Category Archives: ENVIRONMENT

Who is responsible for asylum seekers on Manus? Terrifying Evacuation.

Posted on by
2

There has been an earthquake in the Pacific which has killed people in the Solomom Islands. I heard on the news that there was a tsunami warning for PNG. It did cross my mind to wonder if the Australian, PNG or Nauruan governments had given any thought to the extra responsibility of caring for asylum seekers if a natural disaster should occur on Manus Island in PNG or Nauru.

I was just closing down for the night when this email arrived from asylum seekers on Manus Island.

Red Cross arrived on Manus today.

It was around 1p.m that Salvation army received a fax from Canberra. It was written that tsunami may is coming to manus around 4p.m and you should evacuate the center as soon as possible.

All people were scared. the staffs only took their passports and cellphones. All the families were stressful and scarred. they took some clothe and left by bus. Some of the families went by walk to the topest place. Some of the SAMS didn’t left the camp. Most of them were Iranian. Poul moulds stayed with SAMS in detention center.

Some people were crying and kids terrified. They all thought that’s the end of their life. There were PNG police around people. They were waiting for Tsunami.

At 3:30 they said that everything is fine and nothing will happen and we are safe! All people went back to detention by walk.

Who is responsible for asylum seekers on manus? What would have happened if tsunami came? 34 kids may died!

Thanks,

Asylum seekers on manus island

 

Note: Paul Mounds works for the Salvation Army.  The SAMS are single men, many of whom are very depressed and have been refusing food at times.

This terrifying incident meant that the asylum seekers were forced to leave the camp. This was their first visit onto the rest of Manus Island since they arrived. Up until now, they have been locked up inside the camp 24 hours a day.

If you want to know how they were feeling before today, read the letters that we published today on New Matilda.

 

 

New Matilda Lynas Investigation: Parts 1 & 2

Posted on by
4

Several weeks ago. I was invited to meet a delegation of Malaysian citizens who came to Australia to spread the word about their campaign against Australian company Lynas’s rare earth LAMP plant which is just cranking up to process its first feedstock from the company’s Mount Weld mine in Western Australia. The event was hosted by Greens MP Jamie Parker on the same day that the group had demonstrated outside Lynas’s annual general meeting for the second year in a row.

The visitors spoke passionately about their concerns about the Lynas rare earth plant. These Malaysians, who were supported by individual Australian Malaysians and Friends of the Earth Australia, hadn’t even been consulted before Lynas was granted a construction license in 2008. Knowing how angry our community felt a couple of years ago when we heard a coal seem gas drill was coming to Tempe in inner Sydney, I listened carefully to what they had to say and decided to investigate further.

Up until that time, I knew little about Lynas. Once I started looking it was not hard to find material and sources although much of the information was contradictory and confusing at first. I wanted to interview Lynas CEO Nick Curtis but as he was not available, I had to settle for a ‘spokesperson” who regrettably preferred not to be named.

Here are the first two parts of my investigation:

Part One: The Toxic Waste’s that’s not in our backyard. New Matilda Dec. 17, 2012

Part Two:Lynas’ Waste Plans a Toxic Pipe Dream. New Matilda Dec 19, 2012

If you are interested in this story, here are some sources worth reading and following:

For Malaysian coverage, Malaysiakini is good news site. It is more independent of the government than the Malaysian mainstream media. It publishes regular updates about the controversy and the campaign. You can subscribe ( including a free trial) but many stories go up free here. I was pleased that Malaysiakini followed up on our New Matilda investigation. here and here.  Here is their latest update following my second story.

Here are some other stories. This list is a reminder of the important role independent journalism in increasingly playing in Australia.

2012

A comprehensive feature by Joel Tozer in Global Mail: What a Battle Over Rare Earths Has To Do With Your iPhone July 20, 2012

The progressive US magazine Mother Jones has also just done a big feature, Your smart phone’s dirty radioactive secret on rare earths including the clean up of radioactive waste at an old Mitsubishi plant at Bukit Merah in Malaysia, as well as Lynas.

2011

A Backgrounder from New Matilda, May 2011.

