North Queensland Conservation Council

The Queensland Government recently announced a new policy regulating trans-shipping (unloading and reloading at sea) of coal off Queensland including within the Great Barrier Reef. While this looks like increasing protections it breaks a commitment by the Labor Party to not allow trans-shipping in reef waters by making exceptions for "designated ports", like Abbot Point. With a quick turn around date for the proposed regulation NQCC made a submission, available here: Trans-shipping_submission.pdf.

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Our biggest day yet to #StopAdani.

Sometimes you just need to spell it out for people.

The fate of Adani’s monstrous coal mine hangs on securing a one billion dollar government loan from our government. This is our moment to call out our political leaders for supporting this Reef-destroying, future destroying mine.

So we’re going to spell out the #StopAdani message loud and clear for our politicians.

As the sun sets on Saturday 7 October, thousands of Australians will have had the biggest day of action we’ve ever seen to stop Adani. We will create human signs so big that they can’t be ignored, at iconic locations across Australia and make no mistake the beach below the Rockpool, the Strand, Townsville with Magnetic Island in the background and our beloved Castle in the foreground is our icon.

With the creative team that brought you Heads in the Sand which went viral together with many of Townsville's leading singers we will create a massive human sign and sing our hearts out to the tune of the three line chorus of Let the Sun Shine In from the musical Hair. As a bonus, small, red and white cardboard placards will be available which we can hold to the sky as the drone flown camera captures our stop sign.

Divestment Day 2016 is coming up! Here’s a quick guide to what divestment is, the successes that divestment campaigns have had so far, and what we are doing this year.

What’s divestment?

Divestment is the opposite of investment. It’s rearranging your finances so that you aren’t supporting the fossil fuel industry through your bank, investments, superannuation or insurance. We have power as consumers to choose financial services products in-line with our strongly held convictions about climate change.

Despite the massive weight of scientific evidence showing that our addiction to fossil fuels, by increasing carbon emissions, is exacerbating climate change and threatening the survival of our planet as we know it, we keep on producing and consuming more and more of the stuff!

And in north Queensland we not only consume more and more of it, we help others to develop and feed the habit. North Queensland has the shaming 'honour' of being the world's largest coal exporting region. (Australia is not the world's biggest producer but is one of the largest exporters and, as of 2009, Hay Point, Abbot Point and Gladstone between them were already shipping nearly 60% of the total.) Over the last decade, perhaps in a desperate rush to make as much money as possible before the world wakes up to alternative (clean) energy, mining companies vastly increased the rate of exploitation.

At the same time, Queensland's farms and towns are facing the onslaught of the race to exploit coal seam gas regardless of its known dangers. Fortunately, CSG is not a big industry in our region, while the February 2016 decision by AGL (a major CSG producer 'down south') to pull out of CSG and coal fired power stations is a huge win for the conservation movement.

The continuing fall in the price of coal (as of February 2016, forecast to stay at around $43/tonne through until 2020) is leading to slow- and shutdowns in this industry worldwide as reported in the SMH. Nevertheless, the push to stop extraction and use of fossil fuels cannot afford to slacken off and NQCC continues to campaign strongly to this end. Click here for our most recent posts relating to Coal and Coal Seam Gas, and visit the separate Abbot Point Update page for details of NQCC's legal action against the coal terminal from June 2014 onwards. There are a few more blog posts on the topic in our archive, at this link.

The #StopAdani Roadshow returns to Townsville on 27 April after the original event was cancelled due to Cyclone Debbie. Organisers are expecting to the 400 seat theatre at Event Cinema.

“The momentum to Stop Adani just keeps growing. We are excited by how many North Queenslanders are getting behind this event and joining the movement to Stop Adani” says North Queensland Conservation Council coordinator Maree Dibella.

“Communities are putting on film screenings in Port Douglas, Cairns, Mackay and Rockhampton. There are over 110 community groups leading campaigns in their towns and suburbs, with 12 just in regional Queensland.

Welcome to the April issue of Paperbark. Our thoughts and well-wishes are with the communities to our south who felt the full force of Cyclone Debbie.

In this issue: Guarding the Galilee film screening – Special General Meeting – Stop Adani Alliance launched – Adani roadshow returns – Queensland Women’s Week event wrap up – Minister’s Environment Roundtable – upcoming local enviro events

Date savers (more details below)

27 April – “Guarding the Galilee” premiere documentary screening.
2 May – Special General Meeting regarding Port of Townsville expansion project campaign
12 May – ‘The Food We Eat: its impact on environments and bodies’ free public discussion

Today in Canberra, veteran environmentalist Bob Brown will join community leaders from around the country to launch the ‘Stop Adani Alliance’ and build the biggest movement in Australia’s history to stop Adani’s dangerous coal mine and end coal for good.

North Queensland Conservation Council (NQCC) is a founding member of the Alliance.

NQCC co-ordinator Maree Dibella said, “It’s great to see people from around the country join our fight to stop the Adani’s mine from going ahead.  I know there is a lot of local support here in Townsville for this campaign, but I also know we can’t win this on our own.”

“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.

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.