Coal... and Costa

On Sunday 13 July community rally of some 500 in Newcastle halted coal shipments to the Port Waratah Coal Loader. See photos of the protest here.

Click here to view pics taken by The Newcastle Herald presented as fantastic slideshow .

Protestors marched from the Climate Camp in Wickham, along the railway track, to the entrance to the coal loader. A number of people were arrested when they entered the rail line, some locked themselves onto the coal wagons while others stood aloft the fully laden coal wagons. A huge banner, saying 'Danger Climate change ahead' was dopped onto the tracks. No trains moved during the protest.

Today Monday 14 July protestors rallied outside Michael Costa's office. The rally was jointly chaired by Zane Alcorn of Soclaist Alliance and Jasmine of Solidarity. With over 200 people attending there was a good representation of unionists and the broader community. The rally decided to march through Newcastle city centre. Later that afternoon the Climate Camp’s Resistance team banner got yet another drop, this time on Nobby’s beach. Photos here.

Site announced for Camp for Climate Action

After weeks of stalling from local police and council authorities, the logistics working group of the Camp for Climate Action has announced that the camp will be held on public land on the corner of Mangrove Road and River Road, in Sandgate.

The working group had requested several different sites, and at various stages over the past month, authorities had given and withdrawn permission for all of the proposed sites.

With less than three weeks to go until the site, the working group realised that they could not wait any longer and decided to pick a site and promote it.

Up to 1000 people are expected to participate in the Camp for Climate Action. In late May, the actions working group announced that the highlight of the camp would be a mass blockade of the rail line which delivers coal to the world's biggest coal port.

According to the Gerald's sources, authorities are now tripping over themselves to find a different site for the camp.

The camp was promoted yesterday at a flash mob at Westfield Kotara, where up to 60 people who met each other via the social networking site Facebook froze for five minutes to demand a freeze in the growth of greenhouse gas emissions.

It was also promoted in Parliament by NSW Treasurer Michael Costa on Wednesday and Thursday, in response to questions by Greens MLC John Kaye. The Treasurer misled Parliament into believing that the camp was organised by the NSW Greens in order to divert attention from a question asked by John Kaye. Mr. Kaye asked the Treasurer whether failure to privatise the electricity industry would lead to his resignation, as he promised in early February.

Iemma sidelined on privatisation bid

Over 85% of the NSW Labor Party conference voted to reject a bid to privatise the state's electricity industry yesterday, in a major upset for Premier Morris Iemma and Treasurer Michael Costa.
In the lead up to the 702-107 vote against the sell-off, the Premier was heckled and booed by members of his own party.
Unions and the Greens argue that privatising the electricity industry would push up costs, lower workplace standards and make it a lot more difficult to deal with climate change.
However, the Premier maintains that rising energy consumption has forced the Government to sell-off the industry in order to build a new coal-fired power station.
Michael Costa, who has previously denied in Parliament that climate change was caused by human activities, is expected to defy the ALP resolution and introduce the legislation into Parliament regardless. Although Costa has announced that he is prepared to be sacked for his support of the sell-off, a significant minority of the ALP caucus has declared that they cannot vote against a conference resolution in Parliament. If the legislation is tabled in Parliament, it is likely to pass with the support of the Labor Right and the Liberal Party, despite opposition from Labor Left and the Greens.
Iemma and Costa won the backing of former NSW Premier Bob Carr, who has accused the ALP rank and file of being backward-looking and supporting a Soviet-style model of public ownership. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has also supported the sell-off.
Michael Costa now has to make a decision between supporting the privatisation, borrowing money to create a new coal-fired power station, and promoting a combination of renewable baseload power and energy efficiency. The Federal Liberal party, which long shared the ALP position that only coal could provide baseload power, announced last week that it now accepts that solar thermal energy can provide baseload power for Australia.