Nannas from all over NSW will gather at Newcastle this week for the Rising Tide “Protestival”. We want the public to know that what the Premier is saying about coal mining in NSW is misleading. He told ABC listeners today that his government hasn’t approved any new mines, and then stated that coal mines “need to be extended from time to time”.
We say in reply:
- Two coal mining projects were approved by the NSW Planning Department and not referred for any independent assessment – Boggabri Modification 8 and Glendell Modification 5. Emissions from the Boggabri project will total 6.3 million tonnes over its lifetime.
- Calling mining projects extensions, continuations or modifications does not change the fact that they are expansions of coal mining and huge threats to the state’s legislated emissions reductions targets.
- There are 18 coal mines in the planning system, some of them pushing for long extensions of time to mine and greatly increasing our coal exports.
The Premier said that Rising Tide wants the Newcastle coal port and coal mining shut down right now. Not true! The goal of the protest is to call for coal to be phased out and for new projects not to be approved. It will also expose to the public what is really happening, which is an expansion of coal mining.
Knitting Nannas will be at Rising Tide because we know that we need our governments to act fast for a transition from coal to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Here’s our program and an update on the venue and events.
Saturday 23 November – Events at Nanna Central
11.45am – Singing and circus briefing
12.00pm – Nanna Climate Circus and singing
12.45pm – Red Rebels meet
01.45pm – Red Rebels performance
03.30pm – Human sign on the beach followed by group photo at Nanna Care tent
Marine Exclusion Zone
Late Friday organisers were notified that the NSW Government has imposed a Marine Exclusion Zone covering the Newcastle harbour and offshore, including the waters of nearby public beaches.
This exclusion will be in place from 5:00pm on Thursday 21 November until 8:00am Monday 25 November.
This means that “no unauthorised vessels or persons other than commercial vessels associated with port operations are permitted to enter the Zone and to do so may be an offence.”
Land based activities
The land-based activities will now be at Foreshore Park which is across the road from where the event was held last year. The welcome tent will be open from 11am Tuesday 22 November and the program starts at 4pm.
On-land gathering remains legal, and people will not face penalties unless they disobey police direction. If the police ask you to move on – move on if you don’t want to be arrested.
Organisers are working hard to ensure land-based activities continue as planned: workshops, speeches, our full music program and peaceful protests on public land.
Police liaison and legal teams will be working hard to uphold our rights and provide support.
See all Rising Tide events
The full Rising Tide program has been released for November 19-28