It has been a busy three months around the FoE house with many new faces and exciting initiatives. Thanks to a couple of dedicated FoE workers our fantastic new website and ebulletin is live and providing up to date information on our important work.

What a great year for our campaigns, because of your generous financial support our volunteer teams have been able to continue their great work for the environment. Thanks so much. The key activities in the newsletter and on the website to look for:

Friends of the Earth Brisbane has today expressed deep disappointment in the Bligh Government's position on the Resource Super Profits Tax.

"It is high time governments taxed mining companies appropriately," said Friends of the Earth Brisbane spokesperson, Eleanor Smith, "The resources belong to us, we bear the environmental and health costs of these industries and yet as it stands the Queensland Government gives all the royalties they earn and then some straight back to the coal industry in infrastructure and other services."

"We're really glad the Federal government is standing up to the mining industry and imposing a super profit tax, it's a shame the Queensland Government won't stand up and support it" said Ms Smith

According to media reports the Queensland Resources Council have met with Premier Anna Bligh and Treasurer Andrew Fraser, successfully persuading them to take a stand against a strong Resource Super Profits Tax.

"The Bligh Government lobbied for greater concessions for mining companies under the Emissions Trading Scheme and now they're at it again, siding with the big polluters over the people of Queensland".

"We're concerned about where the revenue from this tax will be invested. When you look at the environmental and social costs of mining, especially the climate change impacts of coal mining, it's clear we need to phase out that industry. We need a tax on mining that funds a just transition of our economy away from fossil fuel energy and dirty jobs to sustainability. As the state with the largest mining industry in Australia we should be doing some major planning for a future without coal mining."

"Today we are calling on all Queenslanders to remind Bligh and Fraser they represent us not the coal industry".

For more information see the Friends of the Earth Australia action alert

Submitted by steve.skitmore on Fri 4 Jun 2010 4:21pm Posted in

• Coal
• Corporate
• Energy
• Mining

Community group, Friends of the Earth Brisbane, has welcomed news today that mining giant, Xstrata, will suspend operations in Wandoan, but blames the company's poor planning for the failure of the project and not the Resource Super Profits Tax. 

The Wandoan Coal Project is a climate killer”, said spokes person for Friends of the Earth Brisbane, Eleanor Smith. “At 30 million tonnes of coal per year, it was to be one of the biggest coal projects in the world and add millions of tonnes to our carbon debt.”

We've been watching this project for a number of years and could see that it was not viable without the inflated coal export prices we saw during the boom. Xstrata are using the Government's Resource Profits Tax as a scapegoat to cover up for their own poor planning” said Ms Smith. 

Xstrata have gone into Wandoan and absolutely decimated that community. Landholders have left, leaving schools and local businesses under pressure. A creeping death has taken over the community which was once a vibrant rural hub,” said Ms Smith who visited the community as part of a research tour of coal affected communities in 2008.

Friends of the Earth supports a tax on mining super profits, but believes the proceeds should be used to build a just and sustainable future that doesn't depend on fossil fuel extraction and use.

The Xstrata case shows that we cannot trust these companies with our future. We simply must move towards sustainable industries that have been shown to provide more jobs, and decent jobs at that!” said Ms Smith

Read the Six Degrees report on the impacts of coal on rural communities here.