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Luis Feliu
The poster-boy of protests, Benny Zable, dons his theatrical garb as 4,000 people rocked and protested in Murwillumbah on Saturday. Photo Jeff Dawson
town’s main CBD block, views soon to be beamed to over 30 million viewers Blockades and peaceful disobedience, around the world by the Al Jazeera which have so far succeeded in stop- network, which joined a big media ping multinational mining compa- contingent covering the event. nies drilling for coal-seam gas (CSG) around Australia, will be used to lock Drilling stopped in QLD the industry out of the northern rivers Lock the Gate president Drew Hutand other areas. ton told the rally at the showground A huge protest rally/march of more that it was now time to ‘block the gate’, than 4,000 people in Murwillumbah as all appeals and warnings to governon Saturday was told by the head of ment over the massive dangers CSG the national anti-CSG movement the mining posed to agricultural land and effective tactic would be used against water supplies, people and the envithe mining companies to ‘send them ronment had fallen on deaf ears. packing’. Mr Hutton said the ‘bottom feeders The head of the mass march almost of the fossil-fuel industry’ (CSG minmet its tail as it wound around the ers) and their government backers
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MP Don ducks from his mining interests
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Volume 27 #19 Tuesday, October 16, 2012
were ‘quite happy to put our environ- continued on page 2 ment, our people, our landscapes, our ■ See the video of this story at cultural heritage, all those things at risk just for a buck’. But he said people, including con- Go to echonetdaily.net.au servative communities, were fighting back and blockades had already stopped companies drilling in Tara, southeast Queensland, for the past four years; at Kerry near the Border Around 30 anti-coal and coal-seam Ranges, where 15 people were arrest- gas events are planned around the country for the National Week of ed; and other places in NSW. He said the tactic had worked on Action that began last Saturday. It follows from last year’s National sending companies such as one of the Day of Action in 2011. Lock the Gate world’s biggest miners, Arrow Energy, Alliance president, Drew Hutton ‘packing’. Arrow Energy has a lease covering says, ‘We estimated about 10,000 many parts of Tweed, Byron, Kyogle people participated in last year’s day
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Ballina MP and minister for the north coast Don Page has refused to say whether he disclosed a conflict of interest as a BHP-Billiton shareholder when he took part in cabinet’s controversial decision to overturn a ban on the exploration of uranium in NSW. The state government earlier this year overturned a 26-year ban on uranium exploration and last month sought expressions of interest from mining companies. Mr Page, who is also local government minister, was grilled over the issue during a budget estimates review committee hearing last Thursday by MLC Shaoquett Moselmane. In a testy exchange between the minister and the Labor MLC, Mr Page repeatedly refused to say on which issue he had disclosed a conflict of interest in cabinet meetings. ‘I am a bit vague about what I am allowed to declare in relation to Cabinet confidentiality. My understanding is that I am not supposed to say anything about Cabinet confidentiality including whether one has declared a conflict of interest,’ he said. Mr Page responded to The Echo’s enquiries over the matter and denied there was a conflict of interest. He told The Echo, ‘The uranium continued on page 3
National Week of Action of action and, given our first event will be the Rock the Gate concert at Murwillumbah, we are confident we will exceed this number.’ He says raliies, picnics, workshops, protests outside mining company offices and forest blockades will be held throughout the week. Visit www. lockthegate.org.au for more.
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