David Pocock is an Australian rugby union player. He is the current Brumbies and Wallabies openside flanker and lucky for all of us he is also an active protestor.
After last Novembers arrest, David Pocock is now facing charges including
Entering enclosed lands without a lawful
excuse.
Hindering the working of mining equipment - these charges coming after chaining
himself to a digger for 10 hours. Him and Phil Laird did this action as part of a blockade at the Maules
Creek coal mine in the Leard's State Forest North West NSW back in November of 2014.
Upper Maules Creek Mine NSW
He fronted court and the case was adjourned and David is to return to court on the 13th February 2015.
He said on twitter that he was not talking to media about this and instead he released a self written statement on his Tumblr Blog titled "David Pocock". Read his Statement HERE
The troubling tale of Whitehaven Coal, a government department with a very unfortunate acronym, and a green group that never was. Thom Mitchell reports.
The NSW Government is investigating the presence of a ‘ghost’ green group after revelations mining giant Whitehaven Coal has been operating a key consultation panel without environmental oversight for more than a year.
That panel – the Maules Creek Community Consultative Committee (CCC) – signed off on a Biodiversity Management Plan (BMP) which is now the subject of an ongoing legal battle.
The plan, environmentalists say, does not adequately protect one of the nation’s most vulnerable ecosystems from the open-cut coal project, and did not provide proper avenues for community consultation.
Documents obtained by New Matilda reveal that Whitehaven Coal was directed by the Department of Planning & Environment (DoPE) in June last year to ensure it had suitable environmental representation on the community panel for the $767 million coal project.
A senior official, writing on behalf of the Director General of DoPE, warned Whitehaven Coal “that the intention of including a representative from an environmental special interest group is to ensure sufficient comment and feedback on biodiversity issues”.
The DoPE was concerned after it learned Whitehaven’s nominated environmental group, Greening Australia, had not shown up to the inaugural meeting of the Maules Creek CCC, where the Biodviersity Management Plan (BMP) was the main topic of discussion.
The DoPE directed Whitehaven to ensure that Greening Australia “be afforded the opportunity to provide comments on the BMP, either in writing or at the next CCC meeting”.
More than a year down the track, the company’s published minutes reveal no environmental group has ever attended a single meeting of the Maules Creek CCC.
But further documents obtained by New Matilda reveal that those minutes record Greening Australia as having offered its apologies for non-attendance.
Greening Australia says it has never, on any occasion, given apologies for not attending meetings with Whitehaven, because it never even knew the meetings were being held.
In a scathing letter to Whitehaven Coal dated August 21, 2014, a copy which has been obtained by New Matilda, a senior Greening Australia official says he is “extremely disappointed” with Whitehaven Coal’s conduct and formally resigns from the Maules Creek CCC, describing the minutes as “an inappropriate record” on the grounds that “Greening Australia was noted in the minutes as an apology”
“… Clearly we had no knowledge of any meeting being held between August 2013 and August 2014 and would ask that you strike any reference to Greening Australia accordingly,” the official writes.
Whitehaven Coal is chaired by former Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile, the long-time Nationals member for the seat of Lyne, on the north coast of NSW.
The Maules Creek CCC is chaired by Vaile’s former National Party colleague, John Turner, a one-time NSW shadow minister for mining whose state seat overlapped Vaile’s.
Mr Turner did not respond to repeated requests for an interview with New Matilda, nor did he respond to a detailed list of questions about how the minutes came to wrongly record apologies from Greening Australia.
A spokesperson for Whitehaven Coal also declined to explain the discrepancy, but issued a written statement defending the company.
“We have written to the Department to explain our position on this matter, as is proper under the circumstances,” the spokesperson said
“It is appropriate that the Department consider the company’s position and we will continue to work closely with them to ensure that our community consultation obligations are being met.
“Maules Creek has been through one of the most intense and rigorous
processes of regulatory, legal and public scrutiny for a project of its size. Any suggestion to the contrary is wrong.”
NSW Greens parliamentarian, David Shoebridge has written to the NSW Minister for Planning & Environment, Pru Goward demanding that operations at Whitehaven Coal cease until the issue is resolved.
