Media Releases

December 15, 2006

Territory and national environment groups today condemned the notion of the Northern Territory developing a uranium enrichment industry, despite apparent interest from the CLP to pursue this path.

December 1, 2006

The national environmental group Friends of the Earth Australia (FoEA) warmly welcomes the public launch of Environment Tasmania. This new group will be launched tomorrow in Launceston.

November 30, 2006

Ahead of next week's release of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties' report on proposed uranium sales to China, the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office (ASNO) has finally admitted that the US government has imposed sanctions on four Chinese firms for supplying Iran with missile-related and dual-use nuclear components.

November 28, 2006

Gellibrand residents in the Otway Ranges have recently been witness to aerial spraying of eucalypt plantations in the Charleys Creek catchment which feeds into the Gellibrand River (Warrnambool's water supply).

November 22, 2006

Given the likelihood that the Howard government has the legal power to force nuclear power reactors and nuclear waste dumps onto unwilling communities, Friends of the Earth is today calling on the government to guarantee that it will not impose nuclear facilities on unwilling communities or override state legislation banning nuclear plants.

November 17, 2006

The commitment by the Victorian ALP to new River Red Gum National Parks along the River Murray and its tributaries has been cautiously welcomed today by leading conservation groups.

November 17, 2006

Senator Ian Campbell should be reflecting on the approach of the Australian government to climate change as he travels home from the International Climate Change negotiations in Nairobi.

November 13, 2006

Federal industry minister Ian Macfarlane will this afternoon release the report of the Uranium Industry Framework Steering Group, which will include numerous recommendations to expand Australia's uranium mining industry.

November 09, 2006

[Nairobi, Kenya] The Australian government delegation is still using its position as a signatory to the UNFCCC manipulate and obscure the intentions and principles of the International Climate Change Convention.

October 30, 2006

The Stern report, written by UK economist Sir Nicholas Stern for the British Government,  and released this week, says drought and floods could render large areas of the planet uninhabitable, turning 200 million people into refugees. This would form the largest migration in human history.

October 13, 2006

Environmental groups Friends of the Earth and Friends of Gippsland Bush welcome the Victorian State Government's decision to buy back key wet forest and rainforest areas in the Strzelecki Ranges, known as the Cores and Links.

October 10, 2006

Environmentalists will stage a slap-stick circus performance for Premier Bracks today, in which beauty pageant winner Miss Management plays the government’s star red gum forest manager. Scott Free will be on hand to wipe away cases of illegal logging blunders with his trusty internal inquiries.

September 27, 2006

September 27, 2006 is the 50th anniversary of the first nuclear bomb test at Maralinga in South Australia, with commemorations to be held across the country.

A total of seven nuclear bombs were tested at Maralinga, the first of which was similar in size to the 'Fat Man' plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki during World War II.

September 25, 2006

Thirty conservationists have shut down logging operations in the Goongerah township water catchment east of Melbourne.

Logging operations have been halted by three tree platforms suspended in the canopy, as well as a tripod stopping access to the forest in which logging was taking place.

September 13, 2006

The new National Nanotechnology Strategy Taskforce report "Options for a National Nanotechnology Strategy", released yesterday by Industry Minister Macfarlane, fails to address the most significant public interests issues raised by nanotechnology, suggesting that the Federal Government is setting itself up for a repeat of the backlash that greeted genetically engineered foods.

September 1, 2006

Uranium mining is unnecessary, unsafe and unpopular and has no place in Queensland according to a broad group of community representatives who have today called on all parties to rule out uranium mining ahead of the state election.

August 30, 2006

Communities Unite to Oppose National Nuclear Waste Dump

People in cities across Australia will today target Parsons Brinckerhoff - the private company contracted to assess the Federal Government’s proposed sites for a Commonwealth nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory.

August 18, 2006

Friends of the Earth today condemned the Victorian Liberal’s promise to wind back the state’s renewable energy target.

“It appears the Liberals are so desperate to claw back votes this election that they are prepared to sacrifice rural Victoria to do it,” said Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth Campaigns Coordinator.

August 16, 2006

Friends of the Earth Australia questions the appropriateness of the development of a carbon trading scheme between state governments announced today as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

August 09, 2006

Friends Of The Earth Australia
Association Of World Citizens

Peace groups and parliamentarians from around the world have come together in an appeal for peace in the Middle East. The appeal for peace, faxed yesterday from Sydney to the UN Security Council, calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities. The appeal was coordinated by Friends of the Earth in conjunction with the Association of World Citizens.

August 06, 2006

Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia)

Friends of the Earth Adelaide

On Sunday 6 August, doctors, medical practitioners, students and concerned citizens will be conducting an action in Rundle Mall to mark the 61st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and draw attention to the continuing threat of nuclear weapons.

