Rudd gives up on climate

The Rudd government has officially given up on an effective climate action strategy in an announcement at the National Press club today.

The Prime Minister announced that Australia would emit 95% of its current emissions in 2020, and would only go down to 85% if pressured by the rest of the world.

In either scenario, the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would rise indefinitely, making the complete melting of the Arctic ice cap very likely.

As Mr. Rudd made the announcement, three Newcastle women interrupted him, yelling "No! You have given up on the Great Barrier Reef. We will never walk away from climate change!"

The gallery, filled with senior journalists, cabinet members and Greens parliamentarians, appeared stunned as they heard the news.

It is unclear what science Rudd is using to back up his targets.

Five minutes after the announcement, 15 people occupied Rudd's Brisbane office and 50 people converged on Wong's Adelaide office, calling on the government to halve carbon emissions by 2020 and indicating that they would continue to take direct action if the Government failed to address the science.

It is expected that waves of people from community climate action groups will stage similar protests over the next week.

Third power station shut down in five days

A third power station has been shut down by protesters in Victoria, one day after a similar action in Western Australia, and five days after a similar action in the Hunter Valley.

Two people have stopped and attached themselves to conveyors at the Hazelwood power station in the La Trobe Valley, and a large group of people walked onto the site early this morning.

Spokesperson for the group, Emma Russell said that the government has shown neither the will nor the ability to make the decisions necessary to prevent a climate disaster.

“We need to move on from coal, leaving no one behind. We offer our support to the workers of the Hazelwood power station. We believe it is critical that clean, renewable based industries are set up to provide new livelihoods after coal, such as renewable energy co-operatives and re-localised economies.”

In a public blog dedicated to the action, Ms. Russell linked the group's action to similar actions around the country.

“With direct action against coal infrastructure we wish to break the illusion of corporate control of our environments, creating space for community solutions for change. As this last week has shown with similar actions at Collie and Bayswater power stations, this sentiment is shared right across the country.”

Ms. Russell did not indicate whether she knew of other actions around the country but encouraged others to take similar action.

“It is our responsibility to ensure that electricity production is run by those who are interested in long-term sustainability, not those driven by short-term profits. We need to take our power back from privatised industry. This is our future, this is our responsibility; together, we should take action.”

Hunter residents have planned a vigil at Eraring power station on November 22, office occupations in December to occur simultaneously around the country, and a flotilla of kayaks to prevent coal from leaving Newcastle harbour next March.

Is Newcastle Council Selling Out Our Open Space?

It emerged this week that Newcastle City Council recently rezoned Enterprise Park, the Foreshore and the Convict Lumberyard in the City Centre Local Environment Plan 2008. In addition, areas of heritage significance such as the Convict Lumber Yard were classified as 'Operational' instead of 'Community' land as required under the NSW Local Government Act.

The people of Newcastle expect their Council to act in their best interests, and not be part and parcel of selling out the community's open space and public domain areas of cultural and heritage significance. Why do we pay our rates?

The Gerald hopes that this has been an error, rather than a concerted effort to undermine our community's public domain areas.

Councillor Keith Parsons yesterday requested Council for a detailed briefing outlining the reasons for:

1. The classification of the Convict Lumberyard site as Operational,
rather than Community Land, as required under the NSW Local Government Act
(1993) in c1994.

2. The classification of the Lynches Prawns site as operational in c1994.

3. The zoning as B4 (Mixed Use) in the City Centre LEP in February, 2008 of:
(a) The Foreshore
(b) The Convict Lumberyard
(c) Enterprise Park