29 arrests at Bayswater power station

Around thirty protesters from climate action group Rising Tide walked onto the site of the Bayswater power station yesterday, preventing the delivery of coal to the station for six hours.

Bayswater power station is New South Wales' equal biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, along with Eraring power station.

29 people were arrested on the coal piles while four were arrested inside the power station. The group inside had chained themselves to both conveyors with a lock-on pipe and had to be cut off.

Spokesperson for the group, Georgina Woods said that Australia's greenhouse gas emissions were continuing to increase as a result of Australia's dependence on coal-fired power, leading to the slow death of the Great Barrier Reef.

“Where is the plan to phase out facilities like these? Why are we twiddling our thumbs?” Ms Wood asked.

“The nation and the world are watching and we will not get another chance. The people that are here today are parents and grandparents, professionals and tradespeople. We are demanding a commitment from the Government today: Australia’s greenhouse emissions must start dropping from 2010, we must do whatever it takes to save the Barrier Reef from wipe-out and the world from devastating runaway climate change.”

Workers onsite reacted in an overall positive manner to the protest, with some taking photographs and thanking the activists.

The large group had offered to leave the site without fuss once they had made their point, but police insisted upon processing all of them for trespass. A recent report has suggested that the effects of climate change will lead to an increase in crimes such as carbon accounting fraud and domestic violence, tying up resources for police.

The group inside have been charged with both entering enclosed lands and refusing to leave enclosed lands.

Ms. Woods said that more and more people would take action if the Government continued to allow greenhouse gas emissions to increase.
Photos by Conor Ashleigh (top) and Damien Baker (bottom)

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.