human made systems fail. When nuclear power fails it does so on a massive scale. The human, environmental and economic costs of nuclear accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima have been massive and continue. Decommissioning and cleaning up old reactors and nuclear sites, even in the absence of any accidents, is technically challenging and very costly.
- Unlawful and unpopular: Nuclear power and nuclear reactors are prohibited under existing federal, state and territory laws. The nuclear sector is highly contested and does not enjoy broad political, stakeholder or community support. A 2015 IPSOS poll found that support among Australians for solar power (78‒87%) and wind power (72%) is far higher than support for coal (23%) and nuclear (26%).
- Disproportionate impacts: The nuclear industry has a history of adverse impacts on Aboriginal communities, lands and waters. This began in the 1950s with British atomic testing and continues today with uranium mining and proposed nuclear waste dumps. These problems would be magnified if Australia ever advanced domestic nuclear power.
- Better alternatives: If Australia’s energy future was solely a choice between coal and nuclear then a nuclear debate would be needed. But it is not. Our nation has extensive renewable energy options and resources and Australians have shown clear support for increased use of renewable and genuinely clean energy sources.
The path ahead:
Australia can do better than fuel higher carbon emissions and unnecessary radioactive risk.
We need to embrace the fastest growing global energy sector and become a driver of clean energy thinking and technology and a world leader in renewable energy technology.
We can grow the jobs of the future here today. This will provide a just transition for energy sector workers, their families and communities and the certainty to ensure vibrant regional economies and secure sustainable and skilled jobs into the future.
Renewable energy is affordable, low risk, clean and popular. Nuclear is simply not.
Our shared energy future is renewable, not radioactive.
Nuclear waste dump ballot to go ahead in Kimba, South Australia
Robyn Wood Note the end with a quote from the Kimba pro nuker who will profit by selling his land. No quote from nuclear opponents. Have a read of the comments, most of them are opposed to the nuclear waste dump plan. The Barngarla people’s request for an injunction to stop the Kimba vote has been denied. The Kimba ballot is happening now. The Flinders Ranges council has agreed to do a risk assessment, but Canavan is not going to wait for the results before doing the Flinders ballot in November.
It plans to post out ballot papers on Thursday, asking locals if they back locating the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility at one of two nominated sites in the region.
The vote comes after the Federal Court on Friday rejected another bid by the Barngarla people to stop it going ahead, pending more court action next year.
The Barngarla, who possess rights over much of the region around Kimba, have argued the poll is unlawful because it excludes native title holders.
Two sites near Kimba have been short-listed as potential locations for a low-level radioactive waste storage facility, while a third is near the Flinders Ranges town of Hawker.
The federal government is yet to reveal its preferred location but said recently it was mindful of the need to reach a decision.
On Friday the government said as well as the Kimba ballot and one to be conducted in the Hawker region in November, business owners and residents within a five-kilometre radius of the three nominated sites would also be surveyed.
The Barngarla had claimed their exclusion from the Kimba ballot was based on their Aboriginality and would impair their human rights or fundamental freedoms as native title owners.
Rejecting that argument in July, Justice Richard White ruled the council’s actions did not contravene racial discrimination laws.
On Friday, Justice Craig Colvin rejected the Barngarla’s argument that its chances of winning on appeal were strong and said the basis for an immediate injunction had not been made out.
National Radioactive Waste Management Taskforce general manager Sam Chard said the decision confirmed the community ballots could proceed.
“What this means is that after more than two years of consultation, communities will have multiple ways in which they can have their say on the proposal,” Ms Chard said.
‘”Whether individuals are for or against the facility, we’re confident the communities at the centre of the process are well informed.”
The Kimba council said it intended pushing ahead with the ballot as there was “no legal impediment” to it going ahead.
“Council’s position has always been to facilitate the ballot on behalf of the minister for resources and northern Australia so our community could have its voice heard,” Mayor Dean Johnson said.
The council plans to post out the voting papers on October 3, with the ballot to close on November 7.
Support for the nuclear waste facility is thought to be mixed across the local community.
Jeff Baldock, who has nominated his Kimba farm as a possible site, is backing the project as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure Kimba’s future”.
