Labor continues to expand the mining and export of fossil fuels, putting its own measly climate targets at risk. Isaac Nellist spoke to Rising Tide Sydney’s Zach Schofield about the upcoming blockade of the world’s largest coal port in Muloobinba/Newcastle from November 19–28.
What impact will environment minister Tanya Plibersek’s decision to expand three thermal coal mines in NSW have on the climate?
These three coal mine expansions will account for up to 1.3–1.5 billion tonnes of carbon emissions over their expected lifetime. That’s a massive impact.
It’s not unprecedented, but is certainly the largest expansion that's happened in NSW and under the federal Labor government. This is not about “keeping the lights on” at home or for making steel: this thermal coal is for export.
The only justification for an expansion like this is to allow corporations to make more money in the dying days of the coal export industry.
The coal will be shipped out of Muloobinba/Newcastle and will likely be exported to China, Japan, Korea or Taiwan.
The CEO of the Port of Newcastle recently said he and other industry leaders are expecting the coal export market to collapse within the next 10 years. This is because all the major industrial economies are either transitioning to renewable energy or, in some cases, to their own domestic coal production. They would rather produce their own energy than buy it.
Renewable energy is leading the world in terms of cost and capacity to provide energy for consumers and industry.
Research by Tim Buckley from Climate Energy Finance found that China has built six times more solar power capacity in the last year than Australia has produced through coal, gas, hydro, wind and solar over 200 plus years.
While China is building more thermal coal plants, it is supercharging its renewables industry.
Catastrophic climate change is no longer an impending threat, it’s an everyday reality. There have been dozens of climate disasters around the world this year including fires, floods, hurricanes, heatwaves and drought. Why do you think Labor refuses to take serious action?
I’m not a political analyst, I’m an agitator. But my gut tells me it is combination of fear, greed and cowardice. I’m sure some people join the Labor party to try to make the world a better place.
However, it remains a fact that Labor takes just as much — sometimes more — donations from the fossil fuel industry than the Coalition. Then there’s the revolving door of job offers in fossil fuel companies for former MPs
The industry exerts direct pressure on politicians to support their corporate interests above all else. Labor is happy to advance corporate interests and it fears media campaigns against it if it does not oblige.
When [former PM] Kevin Rudd proposed the Resource Super Profits Tax in 2010 there was a huge push back by the Murdoch media and the Coalition.
What would you like governments to do to address the climate emergency?
Rising Tide’s demands are pretty simple. The first is no new coal or gas expansions, including cancelling the ones that have been approved, but have not yet begun.
We also want a 75% tax on fossil fuel export profits. This is similar to Norway, which taxes oil exports at 78%, through a number of mechanisms. That money goes into a sovereign wealth fund that’s now worth more than $2 trillion. Norway basically run its social services off the interest of that fund.
Australia could be doing that. The funds could be used to fund the transition to renewable energies and fund climate loss and damage, both here and overseas.
Australia is the world’s second largest fossil fuel exporter and these industries are hardly taxed — a remarkable abdication of responsibility.
Coal royalties in NSW average about 8–12%, which sounds like a lot when they talk about how many billions they paid over the course of a year. However, proportionally, it is a very small amount. That money goes into private pockets.
The coal and gas industry received $14 billion in subsidies last year, as well as almost $70 billion in tax breaks.
We can’t do that and fund a transition, let alone provide adequate healthcare and education. Ultimately, we want to end all fossil fuel exports by 2030. It’s not an impossible task; a strong climate movement can do it.
How can we build a mass, grassroots climate movement?
To achieve our goals we need to build power. Protests are an important part of democracy; they are also a critical part of inspiring people take a public stand.
But unless they either threaten an electoral result or disrupt an industry directly, they don’t themselves hold power.
Knowing that the vast majority of people support the transition to renewables, higher taxes for fossil fuel corporations and greater action on climate, Rising Tide wants to translate that energy into a form of protest that has power.
After Plibersek announced the expansion of the coal mines, Rising Tide activists stopped a coal train at Sandgate, near Newcastle with about 12 hour’s notice.
I’m not claiming that stopping a coal train once is necessarily an indication of power; a company can wear the costs of a short delay. But imagine if we could do that for weeks, or months or indefinitely. That is power.
Events like the People’s Blockade of the World’s Largest Coal Port can give people a taste of that power and contribute to building it. We are looking at stopping coal ships out of the world’s largest coal port for at least 50 hours. That is a significant escalation from last year’s blockade, when we stopped coal ships for 32 hours.
We want to grow the capacity of the community to take the action that's required to take down the industry that is destroying us all.
A recent example was the Bentley Blockade in the Northern Rivers where, in 2014, where the community blockaded a site designated for coal seam gas and stopped a fracking rig from entering.
Over many months, the community convinced more than 5000 people to join the blockade. The NSW government sent about 900 cops from across the state. But the caterers wouldn’t serve them, the motel owners wouldn’t house them and the rural fire service refused to give them their headquarters to work from.
Against community members, grandmothers, farmers, doctors and nurses, the police backed off. Eventually, under enormous political pressure, the NSW government cancelled the exploration licence.
That’s what we are aiming to do with numbers at the Newcastle Port.
What else can you tell us about this year’s blockade?
Apart from the blockade, the action will be 10 days long, from November 19. We’ll be building the camp infrastructure over the first three days, as well as building skills and making connections through workshops, seminars and training sessions.
November 22–24 is the actual blockade when we’ll get out on the water in kayaks and inflatable rafts. We will have pontoons and the Greenpeace vessel Oceania.
We’re being supported by musicians including Angie McMahon, John Butler, Dobby and Peter Garrett as well as others: It’s going to be the best party of the year.
The final three days, November 26–28 will be in Ngunnawal/Canberra, coinciding with the final parliamentary sitting days for 2024. We will take the momentum from our three-day blockade straight to the politicians and say “Get your shit together”!
[Listen to the full interview here. Find out more and register for the People’s Blockade of the World’s Largest Coal Port at risingtide.org.au.]