The long awaited final report from the House of Representatives Inquiry into environmental organisations has now been released. Many in the community had anticipated that the report would recommend changes that would severely limit the activities of environmental groups. Sadly, this is the case.

For background on this report and the political agenda against the environment movement, please check here.

The report acknowledges that environment groups are doing an important and necessary job in protecting our precious environment. However, it contains a number of deeply flawed recommendations, which if implemented would profoundly change the environmental protection movement in Australia.

Friends of the Earth Brisbane applauds the federal government decision to drop 5 sites, including one in Queensland, from its list of sites nominated to house national nuclear waste.  We now call on the government to remove the final site, Barndioota station, in SA from consideration and to drop the flawed site selection process immediately.

After announcing a list of 6 proposed sites in November, 2015, the federal government will reportedly  announce that a site in South Australia is the only site short-listed to house a new national nuclear waste repository.  The proposed site in Queensland, at OmanAma, near Inglewoood on the Darling Downs, and 4 other nominates sites in NSW, SA and NT are reported to have been dropped from the list.

APRIL 18, 2016: Responding to the breaking news that the State Government of Queensland in Australia has just implemented an immediate ban on all underground coal gasification in that State, Chloe Aldenhoven, Coal and Gas Spokesperson for Friends of the Earth (FoE) Australia said:

"These kind of radical and dangerous mining techniques show the desperation of a fossil fuel industry going into decline.

“We need an international moratorium on this madman technology before it inflicts any more damage on people and the environment."

“As they anticipate the inevitable transition to renewable energy, mining companies are inflicting increasingly reckless and environmentally damaging mining techniques on communities.

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secret trade agreement that will adversely affect the environment, worker’s rights, cost of medicines, internet freedoms, food safety, intellectual property rights and indigenous rights.

Friends of the Earth Australia (FoEA) has long warned that the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) chapter in the TPP agreement will potentially allow corporations to override our domestic laws and enable foreign corporations to sue our Government if we implement policy and legislation that may impact the ‘future profitability’ of a corporation.

FoEA campaigner Cam Walker said "Tobacco giant Phillip Morris has already launched a lawsuit against the Australian government in relation to the introduction of plain-packaging laws. Thankfully this was not successful. However, the TPP could open the door to similar lawsuits under the TPP ISDS clause".

Royal Commission vs Community Permission

MEDIA RELEASE, 17 December 2015

National and state environment groups have today released an assessment of the state Royal Commission into the nuclear industry in SA. The report – commissioned by Conservation SA, the Australian Conservation Foundation and Friends of the Earth Australia – looks at the Commission’s progress since its surprise unveiling by Premier Jay Weatherill ten months ago.

The report raises serious concerns about the Royal Commission, from the unrepresentative and unbalanced composition of the Expert Advisory Committee, conflicts of interest, the Royal Commission's unwillingness to correct factual errors, to a repeated pattern of pro-nuclear claims being uncritically accepted and promoted.

The Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA) is appalled by the Senate vote (Thursday 19 March) not to repeal the Commonwealth radioactive Waste Management Act -2005 (CRWMA).  Labor Senators voted not to repeal this act, despite it being one of their firm election promises.  Only the Greens voted to repeal it, on a day in the senate where such things as Alcopops Tax and Workchoices were more prominent and nuke waste dumps almost slipped totally under the radar.