Climate activists and unionists rallied in various cities for World Environment Day, calling for an end to new coal and gas projects for anti-protest laws to be scrapped. Jim McIlroy, Sue Bull & Niko Leka report.
Raymond Weatherall
The practice of stealing Aboriginal children from their families has continued since Kevin Rudd's apology and it needs to stop, a Sorry Day protest was told. Rachel Evans reports.
Raymond “Bubbly” Weatherall, who has been fighting the oil and gas giant for many years, says the fight for culture, land and water is far from over. Pip Hinman reports.
Protesters gathered outside the Federal Court to demand Santos withdraws its bid to try to override the Gomeroi’s opposition to a coal seam gas plant in the Pilliga Forest in north-west New South Wales. Jim McIlroy reports.
The Gomeroi Nation voted overwhelmingly to reject a proposal from Santos at a historic Native Title meeting in Tamworth. Paddy Gibson reports.
Gomeroi people and supporters rallied outside the Federal Court to protest attempts to take away their Native Title rights and to protect the Narrabri from coal seam gas. Jim McIlroy reports.
Gomeroi man Raymond “Bubbly” Weatherall, on behalf of the custodians of the Narrabri-Pilliga region in NSW, has called for the fight against government and private gas plants to continue. Jim McIlroy reports.
The New South Wales government is robbing communities of precious water by siphoning it off for cotton farms and coal and gas mines. It is doing so as the climate gets warmer and drought becomes more frequent.
For Raymond “Bubbly” Weatherall, a Gamilaraay man from the Gunu Gunu and Biridja clans, the outcomes of the Uluru meeting at the end of May have not changed his mind about the tokenism of Constitutional Recognition.
“Throughout the campaign, as well as at the Uluru meeting, no grassroots voices had really been listened to or given proper weight in the discussion”, he told Green Left Weekly.
“The Uluru statement was just another government voice through the mouths of Black people — Megan Davis, Pat Anderson and Noel Pearson.”
Activists campaigning against coal seam gas have cautiously welcomed Santos’ December 8 statement that it is downgrading its controversial Narrabri Gas Project in the north west of NSW.
For some three years, Gamilaraay people, famers and activists have been campaigning against the coal seam gas project, concerned about its potential harm on the Great Artesian Basin.
Now, they hope that Santos’ restructure is a signal that the company may be looking to extricate itself from the project.
Gamilaraay people are engaged in an epic fight for country against coal and gas giants supported by state and federal governments. For Raymond “Bubbly” Weatherall, from the Gunu Gunu clan and the Biridja clan, the fight is about totems — “our water, the environment and the land itself”.