Sir David Attenborough slammed the Australian government’s response to climate change
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David Attenborough says Australian government ‘doesn’t give a damn’ about rest of the world, Telegraph, UK, Giovanni Torre, perth 24 SEPTEMBER 2019 While the United Kingdom has reduced its carbon emissions over the past 12 Sir David said the current Australian government had departed from the Sir David noted that Mr Morrison brought a lump of coal into one of “If you weren’t opening a coal mine okay I would agree, it’s a joke. But you Sir David noted that Mr Morrison had campaigned for re-election on a Speaking from Chicago, Mr Morrison defended his government’s record on
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NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro wants to “normalise”nuclear power
NSW Deputy Premier calls for nuclear vote within three years, AFR, Aaron Patrickn 30 Sept 19, NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro suggested holding a non-binding vote at the next federal election to approve the introduction of nuclear power, a step that could help overcome entrenched opposition from the left to the low-emissions technology.
The leader of the state National Party is one of the leading political advocates for nuclear power, which is currently being investigated by parliamentary inquiries at the federal level and in NSW and Victoria.
“We could quite simply have a plebiscite at the 2022 election,” he told a conference run by the Australian Nuclear Association in Sydney. “We need to normalise [?] the conversation.
“Bit by bit it has become the norm. The negativity isn’t happening anymore. Australia is welcoming the conversation.”[?]
Supporters of nuclear power have been buoyed by the new political interest in nuclear, which received a boost when federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor initiated the federal inquiry last month.
At the University of Technology Sydney on Friday, several hundred engineers, regulators and policy experts gathered at the conference to discuss international developments and the Australian outlook.
“The conference is genuinely standing room only,” South Australian nuclear advocate Ben Heard said. “I have never seen it like this. Something is changing down under.”
The federal Coalition’s current policy is not to legalise nuclear power, but some federal and state Coalition MPs hope that developing community attitudes, and the pressure for action on global warming, could change the political environment.
The Labor Party and the Greens remain adamantly opposed. Labor climate change and energy spokesman Mark Butler has challenged the government to identify which cities, suburbs or towns would be the location for future nuclear reactors……..
Under a plan advocated by members of the Australia Nuclear Association, the federal government would build at least 20 nuclear power plants from 2030 to 2050.
At a cost of around $6 billion each, each plant would have a generating capacity of 1000 megawatts, which is about half AGL’s NSW Liddell power station, which is due to close in 2023…….
Nuclear critics, including former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, have said that the cheapest way to reduce emissions is to combine wind and solar power with some form of storage.
Although batteries have very limited capacity at the moment, experts expect them to improve in coming years. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/nsw-deputy-premier-calls-for-nuclear-vote-within-three-years-20190929-p52vz2
Nuclear submarines for Australia? Dangerous, would require costly taxpayer insurance
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Nuclear subs idea worth floating It has been debated in some quarters for years that Australia should operate and maintain nuclear-propelled attack submarines. ……. This prospect raises two significant policy issues for Australia. The first is whether the commonwealth can operate and maintain nuclear submarines in a sovereign environment that has no civilian nuclear power industry to supply the nuclear-trained staffs, as well as build and maintain the infrastructure that is necessary. The second is whether Australia is prepared to establish an indemnification and regulatory environment that would be critical to safely and effectively operate and maintain nuclear vessels for 50 years. ……. A unique aspect of such submarines is the enormous amount of energy stored in their reactor cores. Built, operated, and maintained properly, this energy is released in a controlled manner over a long period. A sudden, uncontrolled release of this energy could be catastrophic, not only to the submarine, but to people and property nearby. Given that private insurance typically does not cover nuclear risks, an effective scheme to indemnify possible victims of a nuclear accident could be critical. Without such an indemnity scheme, companies might be unwilling to provide components and services to maintain and operate propulsion plants. As Australian policymakers and the public debate the nuclear submarine option for the Royal Australian Navy, it could be valuable for them to broaden their understanding of what it would take to establish: • A sovereign and robust industrial capability to operate and maintain submarines equipped with mobile nuclear power propulsion plants; • A rigorous regulatory scheme to ensure mobile power reactors are safely built, tested, operated, maintained and deactivated; • An indemnity scheme to cover third-party liabilities in the event of a “nuclear” incident; • Training and development paths for regulators, engineers, operators and maintainers; and • Facilities necessary to service nuclear-powered submarines……. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/nuclear-subs-idea-worth-floating/news-story/61c003a41e9303ca7883561983da90ac |
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Scott Morrison on climate change: he just doesn’t “get it
Morrison’s condescending response to kids and climate https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/morrison,13153 By Graeme McLeay | 29 September 2019 The best you can say about Prime Minister Scott Morrison is that he doesn’t get it.He and his conservative colleagues in the Coalition do not understand the science of climate change despite what our own scientists are telling them. The only way to explain his behaviour otherwise is to believe that he is deliberately setting out to deceive us.