Crook, A. Lynas cops heat from protestors, shareholders over Malay refinery plans. Crikey April 18, 2011

Crook, A.  Fresh Protests as focus turns to Lynas’s radioactive dump. Crikey, May 13, 2011

Here are three important New York TImes articles including reports about how concerned engineers working on the construction were about structural defects in the building. The engineers leaked documents to the New York Times. This was a breakthrough in the Lynas story.

Bradsher, K. Taking a risk for rare earths. March 8, 2011.

Gooch, L. Environmental protest becomes rallying point In Malaysia, June 18, 2011

Bradsher, K. Fear of a toxic rerun June 29, 2011

The Campaign

Green Left supports the campaign against the Lynas LAMP and has many reports, including video on their site. Here are two but the best way to find more is to search Lynas at Green Left.

Boyle, P. Malaysians resist Oz toxic company’s toxic plan. GreenLeft, June 18, 2011

Boyle, P. Malaysia: Stop Lynas campaigners challenge company’s licence to operate. GreenLeft, August 29, 2012

Peter Boyle has also taken many photos.

Stop Lynas protest. Photo by Peter Boyle

Stop Lynas protest. Photo by Peter Boyle

Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas campaign was formed in March 2011. Its site provide links to current coverage relevant to the campaign.

The Australian Stop Lynas campaign started in response to protests in Malaysia.

Friends of the Earth Australia are also campaigning against Lynas.

The company

Lynas company site tells the story from its point of view.

You can follow  Lynas share price and company announcements, including annual reports on the Australian Stock Exchange site.

I’ll be tweeting on Lynas and expect to do more reporting on this issue.

As a reporter, this was the first time I had experienced hate messages via twitter. These were posted by Lynas supporters. I can understand why shareholders and employees could be anxious but that doesn’t mean that the truth should not come out about the LAMP project. I guess this is just part of reporting in the 21st century. I don’t like it but prefer it to verbal threats.

I’ll do another blog post soon about some of the issues raised in the Lynas campaign.

 

 

 

 

Communities planning rights under attack from NSW government

Posted on by
Reply

A big issue in the NSW state election in 2011 was the Part 3A planning law which handed development consent for many major projects over to the Minister for Planning backed up by selected panels of experts. Councils and communities felt betrayed by Labor and hoped for something better from the Liberals, who promised to return rights to the community. Now eighteen months later, those same communities and Councils are fighting proposals put forward in an O’Farrell government  Green Paper that look even worse.

Here’s my summary of the issue in New Matilda.

Big Plans for Development in NSW

 

 

 

FOI documents show NSW government ‘uncertain’ about risks of CSG

Posted on by
Reply

No Coal Seam Gas Mining In Sydney spokesperson Jactinta Green applied for documents under Freedom of Information laws ( called the Government Information (Public Access) Act) relating to the NSW drilling license approval process for coal seam gas, .

The documents she obtained showed that the NSW Department of Primary Industries was “uncertain” about environmental impacts of coal seam gas drilling in St Peters when it approved an application by Macquarie Energy, now a subsidiary of Australian multinational Dart Energy.

The drilling licence approval process relied on a department officer rating risks to the community and environment as high, medium, low or uncertain. These ratings depended on the company’s own assessment without any on site investigation.

According to the department’s St Peter approval document, dated March 2010, the drilling operation could intersect with the Botany aquifer which lies under the site. The department officer accepted the company’s claim that the drill will be “solid cased” but was “uncertain” about whether the environment could withstand the impacts, whether they could be reversed or whether the drilling complies with water standards.

Although no further studies were recommended, the officer found impacts could be “fully” mitigated.

No wonder the community is alarmed !

You can read the full story on New Matilda here.

( I have previously written ( with Nicole Gooch) about Dart Energy’s drilling operations here and here.)

CSG company Dart Energy drills for gas near NSW World Heritage area

Posted on by
Reply

I first heard about Dart Energy when I was told anti-CSG activists were campaigning against Dart Energy drilling for gas in the Inner West of Sydney where I live. I was equally surprised to learn that the NSW government had given permission to Dart to drill near the NSW village of Putty, just near a World Heritage listed wilderness area.

In August 2011, I published this report in New Matilda.

To follow the Putty campaign against CSG and other related issues subscribe to Kath McKenzie’s Putty Gasbag blog here.