“Where, as here, there is evidence of systemic failure in the implementation of a key planning condition it is essential that you, as Minister, intervene to halt the operations of this mine until this matter is addressed,” Mr Shoebridge wrote.
“This would of necessity require an independent inquiry into the failings of the [Maules Creek] CCC and scrutiny of the decisions of the CCC given the prima facie evidence [of a discrepancy] and failure to comply with the directions and conditions issued by the Department of Planning.”
The Maules Creek mine, still under construction, will fall within the Leard State Forest in the north west of NSW, a wilderness area that is home to the largest remaining patch of critically endangered Box-Gum Grassy Woodland in NSW, an ecosystem of which just 0.01 per cent remains.
The iconic Leard State Forest, pictured in the early morning. Image courtesy of Tim Bergen
Whitehaven’s troubled Biodiversity Management Plan (BMP) has hit more than just a political hurdle over the disputed minutes.
The BMP is now facing a three-pronged attack – in the NSW parliament, in the courts,
and on the ground, where environmentalists, activists, farmers and local residents have maintained a protest camp for more than two years, with almost 250 arrests.
Local community group – Maules Creek Community Council – has commenced legal proceedings in the Land & Environment Court, arguing that threatened species are “likely to be slaughtered in their nests” because under the BMP, Whitehaven is seeking to clear the forest at a time when fauna are at their most vulnerable.
“The question is: Why is the miner applying for, and the DoPE
considering, allowing clearing in spring for this year, when they accept
that in the future it is not acceptable to clear at that time?”
the group said in a written statement issued earlier this week.
“Is the NSW Government changing the rules to allow unnecessary harm to threatened species to suit a coal mining company?”
The open cut mining project has also come under assault from environmentalists, who say the Leard should be off-limits to mining.
Ecologist Phil Spark has studied the Leard State Forest extensively. He told New Matilda that the region was “unique” and “irreplaceable”.
“The 28 threatened species known to occur (in the Leard State Forest)
is a very high number, higher than that found in many of our National
Parks,” Mr Spark said.
“The reason it’s so high is because many of the species are dependent on the Box–Gum Grassy Woodland
Local residents have also raised concerns about the DoPE’s failure to ensure proper compliance.
Peter Watson, a local farmer who serves on the Maules Creek CCC said the Department of Planning & Environment needs to ensure that due process is followed when changes are made to the mine’s Management Plans.
“If there is a requirement for an environmental representative on the CCC then the planning department compliance team needs to ensure that a proper person is appointed, and ultimately that they be present.”
Nic Clyde, a senior climate campaigner with Greenpeace Australia agrees that Leard boasts enormous biodiversity value. He was scathing of the approval process for Maules Creek, saying it was now “so mired in questions” that construction for the mine should cease while the process is audited.
“NSW Planning and Environment and Whitehaven Coal are both responsible for this debacle,” Mr Clyde said. “There’s a very good reason why an environment group should have been represented on the CCC. The Leard State Forest is a sensitive
environmental area that 85 per cent of the NSW community thinks should be out of reach to coal miners.” “This is a project that should never have been allowed.” New Matilda’s investigation into Whitehaven Coal and the operations of the Maules Creek Mine will continue next week.
Australia’s Whitehaven Coal Ltd. said Friday it needs to restructure
debt on a 10-figure lending facility after permitting delays and
environmental litigation on its biggest growth project, the AU$767
million ($735 million) Maules Creek mine, left it vulnerable to missing
payment deadlines.
The disclosure comes as Whitehaven’s stock has
tumbled 44 percent on the year, brought on mainly by soft coal prices
that have only recently ticked up amid higher import demand in China and
the Pacific market.
The Maules Creek project, a planned open-cut coal.
SAVE THE AREA AROUND KAPUTAR .... it is sacred ground.
I find it easy to see him as a hero. This is the new platform people have to take to fight this corporate tyranny from the levels it has risen to. Below is an interview with Jonathon himself who says Jail is not as scary as a Coal Mine at Maules Creek is. He is a hero for the planet. The planet will take care of him. He has faith so strong this lad.
Published on 9 Jan 2013
SBS reporter Ricardo Goncalves
speaks to anti-coal activist Jonathan Moylan who earlier this week
issued a media release purportedly from the ANZ Bank withdrawing a $1.2
billion loan to Whitehaven Coal, which is developing a project in Maules
Creek in the Gunnedah Basin.
