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- Colin Barnett quick to protest against ‘activism degrees’ – The Australian, 16/10/2014
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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.”
A lot has been made of some reported events outside after the meeting where politicians were allegedly jostled, but this was a public meeting and this was an angry public in the raw. The Northern Rivers community are justifiably outraged at this failure of democracy and are not the kind of community to take it lying down. If writing letters, meeting with politicians and going to meetings was going to work then the government would have backed away long ago, but the community knows the government is deeply committed to this part of the fossil fuel industry.Yes it was noisy but above all it was powerful example of a community that will not be patronised by arrogant pollies
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.
Fracking for Coal Bed Methane and Underground Coal Gasification
Continue Reading → Come and find out why this is happening, what these technologies involve and what you can do to stop them
Discussion, Films and short presentations by:
Reprinted from Chain Reaction #115, August 2012,
Continue Reading → The unconventional gas industry is on the march in Australia. Having moved to full production first in southern Queensland, there are now exploration permits issued or in the application process across vast tracts of NSW and Victoria […]
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.
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People power vs CSG, the year in review
It’s been an intense year in the fight against CSG in the Northern Rivers, and it seems the gas companies cant win a trick. The success of the Glenugie blockade has surprised most participants and is evidence of the ever-growing nature and power of this organic social movement. It isn’t the first community to stand up and it wont be the last. The companies and the state government may be able to tough out a blockade or two, but they will not be able to withstand sustained community opposition in the long term.