Feature

Gerry Georgatos
The Warrup forest blockade by Forest Rescue Australia (FRA) has broken a long standing record in Western Australia - the blockade is eleven weeks long. It is the longest anti-logging action in 14 years, said Simon Peterffy, FRA convenor.

"For us, we have to save the largest numbat colony in WA and which is under threat of extinction, we have to save the trees, we have to protect the environment - if someone doesn't stand up then they're gone and the damage is done," said Mr Peterffy.

Gerry Georgatos
Forest Rescue Australia (FRA) has heightened its protest actions halting Warrup logging on an almost daily basis - however at the price of arrests. A Forest Products Commission (FPC) spokeswoman confirmed that protestors had entered work areas on three separate days in the last ten days and on two occasions had locked themselves on to two logging machines while work continued in other parts of the operation.

On Monday 19, FRA protestors entered the Warrup logging area and one protestor managed to lock himself on to a logging machine for 15 hours.

The vote in the Senate on the Stronger Futures Legislation is now imminent. This bill will extend the NT Intervention for another ten years and make the stripping of the rights and dignity of Indigenous people in the NT an ongoing reality. The campaign against this bill has been gathering momentum. Watch this video here on the Stand for Freedom website. Sign the petition which now has over 30,000 signatures. The Government is deliberately ignoring the consultation process in the form of the Senate Committee where communities such as Maningrida expressed their hostility to the bill. The Nygoongar Embassy has also rejected the bill instead calling for Australia to Pay the Rent. The time for action for those who want defend Indigenous rights in this country is now. Sign the petition. Write or call your Senator. There can be no reconciliation without justice.

Related: Stronger futures will kill us: Maningrida -- Stand for Freedom Campaign Website -- Stand For Freedom on Facebook -- Aboriginal Catholic Ministry: Committee report ignores concerns -- ANTaR concerned that community support was not obtained -- National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission: Stronger Futures or stronger policing -- Uniting Church disappointed by Senate report -- Senate Report -- Greens urge Senate to reject NT Intervention Expansion -- The Intervention is about mining

Gerry Georgatos

This summer the south west of Western Australia has experienced a record series of heatwaves - eight, and climate trends during the last four decades show a rise in temperatures and a drying climate. According too the Weather Bureau and CSIRO WA's south west is drying faster than other part of the country and scientists say it will have a transforming effect on agriculture and the habitats, and there will be an increased risk of bushfires.