Actions

Boothby campaign: Renewables or Nukes

roman February 24, 2025

Friends of the Earth Adelaide would like to announce a new campaign to inform residents in the electorate of Boothby (SA, marginal ALP) of the dangers of the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy.
We will soon begin posting leaflets in as many letterboxes in Boothby as our legs and our finances will reach. As much as we can afford, we will use Australia Post’s ‘unaddressed mail’ service, but that is not cheap. We are therefore calling for volunteers to help us deliver leaflets by hand.
The outcome of the forthcoming federal election will be critical for the direction of Australia’s climate and energy policy. It is vital that voters know what they are voting for and understand the consequences. Limited resources will probably restrict us to Boothby, but we are very pleased that people are campaigning in other electorates, including the neighbouring electorate of Sturt.
The electorate of Boothby extends from Millswood and Blackforest in the north, west to the coast at Glenelg, south to Marino, east across to Blackwood, Belair and Brownhill Creek, then north to Cross Road.
In order to reach the whole of Boothby (over 85,000 letterboxes), we will need donations and volunteers. If you are able to help with letterboxing, please send us an email at adelaide.office@foe.org.au You don’t have to live in Boothby and you can deliver as many or as few leaflets as you like — no pressure. Leaflets will come in bundles of 100.
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to this campaign, please go to the following link
https://www.foe.org.au/donate_to_friends_of_the_earth_adelaide

Thank you for your support and for all the work you do to achieve a nuclear free, sustainable future.
Philip White on behalf of Friends of the Earth Adelaide.
Authorised by Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth 312 Smith St, Collingwood, VIC, 3066.… Read more >>

Actions, Adelaide FoE Notes, Climate, FoE

SANTOS targetting activists

roman November 3, 2024

Major Australian oil and gas company Santos is deploying “scorched earth” tactics in contentious legal proceedings that could silence future opposition to the fossil fuel industry’s expansion plans in Australia.

The proceedings are the aftermath of Munkara v Santos, an unsuccessful attempt by a group of Tiwi Islanders to protect areas of claimed cultural significance for First Nations people from a new gas pipeline being constructed by Santos.

After winning the case earlier this year, Santos is now using the “world’s most-feared law firm” to pursue lawyers from the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) and several Australian environment groups in a bid to recover its substantial legal costs. Santos’s legal actions could also expose the inner workings of Australia’s climate movement, putting activists personally at risk of retribution.

“It has aggressively targeted the Tiwi Islanders’ legal team, relentlessly seeking costs against them. These actions risk discouraging communities from using legal avenues to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their harmful practices.”

If successful, future efforts to hold fossil fuel companies accountable through the courts could be incapacitated. The ramifications include the potential to force any “third-party supporter” of unsuccessful climate litigation – such as donors, campaigners or environment groups that provide logistical or funding support – to pay the legal bills of fossil fuel defendants.

In January, Santos successfully defended a challenge to the Barossa Gas Export Pipeline that will transport gas from the Barossa gas field in the Timor Sea to a gas processing and export terminal at Middle Arm near Darwin.

— article by Michael Mazengarb in The Saturday Paper

Actions, Adelaide FoE Notes, Climate

Rising Tide Alert

roman November 3, 2024

At 9am on Saturday 16th November, join us at Brighton Jetty.

Become part of a Bike ride, Walk, Scoot or… to show solidarity with thousands of people

blockading coal ships at the world’s largest coal port.

Start at 9am, moving slowly north along the shared paths and esplanades.

Finish at 11am back at Brighton Jetty. — Cafés close by, for cuppas.

Rising Tide Alert is supported by Unley Voices for Climate Action & Friends of the Earth Adelaide

Download PDF leaflet

Actions, Adelaide FoE Notes, Clean Futures, Climate

Outrageous anti-protest laws

roman May 25, 2023

Clearly the SA government was annoyed by the protests at the APPEA conference: by the Thursday of that week, the lower house had passed legislation dramatically increasing penalties for public protests.

If you are concerned about this threat to democracy, come to the snap protest this Friday, May 26th at 6pm at Parliament House. Event by Adelaide Uni Students for Climate Justice, Adelaide Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and others

Earlier this week, the Human Rights Law Centre released an explainer which revealed many of the problems with the ill-considered legislation

The Bill: Summary Offences (obstruction of Public Places) Amendment 2023 (SA)

On 18 May 2023, the South Australian Legislative Assembly introduced, and passed, the Summary Offences (Obstruction of Public Places) Amendment (The Bill) in response to protest activity in Adelaide which briefly closed traffic. The Bill amends section 58 of the Summary Offences Act 1953 (The Act) to, among other things, dramatically increase the maximum penalty for obstructing a public place. The Bill is currently before the Legislative Council for deliberation.
…

Section 2(1)

2(1)

Section 2(1) of the Bill increases the penalty for obstructing a public place from $750 to a maximum of $50,000 or a maximum term of imprisonment of 3 months. This is a 60-fold increase to the maximum financial penalty; the Act does not currently provide imprisonment as a penalty for obstructing a public place. It is intended that these penalties would have a strong deterrent effect to protestors who block public space.

…

Section (3) (1a)

Section (3) (1a) of the Bill makes defendants criminally responsible for their direct obstruction of a public place, but it also intends to capture conduct even if it indirectly causes obstruction of a public place.

The Bill provides an example of what this may include, namely, if police or other emergency services need to restrict access to the public place to, “safely deal with the person’s conduct”.

ACF open letter to the Resources Minister on nuclear waste

roman September 5, 2022

Open letter:

“As people from all across Australia, we call on the federal government and Resources Minister Madeleine King to stop the double-handling and relocation of radioactive waste to a highly contested regional facility proposed near Kimba in regional South Australia.

The Intermediate Level Waste should remain where it is securely stored at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation’s Lucas Heights facility, pending the outcome of an open review of future management options to identify a credible long-term solution. It’s time for us to advance responsible waste management that keeps communities and nature safe.”

A waste dump in Kimba would be bad news

Read the full details and sign up on the ACF website

Actions, Adelaide FoE Notes, Nuclear