First, there was the visit with U.S. President Donald Trump. No one would argue that good relations with the United States are not positive for Australia but his closeness to Trump tells us something about his mindset.
Trump is the President who vowed to revive coal, opened up federal parklands to oil and gas, attempted to reverse Obama’s plan to limit coal pollution and California’s vehicle pollution laws, decimated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and withdrew from the Paris Agreement.
At least, French President Emmanuel Macron when visiting Trump raised climate change with him as Morrison surely would have if he understood the science.
Then it gets worse. Morrison continues his sojourn in the U.S. visiting an Australian owned cardboard factory while leaving Foreign Minister Marise Payne to attend the UN Climate Conference.
Had he himself gone he might have learned what the IPCC had to say: that in the last five years climate change has accelerated, a matter of some importance to Australia you might think, given the evidence from our own scientists. They tell us heat waves will increase, sea levels will rise, perennial droughts and a more severe bushfire seas. Continue reading
Pacific Island nations urge action on climate change at UN
Lyn Allen and Richard Ledger’s nuclear submission – for the public good
Allen, Lyn and Ledgar, Richard Submission No 30
to the FEDERAL. Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia… Extracts “…..there are overwhelming economic, environmental and social reasons why nuclear energy is not an appropriate contributor to Australia’s energy mix.
If Australia is going to move to a sustainable future then we need to concentrate on producing energy from renewable resources. Uranium is not a renewable resource and even more so than coal, uranium mining produces waste that remains toxic for thousands of years.
Additionally, while nuclear power generation does not produce greenhouse gases, greenhouse gases are produced at every step in the process from mining to refinement and building nuclear power generation facilities. Like uranium mines, nuclear power stations expose the community and the environment in which they are built to significant risks ……
The future of Australia’s energy generation should to take advantage of our abundant natural resources such as sun, wind, tidal potential. Nuclear power station are massively expensive to build and take years to complete, whereas wind and solar generators and new storage technology (such as the batteries installed in South Australia) can be developed quickly and relatively inexpensively …
water. Generating nuclear power needs large quantities of water. Given Australia’s climatic conditions, the shortage of water in many of our major river systems,
Many countries around the world that currently use nuclear power are already starting to phase it out in favour of wind and solar generation. Australia can get in front of the energy production business by putting our skills, and efforts into an alternative energy grid that suits our climate, is safe for future generation and takes advantage of ‘free’ sources of energy.
Submission for the public good: to Federal Nuclear Inquiry – Noel Wauchope
Recommendation. There is no need to change Australia’s laws prohibiting nuclear activities. They were devised to protect Australians from the health, and safety risks of nuclear facilities, – far-sighted in that they have saved Australia from the unnecessary expense of a now collapsing industry. Meanwhile Australia is very well placed to put energy and funds into truly modern developments, and could become a world leader in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
To start with, the title of this Inquiry , featuring the word “prerequisite” really makes clear the major issue.
What is the major prerequisite?
Obviously the one important prerequisite is to repeal Australia’s laws banning nuclear activities.
First the Federal Law would have to be repealed. (a1)
Then – State Laws – Victoria’s NUCLEAR ACTIVITIES (PROHIBITIONS) ACT (a2) -and South Australia’s Nuclear Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act 2000 (a3)
(a1) https://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/what-is-protected/nuclear-actions
(a2) http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/vic/consol_act/naa1983337/
Once these laws are repealed, then nuclear industry proponents will be free to spend much money on publicising the benefits of the industry. With helpful politicians and press, particularly from the predominant Murdoch media, this will give the industry huge boost. As Australia moves further into drought and water shortages, they will claim that nuclear power is essential to solve climate change. (Even if nuclear power could combat climate change, it would take decades to establish, and by then it would be too late.)
So – that is what the global nuclear industry needs, especially for South Australia, which has specific legislation against spending public money on promoting the nuclear industry .
While Australians have concerns about cost, safety, environment , health, wastes, Aboriginal rights, weapons proliferation etc, I am sure that the nuclear lobby will be able to overcome those hesitations, with an effective programme.
So, I have my doubts that the Terms of Reference matter all that much, but – here goes. I understand that the emphasis in this Inquiry is on Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs)
a . waste management, transport and storage. Continue reading
Scott Morrison and Donald Trump happily together against climate change action
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Scott Morrison’s decision to spurn the UN climate summit for a Trump rally speaks volumes, https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2019/09/23/scott-morrison-donald-trump-climate/ Prime Minister Scott Morrison has enthusiastically shared the stage at a Trump rally in the US swing state of Ohio rather than attend the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York.The rally was organised around the opening of Australian cardboard box billionaire Anthony Pratt’s new recycling factory in the regional town of Wapakoneta.
Its timing is probably no coincidence either, as President Donald Trump, like the Prime Minister, was not invited to speak in New York and didn’t want to go anyway. The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Rachel Kyte, said: “He (Mr Guterres) wanted people to come with plans, not speeches.” Those plans had to be about doing more to reduce emissions and combat climate change than had already been promised. Mr Guterres, backed by the latest scientific assessments, is concerned by the fact that what nations promised at the Paris Climate Summit four years ago will fall disastrously short of what is needed to avert a catastrophic rise in global temperatures by 2050. Simply put, if a nation had nothing new to say, it was not welcome to make it to the podium. Our Foreign Minister Marise Payne is reduced to bystander status. At the Ohio Rally, Trump told 1500 cheering supporters that Scott Morrison was supposed to lose the last election, but “he blew ’em away”. And added that the PM did that because “he believes the same things I believe”. Incredibly, given the fact that some 300,000 people rallied for climate change action around Australia – and millions more did the same around the world – climate change wasn’t mentioned during the leaders’ Oval Office love in. “No it didn’t come up” was Morrison’s terse reply to reporters. Even though since achieving the top job, Mr Morrison has said he believes the climate science and is “taking action”, that is not how he is perceived by the American media. CBS Radio commentator Michael Williams, in a live cross from Washington to The Sunday Project, said the two men get on because they both like “free trade and closed borders”. And more to the point, “both are big on climate scepticism”. Williams, like other foreign commentators, hasn’t caught up with the Prime Minister’s rhetorical pivot. Or maybe, like the UN Secretary-General, is judging him on his government’s weak commitments. Though Energy Minister Angus Taylor insists “we are taking strong action and we need to”. Mr Taylor says Australia is overachieving in reaching the commitments we have made. Never mind that a special exemption was given to Australia at Kyoto to keep emitting on the promise to do better later. Our emissions, on the government’s own figures, are continuing to rise. Mr Taylor, like his Prime Minister, has no plans on how to achieve our net zero emissions target by 2050 other than yet-to-be invented technology. Fuel reserve failureIt’s becoming the MO of this government – as they say in police speak of the modus operandi or the usual way suspects commit their crimes – to claim success while failing to really deliver. Another worrying example is its failure to deliver its commitment to the international world-standard minimum of 90 days of fuel reserves. Now in its seventh year, the best the government has done is two to three weeks of fuel reserves. The attack last week on the Saudi oil refinery complex and the disruption this caused could be just a foretaste of the dangers ahead. Mr Taylor claims we are close to 90 days because he is including “stocks on water”. Not even his colleague, Resources Minister Matt Canavan, believes that. He told Sky TV on the weekend “we’ve got roughly on average about 40 days” of reserves. Nero famously fiddled while Rome burned. Pity he seems to be a role model for our leaders in Canberra. Paul Bongiorno AM is a veteran of the Canberra Press Gallery, with 40 years’ experience covering Australian politics |
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Australian schoolgirl attends United Nations Youth Climate Summit.
Australian climate striker Harriet O’Shea Carre takes fight to New York https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-23/australian-climate-striker-15-takes-fight-to-new-york/11539354, By Kirsten Robb 23 Sept 19, Every Friday night, 15-year-old Harriet O’Shea Carre can be found hanging upside down from an aerial hoop in an old train shed in Castlemaine, Victoria.
She is one of the founding members of the School Strike For Climate (SS4C) movement in Australia. Ms O’Shea Carre has just taken her fight all the way to New York City, where she was invited to attend Saturday’s United Nations Youth Climate Summit.
Around the world on Friday, millions of students — including Ms O’Shea Carre — and their supporters skipped school and work to attend what was touted as the biggest climate protest in world history.
Organisers estimated around 4 million people in more than 163 countries turned out, including an estimated 300,000 Australians.
