April 19, 2008
A crowd of around 50 protestors walked into the construction site for the third coal terminal on Kooragang Island in Newcaslte this morning, stopping work at the site in protest against the expansion of the coal industry and its contribution to climate change.
The protestors, including a number of parents and grandparents from the Hunter and other regions in NSW say they have been forced to take drastic action because they fear that too little is being done to address our major contribution to climate change – our dependence on coal for power and as an export commodity.
The protestors walked onto the site this morning and immediately informed construction crews that they were on site and that work must cease.
Georgina Woods, spokesperson for Rising Tide Newcastle, who is at he protest said, “Historically, ordinary people have achieved extraordinary things by taking direct action to prevent immoral or unsupportable actions. We are here today because we don’t want our children and grandchildren to bear witness to the terrible havoc that climate change has already begun to wreak on our world.
“We are willing to put ourselves at risk of arrest, if it will help convince the Governments of Australia that expanding the export coal industry is putting everyone’s future in jeopardy.
“We are standing together today to call on the Federal Government in particular to help this region move away from coal and stop this mad expansion that will come at such a terrible cost.
“We call on the delegates at today’s 2020 Ideas Summit to remember that coal exports is Australia’s number one contribution to climate change, as well as our fastest growing. If Australia’s response to climate change fails to include a plan to phase out coal, it will be a failure.
“Many of us here today have never done anything like this before, but we are doing it now, because we may not get another chance.”
More community direct action against coal exports will take place at the in July this year.
The protest lasted for one and a quarter hours. 16 of the protesters were arrested and charged with trespass.