In addition to our local Anti-Nuclear/Pro-Renewables campaign, you can keep an eye on Friends of the Earth Australia’s website for updates – thanks to our national Nuclear Campaigner Dr Jim Green.
http://www.foe.org.au/royal-commission
If you’d like to be on our local campaigner Nectaria Calan’spersonal nuclear email list please contact adelaide.office@foe.org.au
Friends of the Earth Adelaide has two main collectives. The Fair Food Adelaide collective works on food sovereignty issues including March Against Monsanto, and the Clean Futures Collective focuses on Mining and Energy; and is pro-renewables, anti-nuclear and anti-fracking.
This financial year Fair Food Adelaide focussed on events for Fair Food Week held each October where we held two events – a bicycle community garden tour, and a forum on food poverty co-hosted with Foodbank SA. After a local food Long Table lunch and an end of year picnic, we’ve had a quieter 2015 as two of our main organisers have had to step down due to new jobs. Our monthly Urban Orchard food swap is continuing, and instead of rallying on the anniversary of the first March Against Monsanto we wrote letters to SA’s Agriculture Minister to congratulate him on standing strong to continue SA’s GM moratorium and championing soil improvement rather than GMO crops. We also lobbied the federal Agriculture Minister and Health Minister asking them to ban the weedkiller Roundup (glyphosate) in light of the recent announcement by the World Health Organisation that it probably causes cancer. We have received replies from Barnaby Joyce saying the approval status of glyphosate is under review. We are also collecting signatures for a petition to Bunnings asking them to stop stocking the neonicotinoid pesticides that harm bees. We also work with the GM-Free Australia Alliance as one of its member groups. Member Kim Hill hosted workshop on The End of Agriculture at the Students of Sustainability conference in July.
We’ll continue to keep members up to date with information on our Facebook page, Facebook group, googlegroup and website.
See www.facebook.com/fairfoodadelaide and www.facebook.com/groups/MarchAgainstMonsantoAdelaide
Sign up for our fortnightly e-newsletter at the bottom left side of our home page www.adelaide.foe.org.au .
The Clean Futures Collective regrouped and decided to become more active in the area of renewables as an alternative to nuclear energy early in the year – just in time for the Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel “Cycle” to come along. Our Premier Jay Weatherill thinks this is a way forward for the state with jobs and a solution to climate change that will help the economy – we strongly disagree with him and want to see a renewable future. The Royal Commission has taken up most of the group’s time since February. We have hired a part-time Campaigner for 6 months to November and are meeting weekly to progress plans. We have a major fundraising appeal to extend the campaign to the end of the Royal Commission. We made two submissions into the Commission’s Terms of Reference, attended each of the three Adelaide based community ‘consultations’ and are currently writing submissions for each of the four issues papers on uranium mining, enrichment, electricity and nuclear waste. Unfortunately the Adelaide Advertiser seems to be part of the formidable pro-nuclear campaign running articles with extremely biased and factually incorrect information such as nuclear power can provide free energy and abolish state taxes! It has been very difficult to counter such propaganda with actual cold hard technical and economic facts.
We are working closely with the Conservation Council of SA and Nuclear Operations Watch Port Adelaide (NOWPA) and are an active part of the newly formed statewide anti-nuclear coalition. We also work closely with FOE Australia’s nuclear free campaigner Dr Jim Green. Once the Royal Commission submissions are complete by early August we will move towards more community campaigning against the nuclear fuel chain. So far we’ve worked with the SA anti-nuclear coalition contributing to a fundraising poetry-slam picnic, a remembrance media conference on Fukushima Day March 11th, were part of a nuclear-free contingent at the March in March rally, held stalls at nuclear forums, supported Aboriginal people at a nuclear free forum in Port Augusta, and member Dr Philip White held a nuclear power workshop at Students of Sustainability conference along with Dr Jim Green. We participated in the ANFA led banner drop at SOS, and an action in Rundle Mall to support Aboriginal people around community closures/protecting the Murray River/protecting country from the nuclear industry.
We also made submissions to the Senate Inquiries into Wind Farms and the SA Inquiry into gas fracking. We co-hosted a film evening with the Conservation Council, screening “Farmlands not Gaslands” about the success of the Victorian community campaign to keep their farmland free of gas fracking.
Members and friends can keep up to date with progress via our googlegroup, fortnightly e-newsletter, general Facebook page and website.
See www.facebook.com/friendsoftheearthadelaide and www.adelaide.foe.org.au
Sign up for our fortnightly e-newsletter at the bottom left side of our home page.
Contact Secretary Robyn Wood robyn.wood@foe.org.au for more information about either collective.
PDF version FOE Adelaide Report 2014-15
People interested in renewable energy storage may like to attend this Alternative Technology Association event:
ATA Adelaide Branch Meeting – Energy Storage Opportunities for SA
When: Monday, August 17
Time: 7.30pm sharp
Where: Goodwood Community Centre (Banquet Hall), 32/34 Rosa St, Goodwood. Goodwood Community Centre is convenient to the tram, buses and train. Enter the car park via Florence St.
