Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced a permanent ban on the exploration and development of all onshore unconventional gas in Victoria, including hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) and coal seam gas. Victoria is the first Australian state to ban onshore fracking.
Permanent #VicGasBan a win for people power, agriculture and #climate reports @takvera
August 30, 2016
Lessons from the Fracking Front Line – How #protectgloucester beat AGL by @coolmccool
February 19, 2016
Earlier this month AGL announced that it was pulling out of the beautiful Gloucester valley in NSW and ceasing its controversial CSG (coal seam gas) operations. Although AGL maintained that it had made the decision on purely economic grounds, local environmentalists claim otherwise. The community involved in the anti-CSG campaign gathered recently in Gloucester to celebrate a momentous victory, and to reflect on their success. Many people said they had mixed emotions, as they recalled a long and bitter struggle, from the early days of the campaign when things looked desperately bleak, through disappointments, set-backs, and periods of despair when their carefully documented concerns were simply ignored by the official […]
Pt 2 Qld election blog 2015 – #qldvotes #qldpol: @Qldaah
January 18, 2015
(Jump to comments section) Jump to latest blog entry. Welcome to part 2 of the Queensland election coverage. The below entries cover the period from January 17 – 21. To follow the Twitter stream, see #qldvotes. List of Qld election blogs Jan 06 – Jan 16: Pt 1 Qld election blog 2015. Jan 17 – Jan 21: Pt 2 Qld election blog 2015. Jan 22 – Jan 25: Pt 3 Qld election blog 2015. Jan 26 – Jan 28: Pt 4 Qld election blog 2015. Jan 29 – Jan 30: Pt 5 Qld election blog 2015. Jan 31 – Feb 02: Pt 6 Qld election blog 2015. Feb 03 – Feb 05: Pt 7 […]
Fancy a holiday in the gas fields? @1EarthMedia comments
January 17, 2014
By Mark Anning @1EarthMedia 17th January 2014 In assessing AGL and Panagea Resources’ plans to place gas wells on farms and near residences in the Gloucester Basin and Manning Valley, it is difficult not to conclude that the industrialisation of farmland in the region is incompatible with existing sustainable industries. Many millions of dollars has been spent over many decades by private businesses and government building sustainable industries in the region, such as tourism, wine, thoroughbred horses and agriculture. All these are under threat as gas companies enforce their existing legal right to enter land to begin drilling. Here’s the reality for anybody not in the pocket of the mining industry: […]
#CSG pilot project winds up: @stephaniedale22 reports
November 16, 2013
By Stephanie Dale No Fibs CSG editor The pilot No Fibs CSG citizen journalism project is winding up. It’s been an absolutely wonderful project to be involved in – in just four weeks we’ve harnessed the talents of 13 new citizen journalists and triggered the interest of many more. We’ve introduced new writers and showcased new voices in the public news arena. We’ve claimed news space in a highly competitive field, sparking the attention of mainstream news media with CJ Mark Anning‘s piece exposing former Workplace Relations Minister and ABC commentator Peter Reith’s conflicts of interest in the CSG debate. We’ve inspired citizens with no prior writing experience to tap […]
Ad blitz masks truth of boom industry – Jason Egbars @jasonegbars reports
November 12, 2013
By Jason Egbars Queensland commuters have been hit with an advertising blitz as the coal seam gas industry prepares to increase operations in Queensland. On Friday, Shell banners adorned a walkway to Brisbane’s Central Station. The banners made reference to ‘cleaner electricity’ and encouraged passersby to ‘find out why we’re investing in natural gas’. Shell-owned Arrow Energy plans to invest in the lucrative gas export industry currently being set up by ConocoPhillips-Origin, Santos, and QGC on Curtis Island near Gladstone. It will be the biggest of its kind for Arrow, which currently has coal seam gas wells in Eastern Australia’s Surat and Bowen basins. Coal seam gas, exported as LNG, […]
#CSG: Conspiracies, mouthpieces and independence: Mark Anning @1earthmedia reports
November 7, 2013
By Mark Anning On 28 July 2013, the oil and gas industry peak body – Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) – issued a press release, stating: “The recent coal seam gas episode of ABC 2’s Shitsville Express was a pleasant surprise – a balanced piece of reporting on coal seam gas.” Shitsville Express is hosted by Joe Hildebrand, who, according to his Daily Telegraph Google blurb, writes ‘opinion commentary’. Is Joe Hildebrand an opinion commentator? A comedian? Is he a PR man? Or is he a journalist – as described by his Daily Telegraph bio – bound by the MEAA journalists’ code of ethics? The day after Shitsville […]
Conflicts of interest, Tara data and baseline studies: Katherine Marchment reports
October 24, 2013
[clear] By Katherine Marchment CSG is suspected to have negative impacts on the environment (water, air and soil), as well as economically and on human and animal health. The information that can be accessed about this is too abundant for one article. Therefore, for the purposes of this article, I will concentrate only on the health impacts on residents of the Tara Estates in Queensland, which a report by Queensland Health states are unrelated to the gas fields around them. Below is a table of some gasses that have been shown by the Australian Government National Pollutant Inventory to have been emitted from compressor stations around Tara. Known health effects of […]
Emerging democracy and the No Fibs Vision: @stephaniedale22 reports
October 21, 2013
By Stephanie Dale No Fibs – we’re a citizen journalism experiment emboldened by the success of our coverage in the 2013 federal election campaign. And we’re turning our attentions to the robust CSG movement that has emerged along Australia’s east coast. It’s true. We’re upstarts, punching above our weight. During the recent election we had around 25 citizen journalists – CJs – covering their local electorates around the nation. We were the first media to understand that the Voice for Indi campaign, an organised, strategised community-driven bid to unseat the sitting Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella, was on the verge of success. Being community-driven ourselves, we recognised our own. Numerous No […]
