Climate activist groups Beyond Zero Emissions and YCAN (Yarra Climate Action Now! are planning to hold weekly ‘rebranding’ sessions outside the office of Labor State Minister Richard Wynne all the way up to the election in November – “or until the Brumby Government implements some decent climate crisis policies!” Six similar actions were held last year, and this was the first of 2010. Response from passers-by and the rush hour traffic was positive, and the turnout more than met the needs of an avowedly ‘low maintenance action’.
Related: Coalition Climate Policy just tinkering at the edges | Rising Tide: Labor and Liberal both in denial on climate | Mildura Solar Power Plant languishes
Passers-by were offered a leaflet setting out some of the contradictions between the Government's claims and its actions:
[quote]
The Brumby Government likes to talk about taking the lead on climate change. But
they are actively supporting this way of producing electricity and the foreign
corporations that make profits from it, and not supporting renewable energy
alternatives which would cut emissions and save water. Labor’s done this by:
- Investing our money in the construction of a new coal-fired power station
in the Latrobe Valley. - Lobbying to get the owners of coal power stations more compensation from
taxpayers under an emissions trading scheme. - Accepting thousands of dollars in donations to the Labor Party from coal
corporations in return for private meetings in which coal expansion
proposals are discussed. - Investing in research in so-called ‘clean coal’ rather than genuinely clean
energy production like baseload solar and wind power that actually exist. - Going back on a promise to introduce a gross feed-in tariff which would
pay owners of solar panels for all the electricity their panels produced. - Looking into exporting dirty brown coal to countries like India.
[end quote]
and offering suggestions for individual action. (The leaflet is available from the Beyond Zero Emissions website as a PDF file )
Joining the action, but unfortunately losing the struggle with the din of Smith Street's peak hour traffic, were musicians Ducks in the Mud - http://www.myspace.com/ducksinthemud
Another session will take place next Wednesday at 5.30, 112 Smith St, Collingwood.
(There is a slightly fuller version of this report, including additional photos, on Melbourne Protests - http://melbourneprotests.wordpress.com/