It was in October last year that the “Castlemaine Three” — Ms O’Shea Carre and her friends Milou Albrecht and Callum Neilson-Bridgefoot — started the Australian SS4C movement in the town of Castlemaine, 120 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.
The teens stumbled across an article about Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who has been credited with beginning the global student climate movement.
“Milou read an article about Greta Thunberg when she was pretty much solo striking,” Ms O’Shea Carre said.
“She was really excited about it and she came to me on the school bus and was like, ‘Harriet, there’s this awesome article I read about this girl who’s doing this school strike.'”
After penning an impassioned letter to the editor of a Melbourne newspaper, the three teenagers and about two dozen classmates took the train from Castlemaine to Bendigo to protest outside the offices of their federal members of parliament, MP Lisa Chesters and Senator Bridget McKenzie.
The Castlemaine strikers then decided to hold a global SS4C on November 30. When their rally went viral, Prime Minister Scott Morrison famously called for “more learning in schools and less activism in schools”.
David Carre, Ms O’Shea Carre’s father, says the Prime Minister could not have helped more to galvanise the youth.
“It was probably the best thing he could have said in terms of mobilising these young people.
“To be so dismissive of them, and to suggest that they’re trying to get away with wagging school, that is just quite offensive.”
More than 10,000 went on strike on November 30. Another was held in March 2019, with 1.5 million striking around the world.
“We’re at a point in time where it’s an emergency, and we’re not seeing any action from our leaders,” Ms O’Shea Carre said.
“And if the people who are leading us aren’t doing any leadership, then I will.”
Ms O’Shea Carre was invited to attend the first United Nations Youth Climate Summit in New York City alongside Ms Thunberg.
While her parents and friends marched from Castlemaine to Melbourne, Ms O’Shea Carre joined the rally through the streets of Manhattan.
“It’s so inspiring to be here,” she told 7.30 from New York.
“There are so many people, I’m really excited to be involved in it.”
Ms O’Shea Carre says the group will keep striking until they get action.
“We’re not going to stop because there’s no point in having an education on a dead planet, and at this stage, that’s what we’re headed for.
“We’re going to keep going and keep fighting because we’re not going to let our future go away.”
Trump tries to pull Scott Morrison, ‘man of titanium’, into a military coalition
Donald Trump suggests China ‘a threat to the world’ while praising Scott Morrison as a ‘man of titanium’. US president signalled he would raise with Morrison a military contribution in Iran but then indicated he did not do so, Guardian, Katharine Murphy Political editor
Following a ceremonial welcome for Morrison on Friday Washington time attended by more than 4,000 guests, Trump praised Morrison’s personal fortitude, describing him as “a man of real, real strength, and a great guy”.
The American president signalled he would raise with Morrison a possible military contribution in Iran beyond the current freedom of navigation commitment in the Strait of Hormuz, but later in the day indicated he had not, in fact, raised the issue during a bilateral meeting at the White House.
The Australian prime minister made a point of praising the president’s restraint in relation to Iran to date and made no commitment beyond saying the government would consider any request from the administration on its merits.
…….Trump said he was interested in building a coalition for military action with Australian participation, but then told reporters at a subsequent press conference Iran wasn’t discussed, and Morrison then described Australia’s possible participation as “moot”…….. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/21/donald-trump-suggests-china-a-threat-to-the-world-while-praising-scott-morrison-as-a-man-of-titanium
Coal’s servant, P.M. Morrison makes Australia an international pariah at UN Climate Summit
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PM accused of ‘trashing’ Australia’s reputation by spruiking coal ahead of UN summit, SMH, By Dana McCauley September 22, 2019 Environmentalists are accusing Scott Morrison of “trashing” Australia’s international reputation, as official documents reveal the broad scale of his government’s efforts to significantly increase coal exports at a time of mass protests calling for action on climate change.
As delegates of the United Nations climate change summit – which Mr Morrison has snubbed – prepare to discuss emission reduction efforts this week, briefing notes obtained under Freedom of Information laws detail the emphasis placed on coal in the government’s diplomatic relations.
