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Sunday 25 August 2013 at 11.30 am
Adele Ferguson, Aidan Ricketts, David McKnight
Once Australia grew rich on the sheep’s back, now rocks and minerals carry the economy. It’s no secret that mining has a major impact […]
Metgasco is basically a coal seam gas company operating in the Northern Rivers, and as far as we know the only available reserves of gas they have are in the Northern Rivers. The residents of the Northern Rivers are resolutely against coal seam gas development. We’re not dealing with a small protest movement here, we are dealing with a massive virtual social consensus against this industry. So there’s a palpable sense of failure of democracy in the Northern Rivers, and I think people are kind of aghast at seeing this industry imposed on them by force by virtue of the State government, the riot squad.
Since the state Liberal/National government’s push to expand coal-seam gas (CSG) across the state, residents of all political persuasions are uniting against the threat of this unnecessary environmental destruction.
While cynics might claim to be CSG fatigued, there is little doubt a network of wells and toxic ponds spread across suburban, […]
Mick Daley was embedded with protestors at Glenugie on Monday, January 7, when police enforced the legal right of coal seam gas mining company Metgasco to commence drilling. This is his report.
LISMORE’S Knitting Nannas Against Gas, and the broader Northern Rivers Lock the Gate communities will feature in an Al Jazeera documentary about Australia’s coal seam gas battles which will screen to millions of viewers worldwide this weekend.
Activist and lecturer in law at Southern Cross University, Aiden Ricketts says the protest, now in its seventh week, will not bow to police pressure. He says the police raid was an expensive “festival of force” by the O’Farrell Government.
LOCAL Area Commander, Superintendent Mark Holahan, has praised the “peaceful” action of protestors at the Glenugie blockade yesterday but defended police action saying 18 “went too far”.
Yesterday 18 protestors were arrested and 25 charges were laid – mostly for resisting/hindering police and public obstruction.
“This is what the future looks like for Metgasco – potentially they face this at every site they go to,” Lismore author and activist Aidan Ricketts declared. “If they want to do this at every drill site for the rest of the year, they’ve got a very big job ahead of them.”
The peaceful action continued a protest which began on Friday against Metgasco performing seismic surveys of an area on the eastern edge of the town.
Up to 20 communities have now signed up to a pledge to protect the region from the industry’s “radical plan to turn the Northern Rivers into gas fields”. The declarations are powerful statements which send a clear political message, says Southern Cross University law and justice lecturer Aidan Ricketts. He said the declarations counter the legal power of coal seam gas companies to force entry to land and make it clear to politicians the political cost of allowing access is unacceptably high.
From Green Left Weekly
Continue Reading → Ricketts said there is a bigger aim for the campaign than just winning an end to CSG mining in NSW. “We are building a large mainstream social movement, activating huge numbers of people who have never been active before.
[…]
In light of recent threats of ASIO and the Federal police spying on environmental campaigners, a new book by author, university lecturer and activism trainer Aidan Ricketts is likely to cause further “interest.” The Activists Handbook: A Step By Step Guide to Participatory Democracy is being launched tomorrow night, Thursday, May 3, […]
Continue Reading → I was going to be interviewed for this story but they couldn’t find the key to the Lismore Seven studio… Apologies for the advertisement at the start of the clip.
Continue Reading → I like these sites
Community Organisations
- Code Green Tasmania
- CSG Free Northern Rivers
- Friends of the Earth Melbourne
- Generation Alpha
- Huon Valley Environment Centre
- Lock the Gate Alliance
- Nature Conservation Council NSW
- North Coast Environment Council
- North East Forest Alliance
- Plan to Win
- Rainforest Information Centre
- Save our Foreshore
- Still Wild Still Threatened
- The Change Agency
- The Wilderness Society