July 25, 2006

Kim Beazley’s back flip on uranium mines is out of step not only with Labor party policy but the Australian public and Labor voters as well, Friends of the Earth said today.

July 17, 2006

A substantial crowd gathered in Brunswick today to await the expected announcement on Victoria’s forests by Environment Minister  John Thwaites at a press conference at noon.

July 12, 2006

The Friends of the Earth and New Economics Foundation report – the Happy Planet Index - ranks Australia 139th of 178 nations and reveals for the first time that happiness doesn't have to cost the Earth, but many countries are treating it as though it does.

June 30, 2006

Friends of the Earth Adelaide
120 Wakefield Street, Adelaide SA 5000

Friends of the Earth Adelaide will be staging a mock wedding between the South Australian Government and the nuclear industry on the steps of Parliament House this Friday 30 June, from 9.30am.

June 15, 2006

It has been revealed that last Thursday night a rupture of a fission gas trap attached to a hot cell at the Lucas Heights reactor caused a release of radioactive contamination. One worker was exposed. Some radioactive release from the stack has been reported.

June 5, 2006

Barmah Forest will continue to be trashed by cattle for at least the next 3 years after Minister Thwaites said today he would suppress a new grazing policy his department planned to release in June last year.

May 26, 2006

Friends of the Earth and Food Irradiation Watch will today at 10.30am officially launch Australia’s first-ever guide to eating irradiation-free food.

The Irradiation-free Food Guide is a complete consumer’s guide to the impacts and potential dangers of irradiation, alternatives to irradiation, and Australian food companies’ practices and attitudes towards irradiation.

May 18, 2006

Friends of the Earth report highlights unregulated risks of nanoparticles in cosmetics and sunscreens

Engineered nanoparticles are being used in virtually every type of personal care product on the market, from sunscreens and anti-aging creams to shampoos and toothpastes, despite preliminary scientific evidence that many types of nanoparticles can be toxic.

May 8, 2006

Australia’s major environment groups have today reaffirmed their united opposition to uranium mining and exports, and to nuclear energy as a solution to climate change, on the eve of the Federal Environment Minister’s report to the United Nations on Australia’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

April 17, 2006

This Easter weekend over 100 people converged peacefully at Lake Cowal for RAIN Corroboree in central western NSW stopping work on a massive gold mine on the edge of the lake for over 5 hours. Eight supporters for the protection of Lake Cowal were arrested.

April 4, 2006

Buried in the fine print of documents released by the Howard government yesterday is an acknowledgment that the Chinese regime need not subject a single ounce of Australian uranium to safeguards inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and can freely use it to produce nuclear weapons.

March 31, 2006

With Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visiting Australia this Saturday-Tuesday, medical and environmental groups are today releasing a statement opposing uranium exports to China. The statement is endorsed by the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, Friends of the Earth, the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Public Health Association of Australia, Queensland Conservation Council, Environment Centre of the Northern Territory, and the Arids Lands Environment Centre (Alice Springs). It is posted at: <www.geocities.com/jimgreen3/chinauran.html>,

March 16, 2006

The Environment Centre of the NT (ECNT), the Australian Conservation Foundation and Friends of the Earth have criticized  the Federal government’s recently created Uranium Industry Framework steering committee, meeting in Darwin today, for avoiding a range of important issues relating to the nuclear industry.

March 1, 2006

-WTO ruling does not prevent countries from restricting or banning GM foods-

BRUSSELS (BELGIUM) / WASHINGTON DC (US) 28 February 2006 – Friends of the Earth International made available online today a confidential World Trade Organization ruling on the trade dispute on biotech, or genetically modified (GM) foods. [1]

February 17, 2006

Adelaide is once again part of the world’s biggest environmental and social justice network. Friends of the Earth (FoE) is being launched in South Australia with a particular focus on promoting sustainable, socially and ecologically conscious technologies as an alternative to the nuclear industry.

February 10, 2006

Environmentalists have returned this morning to block logging operations in an area of extremely high conservation value north east of Melbourne.

February 1, 2006

The Mayor of Byron Shire, Cr Jan Barham, will launch the Peacebus Cyanide Watch campaign with a colourful ceremony at:

noon Friday 3 February 2006
in Prestons Lane Tyagarah (great view of Byron Bay!)

Cyanide Watch aims to stop the transport of cyanide to the Lake Cowal gold mine near West Wyalong in central NSW.

January 25, 2006

Gippsland conservation group Friends of Gippsland Bush (FoGB), have taken unprecedented legal action against a subsidiary of Canadian based MFC Global Investment Management*. The action has been taken against Grand Ridge Plantations, a subsidiary company of Hancock Timber Resource Group, who come under the corporate umbrella of MFC Global Investment Management. 

January 10, 2006

Friends of the Earth, Australia (FoEA) rejects the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate as a thinly-veiled attempt by some of the world's worst greenhouse polluters to destroy the Kyoto Protocol.