Over the past month, there has been a great deal of talk about why I -
a young translator from Newcastle - would risk jail to expose ANZ's
investment in Whitehaven's Maules Creek coal project. But a more
important verdict is expected to be passed down next Thursday, when the
federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke, is tipped to make a decision
on the expansion of Idemitsu's Boggabri coalmine and Whitehaven's Maules
Creek mine.
For the past few years, Maules Creek farmers have shown a
great deal of courage in their attempts to prevent the biggest expansion
of the coal industry in NSW. The increase in deadly coal dust, the draw
down and potential contamination of the aquifer and loss of thousands
of hectares of critically endangered forest threatens farmlands and
animals such as koalas, not to mention people.
Rather than requiring the mine to rehabilitate the forest
after 21 years, the state government has approved a plan that would
leave a final void, or pit lake, that would drain the water table for
1000 years. Those are Whitehaven's calculations, not mine.
The Iroquois people of North America survived by asking how
people seven generations ahead would be affected by their actions - but
here, hundreds of generations will be affected. The compromise offered
by the Maules Creek community, underground mining, was dismissed out of
hand by the industry and the Planning Department on the basis that it
would not be as profitable.
Most people would have given up and rolled over by now but the
community has pushed on. Despite letters, research, submissions,
meetings with ministers, rallies and direct action, they failed to
receive the attention they deserved. Farmers have found that when a coal
or gas company comes knocking on your door wanting to buy your land,
you have little choice - if you refuse, the value of your property will
plummet and the company can eventually resort to compulsory acquisition.
Over my lifetime, I have seen the world's largest coal export
port - my home town of Newcastle - expand rapidly, doubling its output
in 15 years, with an accompanying increase in dust, asthma and
respiratory illnesses. Current expansions would double coal exports
again. It would be irresponsible and irrational for me to do nothing
about this. The coal expansion in the Liverpool Plains will directly
affect me and my home town.
I joined the Front Line Action on Coal blockade in Leard
State Forest because I believed that the Maules Creek community deserves
our support. We will curse ourselves in the future if we are too
cowardly to meet the challenge of rapid coal mining expansion with the
response it requires today. Clicking ''like'' on Facebook will not be
enough to save our health, forests, farmlands and climate.
The NSW approval for the Maules Creek mine was given by an
unelected committee, the Planning Assessment Commission, which failed to
assess cumulative impacts as required by the Director-General of
Planning. A convoluted process initiated by the O'Farrell government
prevents mine approvals from being challenged on their merits in court.
Cut off from a democratic remedy, it is little wonder that communities
across NSW and Queensland are standing in front of bulldozers and
chaining themselves to gates. And sometimes, as we saw in Felton,
Queensland, this month, the community wins.
Whitehaven is a company with political influence that small
communities can hardly match. The chairman, Mark Vaile, is a former
deputy prime minister and former leader of the Nationals. The main
lobbyist, Liam Bathgate, is Barry O'Farrell's former chief of staff and
ex-general secretary of the Nationals.
The industry as a whole, which employs less than 2 per cent
of the population and directly affects larger industries such as
agriculture, tourism and manufacturing, has shown its willingness to use
its clout to oust the prime minister (remember what happened to Kevin
Rudd during the mining tax debacle), silence its opponents and impose
its preferred policies whenever its interests are under threat.
This conflict transcends politics and has brought together
people from all walks of life. Last week's heatwaves and bushfires have
thrown light on a greater threat. Allowing a massive expansion of the
coal and gas industries when we need to invest in renewable energy means
we are playing dangerous experiments with the Earth's natural systems,
which we do not fully understand.
We are living in a dream world if we think that politicians
and the business world are going to sort out the problem of coal
expansion on their own. History shows us that when power relations are
unevenly matched, change always comes from below. Every right we have
has come from ordinary people doing extraordinary things and the time to
act is rapidly running out.
Life, water, health and climate are things you cannot put a
price on. For Maules Creek, it is up to Burke to pass sentence. In
terms of the bigger picture, it's up to us. Jonathan Moylan is a member of Front Line Action on Coal.
