Surfrider's Damien Cole on Yesterday's PEP11 Vote
Hi there ocean lovers!
We thought we’d reach out to give you an update on what happened in parliament yesterday.
Surfrider Foundation Australia is extremely disappointed with yesterday’s result in Federal Parliament, with the Government blocking a debate on the Stopping PEP11 Bill.
If you’re interested, we’ve given you a little snapshot for you to better understand how it all went down.
Zali Steggall put up a motion to “suspended standing orders” (which essentially means the usual business is set aside to give this issue priority) to bring on debate of the Stopping PEP11 Bill. A motion to suspend standing orders must be voted on and passed by an absolute majority (more than half of the total MP’s, which is usually 76 out of 151) before the Bill can be debated. Due to COVID-19 not all MP’s were present, however the absolute majority of 76 was still needed to bring on a debate. Unfortunately the vote came in at 48-52 after a fierce debate, which got quite heated and passionate and lasted for 50 minutes.
If you’d like to see how it went down, you can watch it here. The PEP11 issue starts at 10.33am on the video.
This was the chance for the Liberal-National Government to Stop PEP11 once and for all, however they all voted against even debating it. This meant that even with the support of other crossbenchers and the Australian Labor Party, Zali Steggall‘s Bill did not amass enough support for it to proceed to a debate.
Disappointingly, Liberal MP’s Jason Falinski, Dave Sharma, Trent Zimmerman and Lucy Wicks, who have all publicly opposed PEP11, voted with their party to keep PEP11 alive and put the power back into the hands of Federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt.
You can find out exactly how your MP’s voted here.
While this is not the outcome we were hoping for, the Stopping PEP11 Bill is still alive which is good news.
So what can you do now?
1. There is every chance that Zali will try a similar thing again, so the best thing you can do is to share and sign our petition on your social media channels, which you can find here, so that when the time comes we’ve got an even louder, united voice!
2. Contact your local MP, particularly if you’re in one of the electorates who’s MP voted against debating the Bill and let them know you’re not happy. Please remember to be courteous and polite.
On our end here at Surfrider Foundation, we will continue working tirelessly to protect our incredible NSW coastline from this potentially catastrophic project.
We and the ocean thank you for your ongoing support.
Cheers!
Damien Cole
National Campaign Director
Comments
Onya Damo for trying to save us from this fucked up plan. At every turn this Gov't is fucking with our future. Go hard, I'm with you.
First time I've watched parliament siting. Off-topic what happened to separation of church and state? Opening up thanking god in parliament is utter BS. Also stuff the MP's constantly fucking this place. Voting along party lines, grow a pair your here to represent your electorate not your party. I miss the days when they hid their corruption.
They are too busy making up the next covid rules for the sheep to follow to worry about anything else.
Now now Robbo don't go all Kelly Slater on us more than anyone can bear.
Or too scared that lobbyists will kill them and their families if they don't follow-suit?
Great to see the turncoats named ...everybodys a hero till they get in the room ...good luck with with it Damo those dirty dog suit wearin lipservice mthrfkrs will do ya head in if you let em ...and good onya for naming them ....
As long as the Chinese dont own any of these oil riggs its progress.
Nothing we can do.
Gronk!
China can pretty much buy most of our politicians when ever they want. Rigs included. Sad but true.
The most powerful leaders in the world think beyond a 4 year term and their retirement package.
Oil is dead in the water! Fossil fuels are now past tense just watch what Glasgow should bring in realising this fact! Our childrens future their childrens etc relies on renewables & population controls to stabilize our climate & avoid the sixth extection event which has already begun in earnest!
&t=87s Wake up politicians a new world order is imminent!Actually it's not that simple oil demands will fall greatly moving to 2050 (predicted 70% reduction) especially with the move away from petroleum based fuels to electric powered vehicles or green hydrogen etc, although thousands of things are made from petroleum products so also needs a big switch to alternatives there too, including most surfboards and wetsuits.
Natural gas demand though, which i believe this exploration focus is on, forecast either see a rise in the next 15 years or similar levels to now before a slower fall.
