A dozen or so Manning Clean Water Action Group (MCWAG) volunteers turned out last Tuesday to people a Stop Adani Stall in Manning Street Taree.
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Part of the action was the launch of a petition bound for the Federal House of Representatives requesting it:
- to hold Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to his pre-election promise to refuse Adani’s requests for publicly-funded subsidies, and
- to call for public money to be spent on saving the Great Barrier Reef rather than on projects which may destroy it.
Last December, the government’s Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility granted conditional approval for a $1 billion loan to Adani to build a rail line between its proposed Carmichael coalmine and the Abbot Point shipping terminal in Queensland.
MCWAG vice president Genevieve Godwin, who holds a major in zoology and botany, explains “the consequent expansion of the Abbot Point shipping terminal will require dredging of previously undisturbed seabed within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, resulting in destruction of food source for dugongs, disturbance of turtle nesting grounds and risk pollution of wetlands which are home to threatened bird species.
“Furthermore, the burning of 2.3 billion tonnes of coal that Adani could obtain over the mine’s 60 years of operation would result in the emission of 4.6 billion tonnes of CO2. This will definitely exacerbate climate change and contribute to the death of the Great Barrier Reef itself.”
“With over 200 signatures collected, this was a great launch and a good lead in to the Stop Adani National Week of Action May 15-19,” MCWAG president Nawal Maharaj said.
More stalls will be set up in in Taree at Manning Street, Thursday May 18 (in front of IGA); Café Mediterrano, Victoria Street, Friday May 19; and the Hub Market, Saturday May 20.
