Byron Greens -> articles -> csg_rally_mbah

Huge Crowd for Murwillumbah Coal Seam Gas Rally

A huge crowd turned up for the anti Coal Seam gas rally held at Murwillumbah on Sunday 14th May.

Rally organisers counted around 2300 in the march, but there were many more who stayed at Knox park. We could see the beginning of the march coming down the street as the tail end was leaving the park. The march almost circled the entire block! Rally organisers were overwhelmed by the response to their call for a rally for a moratorium on coal seam gas drilling and the controversial practice called fracking.

This was the largest rally seen in the Northern Rivers for many years. In our area awareness of this issue has exploded since the beginning of this year. At this rate 100,000 will be marching in the cities in a few months.

The march was well organised and had a carnival atmosphere. At the front drummers kept up a lively samba rhythm with many chanting various anti CSG slogans. In the march were theatre troupes, fairies and many with gas masks, as well as mockups of drilling rigs.

Ordinary People Must Become Heroes

Drew Hutton co-ordinator of Lock the Gate said that hundreds of farmers in Queensland have locked the gate. Some Gas company workers have been illegally entering farmers properties for exploration. They have been ordered off and locked out.

"When our leaders fail us as the Queensland government has, the Federal Government has, and probably every State Government has,  then ordinary people have to become heroes. The absolute core of our campaign has to be "Lock the Gate". Its got to become more than a cool name, more than a symbol, as land owners lock that gate and will not even negotiate with the mining companies."

"We arrived at that point in Queensland in September last year, when a group of us came together in response to the Queensland Government approving three out of four of the giant mining leases. and the federal government had done the same. Lock the Gate alliance now has brought together about 90 community groups."

Greens MP, Jeremy Buckingham the only MP to Attend

Rally organisers had invited all the local members of parliament, Greens  Coalition and Labor, State and Federal. Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham attended and spoke to the crowd. Jeremy opened his speech by thanking the organisers for their invitation .

Jeremy opened by acknowledging traditional owners and the organisers who had invited him. He thanked the crowd for coming along and showing broad community concern, this is not   a narrow group of people here today, we have the aboriginal community, farmers, a broad  of those who recognise that this CSG industry is going to do enormous damage to us our environment our food and our future."  "So congratulations everyone for coming along. (applause)"

I can tell you what the Greens are doing in parliament both Federally and New South Wales. However there is
 some bad news. " Bob Brown recently  introduced a motion into the Senate to debate the issue of coal seam gas drilling. Unfortunately the Labor and Coalition parties both voted it down. That shows their level of interest in this issue.
So The Greens in NSW are building on this issue, there is a natural constituency and we recognise what the farmers are calling for, what the local government is calling for , and we are calling for a moratorium on coal seam gas drilling in New South Wales.