Cost: ATA members $2, non-members $5. Tea, coffee and biscuits provided.
Presenter: Dean Spaccavento of Reposit Power
South Australia enjoys a high penetration of solar energy but electricity consumers pay high electricity prices by world standards. We have a volatile energy market and energy companies pay very high spot prices to generators when demand is high. All of this makes solar, energy storage and intelligent control a more attractive prospect for SA than elsewhere.
Dean will speak about the GridCredits software that allows householders to trade on the energy market. Using parameters such as a home’s energy consumption habits, weather, grid demand and future energy prices, the software automatically decides whether it’s advantageous for a system to store the solar energy or sell to the grid, allowing the household to profit. GridCredits is integrated into Tesla’s Powerwall battery storage system.
Dean has considerable technical expertise in the Australian, North American and Asian-Pacific electrical supply industries.
Other events
Adelaide Cleantech Network will hold their Tonsley Tour and refreshments on August 26 at 4pm. Click herefor details and free registration. Presentations include new Siemens facility.
Adelaide Sustainable Building Network: Graeme Hopkins and Janelle Arbon will present on Connecting with Nature on August 26, 6.30-8.30pm at 87 Gibson St, Bowden. Details and registration:https://guestlistapp.com/events/338700
Q&A
ATA meetings put people with questions in touch with people who might have answers. The Q&A session is an open discussion about sustainability topics.
ATA Adelaide Branch meetings are open to ATA members and non-members. They aim to be informative and interactive in helping people learn about living and building sustainably. We look forward to seeing you at the next meeting.
ATA Adelaide Branch Committee & Steve Jenkins, Convenor.
Phone: 0418 852 234.
The next antinuclear coalition meeting will be this Thursday 20th August 6pm start at Mad Mouse Alley, 58 Light Square, City (on the eastern end of the square, along the alley to the north of the People’s Choice Credit Union building). Mad Mouse is a DIY not-for-profit social centre.
Enquiries robyn.wood@foe.org.au or 0423 219 096
MEDIA RELEASE
23rd July 2015
PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS BASED ON MISINFORMATION:
ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE FAILS TO CORRECT FACTUAL ERROR IN ISSUES PAPER
Friends of the Earth Adelaide have recently informed the Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle of a factual error in Issues Paper 1, concerning the regulation of Aboriginal Heritage matters in South Australia. Issues Paper 1, which deals with the exploration, extraction and milling of uranium, states that Aboriginal sites of significance are protected by the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988.
“The Royal Commission was informed in writing that this is not the case for BHP Billiton, South Australia’s biggest miner,” said Nectaria Calan of Friends of the Earth Adelaide. “Under the Indenture Act, which applies solely to BHP Billiton, the company’s Olympic Dam mine and some
15, 000 square kilometres of the surrounding Stuart Shelf are exempt from the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988. This exemption would carry through to any future expansion of uranium mining by BHP Billiton at Olympic Dam or in the surrounding area.”
In his recent response to Friends of the Earth Adelaide Royal Commissioner Kevin Scarce insisted that in the event of an expansion of uranium mining Aboriginal Heritage matters would be regulated by the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988.
“This is simply not the law throughout the state,” said Ms Calan. “Friends of the Earth Adelaide have supplied the Royal Commission with referenced information regarding the Roxby Downs (Indenture Ratification) (Amendment of Indenture) Amendment Act 2011, which amends the current Indenture Act to apply to any expansion formally announced by the company up until October 2016. If it was an honest mistake to begin with, it is negligent not to correct it.”
“At one point, the Royal Commissions reply almost acknowledges the inaccuracy by suggesting that it is the substance rather than source of legal protections that is important. However, there are substantive differences between the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988 and the legal framework that does apply to BHP Billiton. For example, one of the differences between the law that applies to BHP Billiton, and that which applies elsewhere in the state, is that certain matters of Aboriginal Heritage are decided by BHP Billiton instead of the Minister. This includes determining which areas are to be protected. A corporate body with a commercial interest in land also making determinations on its competing non-commercial values is arguably a conflict of interest. At the least it is a substantive difference from such powers being held by the Minister.”
“Does the Royal Commission have such little respect for Aboriginal Heritage matters that they consider such details irrelevant?” asked Ms Calan. “The starting point for any credible consultation process is the presentation of accurate information. Curiously, the Royal Commission advised Friends of the Earth to put our concerns regarding this issue in a submission, sidestepping the key issue – that the public are making submissions based on inaccurate information provided in the Issues Paper. The dismissive response of the Royal Commission undermines any confidence that the Issues Papers are accurate overviews of the nuclear industry.”
For comment contact:
Nectaria Calan
0432 388 665
Friends of the Earth Adelaide