'They leave the devastation behind them' Newcastle 7

Greens MP David Shoebridge backed her up saying “Corporations like X-Strata and Rio Tinto are not victims. They are directly profiting from damaging our environment.”

When I interviewed Carly for the Beyond Zero radio show on 3CR, she told me how her group had got motivated. They were sick of the government ignoring letters and lobbying. The urgency of preventing the worst climate change was uppermost in their minds. For some of them, the way Kevin Rudd was “booted out” over the mining tax, showed them just how powerful the mining companies were. They felt that living in the world’s biggest coal exporting port imposed on them an imperative to take direct action . They hoped to get the attention of the coal companies to stop their reckless expansion, which is having such a devastating impact on the Hunter Valley and beyond. People need to know that they make the profits, “but the devastation stays here”, she said.

Coal communities suffer measurable health and environmental impacts. Beautiful food bowls are being turned into grand canyons and this is projected to double in the next decade. We are all suffering from climate change caused by greenhouse gasses, especially caused by coal use and yet the coal companies are never on trial.

So 44 people aged between 15 and 88 had trained for and participated in this non violent protest to rouse the rest of us to action.

Back in court the other narrative took over. The general manager, Mr Davidson spoke about his great concern for safety. He had a duty of care at the site where “heavy machinery is operated remotely, automatically and is often fast moving”. He had initially indicated to the police that he would not pursue monetary compensation. It had troubled him that protests were getting bolder and riskier and one day he said, “I will have to pick up the dead body”.

The court was shown two full page ads authorised by Mr Davidson, that had appeared in the Newcastle Herald on 30th and 31st January. The ads were “An open letter to the people of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley” They asked for the support of the community to appreciate the difficult position they were in, accepting that “people have a right to protest” but hoping that “protestors will reconsider their tactics and make safety and commonsense a priority”

The general manager said that he hoped the fines imposed by the court would be a deterrent. He said that his board had agreed that if compensation was awarded they would give it to charity which amounted, as the magistrate said to, “We’ve lost half a million but we don’t want it back”

Mr Davidson said he was after a change in behaviour. He had invited Rising Tide to have a coffee with him, to discuss matters but to no avail.

When I spoke to Carly later she said they had received an invitation, but thought it was inappropriate to meet while a court case was in the offing. I asked what she would have talked about in such a friendly meeting and her answer was ‘safety”!

“If we had talked to them they would have wanted to talk about safety and we’d say that we put everyone’s safety as our top priority. The issue is not with them individually, it’s about the alarming expansion of their industry at our expense. We have trained extensively to do this action and the safety of everyone onsite is ensured. The police were in harnesses too.

The real issue to discuss with Mr Davidson would be the safety of the environment. Like a doctor who wants to stop a haemorrhage, Rising Tide want to stop us loading coal 365 days a year and 24 hours a day.

The World Coal Association itself , has a climate policy published in November 2010. They want to cut emissions in the next 50 years through energy efficiencies, carbon capture and storage and investment in renewables. They will “support governments to take constructive and sustainable action on reductions of anthropogenic G.H gas emissions” and they will work with “coal users, NGO’s and other organisations.” It sounds wonderful apart from the C.C&S, but is it not a delaying tactic for 50 more years of business as usual? It’s like a doctor saying “I’ll stop this haemorrhage next week and leaving us for dead.