Some of the reason being gas will play some part in helping the transition to renewables supporting the build up of storage solutions and acting as a safety net, plus a large growing demand from mostly the Asian market who are set to be carbon free latter than developed countries.
There's already a lot of leap frogging happening where gas is being ruled out as a transition fuel due to batteries and renewables being cheaper now.
There is a question that I want Mr. Cole to address here. If you previously profited from the oil and gas industry what right do you have to deny others the same opportunity? Im talking on an individual level here not referring to the companies themselves.
For instance although I am opposed to new gas and coal projects I can also empathise with the person in North Queensland for instance who can dramatically improve their economic prospects from mining.
Might be talking out of place here, but pretty sure Damien is a school teacher. How's he profited from the oil and gas industry?
nah not a school teacher mate...been in the school of real life....
With the shift to battery storage and renewables, which require considerable amounts of steel and materials such as copper, manganese, lithium etc, I don't think mining generally is going to suffer any time soon.
Just like the buggy-makes and farriers suffered when the motor car came along, there will be a shift away from fossil-fuel extraction which will affect everyone from rig workers to petrol stations owners. Many people also profited (or benefited) from slavery, tobacco and a whole host of other activities we've moved away from. It's also worth factoring in the detriment and disbenefit of climate change which will affect far more people than fossil fuel workers.
There has to be a sensible transition, and the sooner it starts the better off we all are. Better that is led by government than by the market which isn't known for it's soft landings.
if someone profited in the past from oil and gas...then after being educated on the damage being done, they become part of the solution in fighting against the Fossil Fuel Lobby......
The fossil fuel industry pays (lobby's , LOL) both Political Party's so that whatever Govt is in power, it does the oil Industry's bidding ....can be seen on State and Federal level....
i just tryed to share this on facebook with a note i wrote with it , do you think it got posted to the public NO .you allmost can not speck out in australia , commie goverment at its best .
Facebook is a private company, not a state entity.
It's also an American private company, nothing to do with Australian government.
Meanwhile, the current Australian government is right wing, the opposite side to 'the commies'.
Just a wee bit of grammar and spelling repairs: remember capital to start sentence and when on its lonesome, one 'l' in almost, speak not speck, government (not goverment), watch you commas, and as Stu said facebook is giant US company and our government is considered right wing. Commie stands for communist not capitalist.
watch you commas??
Don’t ya hate those people mem!
Ha I don't remember any of this from school I must have been asleep:
Comma Between Two Nouns in a Compound Subject or Object
Comma with Subjects and Verb
Comma Between Two Verbs in a Compound Predicate
Comma Splices
etc.... another 23 rules, my mind goes blank.
Good on you Damo. If we had 100 more like you the world would be a better place.
Bummer about the result but having this come up on the swellnet feed gives me hope of mainstream change.
Always knew Jason Falinski was a massive dick, this proves it once again.
The gas will mostly end up exported to the 3rd world that are breeding like roaches at an exponential rate coming to 12 billion humans in about 40 years.
This population growth is the real problem.
Climate Change is a HOAX, it is the sympton of the problem.
Ahh....more research required on this one, worlds population peaked in 1988 and has been declining ever since and, on current trends, will continue to do so into the future, but hey don't let the facts get in the way of a headline.
How do you figure that?
A quick google search
WORLD 1988 Population: 5,145,425,994
World 1998 Population 5,984,793,942
World 2008 Population 6,789,088,686
World 2018 Population 7,631,091,040
Looks like going up to me
Also, when pointing out other people's spelling errors, you should make sure your own is 100% correct.
for example "watch you commas"
I think he was implying a declining growth rate. Over that time period the growth rate every 10 years goes from 16% to 13% and then 12%.
Thanks for picking up my grammar it is woeful and I am constantly working on it as we all should. Spelling is usually reasonable. Now that is not what I took from the statistics: Every country in the world save some in Africa and India are pretty much going backwards which includes China. All western countries, birth rate wise and going backward, Africa is still rising but is levelling off as is India. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_decline
They voted to dismiss the chance to debate it. Pathetic
Hans Rowling recently passed away. If you're worried about population growth, worth considering.