Author Archive: Philip White

Last year, after announcing his nuclear energy policy, Peter Dutton said that the next election would be a referendum on this policy. Well he lost the referendum. Let that be the end of discussion of nuclear power plants in Australia.

Instead, the lesson the Coalition should learn from this election is that it is time to end the climate wars. The Coalition’s obstruction of real action on climate change has done untold damage. Even if Peter Dutton isn’t sure if climate change is real, after severe droughts, bushfires and floods, the public wants action.

No one is saying the transition to a carbon-neutral economy will be easy. To make it work and to capitalise on the opportunities it presents requires bi-partisan support and an end to mischievous misinformation campaigns.

Friends of the Earth Adelaide Federal Election Campaign

Friends of the Earth Adelaide ran a targeted campaign in two marginal seats leading up to the federal election. We created an election leaflet advising voters about the dangers of nuclear power and asking them to “vote nuclear free”.

We are pleased that the Australian people rejected the nuclear option. We hope the Coalition gets the message and dumps its nuclear energy policy and becomes a constructive supporter of real climate action. Let this election mark an end to the climate wars.

Boothby

We delivered 50,000 of our leaflets to the letterboxes of voters in Boothby, a marginal seat in southern Adelaide held by Labor on a 3.3% margin prior to the election. Our aim was to prevent Boothby falling to a pro-nuclear candidate. We are very grateful to a grant from FOE Australia which paid for much of the printing and distribution of 45,000 of the leaflets by Australia Post. The remaining 5,000 leaflets were delivered by hand by our volunteers, who we are also very grateful to. We considered that a good reach of the 80,000 letterboxes in Boothby.

We are very pleased that Boothby was retained by an anti-nuclear candidate (Louise Miller-Frost for Labor, with Joanna Wells of the Greens also doing well). That’s one more seat to keep Australia free from nuclear power. We hope that the large loss the Coalition received means they will drop nuclear power as a policy.

Sturt

In late April a bus load of Traditional Owners from Port Augusta came to the city for a meeting in the marginal eastern Adelaide suburb of Sturt, held by the Liberals on a 0.5% margin prior to the election. Their aim was to appeal to Sturt voters for their support in keeping Port Augusta nuclear free.  Friends of the Earth Adelaide co-hosted the meeting along with Don’t Nuke Port Augusta, with financial help from CANA. Traditional Owners spoke strongly of their lives and love for Port Augusta’s land and waterways, and of the tragic intergenerational consequences for their families of the nuclear testing in SA in the 1950s. The meeting was videoed and can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/live/lJ1tpcfkZIU and many great photos are on the Don’t Nuke Port Augusta Facebook page.

The Port Augusta contingent were prominent at the May Day Worker’s Right’s rally the following day. They got a great shoutout from the MC, the SA Unions Secretary, and huge applause and appreciation from the crowd of unionists. Also, that evening, they staged a demonstration at the Arkaba Hotel where Peter Dutton was promoting the Liberal candidate for Sturt. They said, “If Dutton won’t visit us, we’ll come to him.”

Election related material authorised by Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth, 312 Smith St, Collingwood, VIC, 3066

A large crowd at the Port Augusta anti-nuke meeting on Wednesday, 30th April agreed that nuclear power made no economic or ecological sense, and that renewables were the preferred option.