North Queensland Conservation Council

Welcome to the March edition of Paperbark. This month we are ramping up our #StopAdani campaign – read on to find out how you can be involved. We also have some great trainingopportunities coming up this month.

#StopAdani Roadshow – Monday 27 March

This is big. Our very own city is the FIRST stop for a week-long roadshow across Australia, building an unstoppable movement to stop Adani. Come along and learn about what action we can take to win this campaign. Inspiring speakers include:

“While Adani’s Carmichael coal mine is beset with opposition and financing problems, the contrast to the go-ahead of yet another renewable, solar power station couldn’t be clearer” said NQ Conservation’s Maree Dibella, after news of the commencement of the $126 million Kidston Solar Project was announced by the Queensland Government yesterday.

“These are just the sorts of projects that conservationists support. It’s really exciting – an unused mine site being transformed into a renewable energy production and storage powerhouse” said Ms Dibella.

Happy new year and welcome to the first edition of Paperbark for 2017.  We hope you had a refreshing break and are well-rested for the year ahead. We have a few good news stories below as well as some exciting events coming up in the months ahead.

We have big plans for 2017, and are happy to announce a new team member has come on board in making our plans a reality! Welcome to Tyler Peirce who has taken on the role of Community Campaigner.

Several campaigns we are involved in will reach critical points, and it is also very likely that this will be an election year.

“DOING BUSINESS WITH ADANI A RISK TO NORTH QUEENSLAND”

North Queensland Conservation Council (NQCC) is shocked by a new report that shows that not even the Federal Minister responsible, Senator Matt Canavan, knows where a $1 billion taxpayer-subsidised loan would go to within the Adani group of companies which operate many of their entities in tax havens.

This is a post by outgoing Community Campaigner Jacob Miller.

The Adani Carmichael Project has increasingly benefited from State and Federal Government support while the list of financial institutions distancing themselves the project continues to grow. Supporters of the mine try to justify the project, citing the supposed economic benefits for North Queensland and even go so far as to claim coal from the mine will help India reduce its carbon emissions. This post is going examine and dispel the myths that are being used to prop up the case for the Carmichael project.

Welcome to the final Paperbark for 2016! This month, we are welcoming an intern – Elly Hanrahan, who is studying a Bachelor of Advanced Environmental Science and Global Challenges (Honours). Elly is already proving to be a strong member of our team and is doing great work helping out with campaigns.

In this issue: Mr Adani Visits Townsville – Townsville Port Expansion – Hinchinbrook Island National Park Management Plan – Queensland Environment Roundtable – Postcard Exhibition 2017 - and more!

Another busy month at NQCC! November will be another eventful month, with Maree attending the Environment Roundtables with other Queensland enviro groups, NQCC hosting an intern, and our unmissable trivia night on the 19th – don’t forget to purchase your tickets!

In this issue: Townsville Port expansion – radioactive contamination at Ben Lomond – Adani ‘critical infrastructure’ – Hell’s Gate Dam forum wrap-up – fisheries reform – Marine Park review – Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement – NQCC’s trivia night – EOI for 2017 postcard exhibition.

On Friday 7th October, NQCC coordinated the Townsville event for National Divestment Day. We went to our banks and gave them the message that if they continue to choose fossil fuels, then we will choose a different bank.

Customers turned out across Australia on the 7th and 8th of October 2016 to demand real climate change action from their bank! ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac were held accountable to the fact that they promised climate change action but continued to fund the expansion of the dirty fossil fuel industry. Accounts were closed, cards cut up and more letters of warning from customers who are ready to move their money if the banks don’t deliver real climate change action.

In this month’s Paperbark we have lots of updates about our campaigns and important details about upcoming events – including our AGM and Hell’s Gate Dam forum next Monday and our annual trivia night.

In this issue: Adani updates – save ARENA wrap – dead dugongs – marine parks – local water security – Boomerang Bags – saving frogs – divestment day – AGM and Hell’s Gate forum – our annual trivia night – Aussie Backyard Bird Count

New laws are being introduced by the Queensland Government to change the way mining companies obtain water licences. This was originally written in the Townsville Bulletin as a “roadblock” for the project, without even naming what the proposed legislation is or about.

NQCC responded with this letter to the editor, but under a different headline (the title of this post) than what was published . Despite gaining the necessary environmental approvals at the State and Federal levels, it is not our position that the project “has the environmental green light”. This is highlighted by our support of continued legal challenges of the environmental approvals not taking into consideration the impact that emissions from burning coal will have on the Reef. We wholly support the Australian Conservation Foundation and Environmental Defenders Office appealing the recent decision of the Federal Court on this matter.