At 12:30, we'll March up Collins St for a 1pm media conference on the steps of Parliament House.
At 2pm we're going to go into the gallery to watch Greg Barber MP ask questions of the government in relation to this disaster.
On the 9th February, disaster struck the Latrobe Valley. A bushfire surging from Hernes Oak on an extreme fire day is said to be what sparked a fire in a disused part of an open cut brown coal mine owned by GDF SUEZ Australian Energy.
It has come to light that this part of the mine was supposed to be capped and re-mediated to prevent fire… but it was not. It has come to light that there should have been fire safety infrastructure in place while the coal was exposed… but it was not.
The township of Morwell and surrounding areas were continuously exposed to sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and PM2.5 particulates for over ten days before any sort of (extremely limited) funds were made available from the government. Masks were not distributed by the government, it was left up to charities and local pharmacists. Transportation and civic shelter was not offered until well after smoke and particulate exposure had reached dangerous levels.
Why are there huge gaps in the EPA data? What do they not want us to know? We demand that we have access to ALL of the information to what we are breathing in every day.
Latrobe Regional Hospital is underfunded at the best of times, and with a surge of respiratory ailments even more so - we demand increased funding to the hospital.
We are told to leave by governing bodies but were given no real assistance to do so. We demand the government to stop ignoring us and give us real option for our future, our health and our families.
What we are fighting for is full accountability from GDF Suez for placing the bottom line before the safety of the community that has supported them - we want answers, We demand to know why the mine was not capped? Where did the sprinkler infrastructure go.
We demand that we need to be compensated for loss of housing value, loss of income, relocation expenses and medical expenses, now and in the future.
We call upon union support and the support of community organisations to mobilise for this rally.
On Sunday 2nd March we marched as one community, one voice united against the government's inaction, against the negligence of GDF Seuz, their silence was deafening to our cries! they refused to come to us, they refuse to support us so we are going to them!! we will show them the faces of the people whose lives they are playing with. We need each and every human face burned into their minds so that they know that it is PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS