Months after Friends of the Earth and local fishers brought national attention to the hugely negative effects of Gladstone Harbour dredging on the local ecosystem and economy, the State Government has finally suspended one aspect of the practice due to 'muddiness'.

However, dredging continues with backhoe and grab dredgers still operating in the Harbour today. Over the last few months, more and more news has come out of Gladstone from the local community saying that the fishing industry around the city is becoming non-viable due to the increased turbidity of the waters brought on by significant development of fossil fuel infrastructure.

Friends of the Earth calls on the State Government and the Gladstone Port Corporation to cease all dredging in the Harbour until a comprehensive assessment of its impacts on the local community and ecosystem is undertaken.

With three dead and nine critically injured, questions are being raised about the role of Australian owned company Arc Exploration after a community protest on the island of Sumbawa was attacked by Indonesian police.

“The shooting of peaceful protestors is completely unacceptable anywhere in the world, but with an Australian company involved because of its mining operation, it is imperative that the Australian Government step-in immediately to help calm the situation and ensure no more people are killed” said Derec Davies of Friends of the Earth Australia.

“Foreign Minister Rudd must respond and investigate the role of Arc Exploration and its dealings with the Indonesian National Police, which has responded so violently against the peaceful protest at the Sape Harbor over the Bima Gold Mine project.” 

“Indonesian police attacked on Christmas Eve, and three days later, questions and concerns from locals go unanswered.”

The South Melbourne Commons community hub will celebrate its official opening on Saturday 10th December 2011 from 10am-4pm. Please come along if you're in Melbourne!

The South Melbourne Commons is a joint initiative of the Friends of the Earth and Father Bob Maguire Foundation, our vision encapsulates the dynamic social and environmental qualities of both organisations.

The Commons is located on the corner of Bank and Montague St, South Melbourne right next door to the St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church where Father Bob Maguire resides.

www.commons.org.au

The Federal Government has used a general review of food labelling standards to pass an application to irradiate food in Australia.

Tim Mulherin (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Regional Economies) informs us that Application A 1038 is currently “the subject of a Federal Court judicial review procedure” and that he can't comment on the expansion of food irradiation in Australia and New Zealand and the weakening of labelling requirements.”

What is occurring is that the application to irradiate persimmons was passed by the Food Safety Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) and surreptitously included a general review of food labelling standards.

Gene-Ethics has iniated a legal challenge in the Federal Court - “We believe FSANZ hid its review, that weakens irradiated food labelling and record-keeping, within a Queensland Government application to irradiate persimmons (A1038),” says Gene Ethics Director Bob Phelps. In our view, FSANZ should have published its proposed general review of food irradiation standard 1.5.3, separate from the irradiation of persimmons and advised the public accordingly.

Now, belatedly: "FSANZ has amended the description of the Application in the Work Plan and for any future references to the description/purpose of this Application." Bob Phelps states that this does not go far enough and we challenge FSANZ to reprocess the applications separately.

As a consequence of this stealth, Scott Kinnear, Safe Food Institute Director, claims that his organisation missed out on making a submission on changes to the irradiation standard and say that FSANZ should have advertised its proposal separately,” says the Safe Food Institute Director, Scott Kinnear.

From Gene-Ethics

Last month, people from around the world commemorated the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian activist hanged by the military regime for drawing global attention to Shell's environmental devastation of the Niger Delta.

Friends of the Earth International's publication Memory, truth and justice for heroes, launched to coincide with Ken Saro-Wiwa day, is a collection of stories on the heroism of those people who have been killed and those whose rights had been violated in in their resistance against mining, oil and gas projects around the world.

You can read the report here.

As world leaders meet in Durban, South Africa to discuss efforts to tackle global warming, Friends of the Earth is calling on the rich developed countries, which have historically emitted the most greenhouse gases, to agree to urgent and dramatic cuts in their emissions starting NOW. You can follow how the meeting is progressing via the Friends of the Earth International network.

Friends of the Earth International is inspired and energized by the current unfolding of world-historic, transformative events. From the popular uprisings in Northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to the indignados of Europe, from the encampments of the #occupy movement to the student movements in Latin America and the UK, people from all over the world are calling for economic and socio-political justice. Our history of campaigning against transnational corporations and environmentally destructive economic policies has clearly indicated that we must attain economic justice in order to save the planet.

We believe that the vast inequalities lived by the 99% today are the consequence of the globalized capitalist system which subsidizes dirty industry and invests in military expansion at the expense of securing healthy and just economies with strong social services.

This system has resulted in a legacy of ecological devastation that will be passed on to our children and to the many generations thereafter.

Friends of the Earth International’s key struggles for environmental justice take place at the local level. Whether we are defending the rights and livelihoods of people in Ogoniland, Palestine, Ireland or Honduras, we stand together in the struggle against economic injustice and corporate greed. To save our communities and our environment, we stand united in calling for a profound transformation of the current globalized political economic system.

Friends of the Earth International promotes the respect and enforcement of community rights as a means to resist corporate power and create social change. Our member groups around the world are working closely with local communities, demanding a just transition towards sustainable rural and urban societies, in contrast to the current profit-driven and internationalised economy. This report focuses on campaigns that have the defence and enforcement of community rights at the heart of their struggles.

Dear Premier Bligh,

We are writing to congratulate you for re-affirming your commitment to keeping Queensland free of uranium mines. 

We thank you for not backing down on your principles on  the  sale of  uranium  to India , and for stating that you will maintain Queensland Labor’s “no uranium mines  policy”, despite the pressure applied by Julia Gillard and uranium industry promoters.

We are disappointed with Federal Resource Minister Martin Ferguson's attempts to justify the sale of uranium to India, a country that has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, by commenting that Australia already supplies uranium to China and Russia. Rather than being a principled rationale, this only demonstrates how far Federal Labor has strayed from its principles for the sake of the market place. 

Mining magnate Clive Palmer narrowly avoided being mobbed today by angry landowners over the proposed Waratah Coal’s Galilee Coal (aka China First) mine. The mine will see total destruction of a Queensland Nature Refuge, paving the way for Queensland's 412 Nature Refuges to be mined.

The event coincides with today’s announcement by Minister Stirling Hinchliffe of the formation of an independent panel to review land access laws for mining and CSG companies.

“Minister Hinchliffe has trumped Campbell Newman on this issue, but they don’t go far enough” said Drew Hutton from Friends of the Earth.

“The only real position worth a pitch of salt is Katter and the Greens on this issue. Land owners near Alpha, Qld are traditional LNP voters. They are opposed to the mine and want support from the LNP to protect their properties. Campbell Newman's Resources and Energy Strategy states the LNP will rebuild the social licence of the mining industry by ‘Respecting private landholders’ and making arrangements appropriate to landholders in developing resources and energy projects’”.