Nannas were back in Martin Place protesting against Santos during the company’s AGM in Adelaide, and later in the day a welcome win for justice and democracy had Nannas cheering.
Anti-Santos Annual General Muck up
During a peaceful protest rally in Martin Place on the day of the Santos Annual General Meeting (AGM), Knitting Nannas reinforced their commitment to stop the Narrabri Gas Project and its pipelines.
Our objections include the loss or contamination of critical surface and groundwater resources, the risk of damage to an important recharge area for the Great Artesian Basin, the destruction of ecosystems and endangered species in the Pilliga Forest as well as the destruction and disruption of the Gomeroi people’s cultural heritage.
Nannas from Sydney and the Hunter joined forces to:
- protest Santos’s many new gas projects in Australia, PNG and Alaska
- call for changes to the tax system whereby gas companies would pay tax to generate revenue to fix damage caused by extreme weather events, a result of their high emissions.
Nannas stomped on the Santos sign as they sang ‘These gates are made for locking’, a parody of Nancy Sinatra’s ‘These boots are made for walking’. ‘Divest’, another favourite song of the Nannas, had an appropriate message for the nearby ASX head office.
Nannas posed for photos outside the ASX with the giant share price screen as a backdrop.
Background information on Santos’s Narrabri Gas Project
Santos AGM in Adelaide
For the first time community representatives from Papua New Guinea travelled to Australia to confront Santos at the AGM about its Papua LNG Project. They are very concerned about the impacts of gas drilling and pipelines on their rivers, environment and on their subsistence livelihoods.
They joined Gomeroi people from northwest NSW, and a representative of the Garrawa people from the Northern Territory, one of the groups of traditional owners of the Beetaloo Basin. First Nations representatives from these three areas spoke up in the meeting against the Santos gas projects which threaten their water and lands.
Ahead of the meeting, about 100 protesters dressed in suits and carrying placards gathered outside the Convention Centre. Australian Conservation Foundation CEO, Adam Bandt, demanded the company abandon its contentious fracking project in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin.
Both Santos CEO, Kevin Gallagher, and Chairman, Keith Spence, have come under increasing pressure from investors following a series of failed takeover approaches and the disappointing share price performance in recent years.
Concerns have been raised over the CEO’s ‘leadership style’, his ‘all-powerful presence’ and the justification of his pay. (Financial Review)
Adelaide University Rally
The Conservation Council SA’s Dump Santos campaign calls on Adelaide University to rename the Santos Petroleum Engineering Building. A rally at the university on 18 April coincided with a week of actions around Santos’s AGM. They also campaign against SA government events sponsored by Santos.
Links
‘Who gave you the right?’: villagers take on gas giant. (The Canberra Times)
Santos calls for oil drilling support as protestors crash Adelaide AGM (INDAILY SA)
New polling shows nearly three in four South Australians believe gas companies should be made to pay for environmental damage they cause (Mirage)
Gas News
How the Iran war exposed Australia’s energy mistakes (ABC If You’re Listening)
Ignore ‘self-serving’ claims from gas giants and implement 100% tax on windfall profits, Ken Henry says (The Guardian).
Bosses of Santos, Woodside, Chevron and Shell asked to give evidence to Greens-led gas tax inquiry (The Guardian)
The gas industry is all bluster. Labor needs to stop fearing them – Greg Jericho (Deepcut News)
New analysis from Market Forces shows Santos contributes to quadrupled gas prices for Australians (Market Forces)
Protest laws unconstitutional
The protest laws brought in by the NSW Minns government after the Bondi Beach terrorist attack were deemed ‘unconstitutional’ by the NSW Court of Appeal on Thursday 16 April.
Knitting Nannas support the judges’ ruling on these laws, which were rushed through parliament in a hastily convened emergency sitting of parliament on Christmas Eve.
The restriction was in place in parts of Sydney’s CBD during the rally against the visit of Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, in early February. Police brutally arrested peaceful protesters in what has been described as the most violent police attacks on peaceful protesters since the first gay Mardi Gras in 1978. The police violence triggered an investigation into allegations of widespread police misconduct.
Now, police are being asked to drop the charges against peaceful protestors who have been charged under the laws, and for compensation for protesters injured during Herzog’s visit. Nannas were among thousands of people at this rally.
The NSW government is to pay court costs, which could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, to the Palestine Action Group, Blak Caucus and Jews Against the Occupation ’48.
The NSW government’s attempts to block a pro-Palestine rally on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and to expand police powers to restrict protests in or near places of worship were both struck down by the courts in 2025.
This is another example of Minns (like Trump) not listening to his advisers and costing the taxpayer heaps.
Nannacdote from the Supreme Court
When the ABC broadcast that the verdict would be delivered on Thursday afternoon, some Nannas rushed to the court. “I got changed into my Nanna shirt going up in the lift with an imam. I told him he’d have to excuse me because he’d stepped into my phone booth,” said one Nanna.
NSW’s highest court strikes down anti-protest law introduced in wake of Bondi beach terror attack (The Guardian)
Protest is not a flaw in democracy and fear cannot be made law. The NSW supreme court ruling upholds these truths. Closing public space does not produce ‘social cohesion’. Instead, it produces accumulated tension. (The Guardian)
Coal
NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) banned export of coal from Chain Valley mine, south of Lake Macquarie, as part of their two-year extension approval. The commissioners also characterised the approval as being at the “outer limit of what can reasonably be justified in NSW’s policy context of working towards decarbonisation”. (Lock The Gate)
Grandparenting Research
Six Sydney Nannas met with Dr Tanya Evans from Macquarie University to talk about grandparenting on 15 April. They discussed their experiences as children with their own grandparents, and where they are now with their own grandchildren, their aims, concerns, and pleasures. It was a rich, stimulating and bonding couple of hours.
Nannas are listening
Australia’s energy security and resilience: The story of Australia’s energy transition and why it’s had so many false starts and missteps. (ABC Rear Vision)
Nannas are reading
The ‘nannasphere’ is an antidote to the world’s grief and horrors (ABC News)
Debunking four myths about Australia’s fuel crisis (ABC News)
The US attack on Iran has made the need for renewable energy inarguable. Environmentalists are now being seen for the pragmatists that they are (George Monbiot – The Guardian).
‘Incomprehensible’: birds flee and hundreds of turtles left to die after government cuts water to NSW wetlands (The Guardian)
Australia’s coalmine emissions are increasing. Is this how a major policy to cut climate pollution is meant to work? (The Guardian)
Feature image – Copyright image courtesy of John Jansen-Moore
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