Departmental briefing notes provided to Resources Minister Matt Canavan ahead of his official visit to Singapore and India last month canvass the potential to expand Australia’s coal exports into Bangladesh – a nation that is among the most vulnerable to the effects of global warning. The government is seeking to grow its coal exports in overseas markets as it looks to buttress the economic fallout from a deteriorating relationship with China. Australian Conservation Foundation climate change campaigner Christian Slattery said Australia was “trashing its international reputation because of its addiction to polluting coal”. “As major importers of Australian coal move to transition to cleaner forms of energy, the Morrison government is doing the coal industry’s bidding, trying to secure new markets,” Mr Slattery said. “Burning coal is the number-one cause of climate damage. Unless we stop digging up and burning coal the planet will suffer unmanageable damage from more extreme fires, droughts, storms and coral bleaching that will harm hundreds of millions of people.” The briefing note to Senator Canavan, released in redacted form to the ACF, said that with “a significant expansion of coal-fired power in Bangladesh expected in the near future”, there were opportunities for Australia “to establish a new export market for thermal coal”…….. Foreign Minister Marise Payne will front the UN climate change summit this week, but will not address delegates – as Australia is among a group of coal-supporting economies singled out as not getting a spot on the list of 63 speakers. Mr Morrison’s snub comes despite him being in the United States on an official visit…….. ACF’s Mr Slattery said the government “seems intent on selling a 20th century technology to a 21st century world and doing a great deal more climate damage while they are at it”. “Australia’s reported blocking by the UN Secretary-General from speaking at the special climate summit in New York is nothing short of an international embarrassment for a wealthy and developed country that prides itself on being a good international citizen,” he said. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pm-accused-of-trashing-australia-s-reputation-by-spruiking-coal-ahead-of-un-summit-20190922-p52tr1.html |
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Australia: Freedom of Information and the Nuclear Industry- theme for October 19
Australia’s press freedom is under threat as never before.
It’s always been pretty bad, with Murdoch media controlling at least 70% of media outlets, and with Liberal governments trying to strangle the ABC,
But now – it is at crisis point. We have an Australian citizen, Julian Assange, held in solitary confinement in London, for the crime of skipping bail. UK and complicit Australia want to have him extradited to USA, to face life imprisonment for ‘treason”. What was his “treason”? Publishing the facts, revealed by Bradley Manning, on USA military atrocities. i.e. investigative journalism. (Manning also in prison)
We also have federal police raiding ABC offices and a journalist’s home. We have draconian security laws, and prosecutions of whistleblowers Richard Boyle, David McBride and Witness K.
Australia is fast developing a culture of press intimidation by government.
Has this anything to do with the nuclear industry? Not obviously directly. Not yet. But government and industry have always tried to see that the harms from uranium mining and nuclear bomb testing were covered up. Few Australians would have heard of the long term push by some politicians and defence industry personnel, for nuclear weapons.
As the global nuclear industry revs up its dishonest spin for “new nuclear”, and as climate change impacts this country, Australia is a sitting duck for the lie that “nuclear solves climate change”. And for the push for even more involvement in America’s nuclear weapons system. And for involvement in 
Trump’s Nuclear Weapons in Space programme.
We now have a government without any policy (unless you count “having a budget surplus” as a policy) Scott Morrison can’t forever shout “How good is that?” about everything. Journalists that criticise government actions are under scrutiny. It doesn’t bode well for any public policy area. And that certainly includes matters nuclear. more https://www.meaa.org/campaigns/press-freedom/
Australian children, and adults who care, march in their hundreds of thousands, for Action on Climate Change
While our revered Prime Minister was sucking up to USA’s revered President, and totally ignoring the climate issue, hundreds of thousands of Australian citizens were rallying for action on climate change. I was there, in Melbourne, and I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve been there in big rallies, 100,000 and more- but this was the biggest ever!
And so many children. It is their future, that we are talking about!!
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Global climate strike : Australian school students march to protest climate change https://www.smh.com.au/national/global-climate-strike-live-australian-school-students-march-in-protest-of-climate-change-20190920-p52t70.htm By Jenny Noyes and Natassia Chrysanthos September 20, 2019 — That’s a wrap for Australia’s climate strikes It’s been a huge day for more than 300,000 Australian school and university students, families and workers who took to the streets of their cities and towns to protest climate change inaction. Organisers described the turnout as the biggest nationwide since 500,000 people protested against the Iraq war in 2003. Similar school strikes in March and November last year drew 40,000 and 15,000 people. Police commended the large crowds for displaying good behaviour at the peaceful protests. The rallies produced some powerful images, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne where the crowds were especially large – so check out our gallery to the right for all the best photos. [on original] |
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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 