What? Logging in national parks? Tell the Premier: 

Dear Premier

Enough is enough. No more deals with the Shooters Party.

We want science respected. We don’t want guns and bullets in our national parks. And we certainly don’t want them opened up for logging.

Our national parks are there so we, and future generations too, can enjoy and appreciate nature - they aren’t bargaining chips for deals with an extreme anti-environment minority.

Please have the courage to stand up to them. Protect our national parks. No more deals.

Yours sincerely

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Why not help build this campaign on Facebook or Twitter? Share the campaign here with your friends, or change your profile picture to send Barry a message. Download these images by clicking below.

And for the tech-savvy and creative among you, download this illustrator file of our no hunting logo and make your own!

Many MPs still haven’t publicly stated their position on the bill. Please help push them over the line by giving their office a call over the next 36 hours.

If you get a secretary, ask to speak to the Member or for them to call you back. If you’re calling after hours, you may need to leave a voice message.

Try not to get into an argument about the details of the bill. The bill has the support of experts in the field, including doctors and legal experts. It is safe, has excellent safeguards, and does exactly what it is intended to do.

Some suggestions of what to tell MPs:

1. Voluntary euthanasia law reform is compassionate: it’s about giving the terminally ill a choice to end their worst suffering at the very end of life if that is their wish
2. You expect them to vote in line with the vast majority of Australians who support the reform
3. The bill before Parliament is safe

4. You are watching how they will vote

If you have a personal story that explains why compassionate law reform for assisting dying is so important: start by telling your story.

Have you seen all the supporting documentation? If not, you can find the bill, the briefing note and a flow chart that explains how the legislation operates here.

Here is a list of MPs who haven’t indicated their support for the bill or otherwise. Please pick two or three and make your voice heard. But if you have the time and the passion, why not call them all?

• Greg Pearce (02) 9230 2428
• John Ajaka (02) 9230 2203
• Michael Gallacher (02) 9230 2302
• Niall Blair (02) 9230 2467
• Peter Phelps (02) 9230 3462
• Sarah Mitchell (02) 9230 3499
• Shaoquett Moselmane (02) 9230 2526
• Sophie Cotsis (02) 9230 2080

Shoalhaven locals are calling on the State government to revoke the renewal of Petroleum Exploration Licence 469, which will allow coal seam gas exploration in the Shoalhaven area for up to another five years.

As stated in the petition:

“Coal seam gas is no longer seen as a short term, less destructive energy source filling the gap as we transition from a fossil fuel based economy to renewable energies. The CSG industry with its fugitive emissions, government subsidies, long term destruction of productive farmland and water supplies does not contribute to the development of a stable and ecologically sustainable energy future.”

According to Cate Faehrmann, this decision by Chris Hartcher, the Liberal Minister for Resources and Energy, is “a slap in the face to the residents of Shoalhaven, as well as the broader population of NSW.”

“While Barry O’Farrell was applauded by some for his decision to restrict the areas in which coal seam gas mining could occur, it has taken no time at all for this government’s true intentions to come to light,” she says.

“By renewing this licence, Chris Hartcher has shown that his government’s earlier decision was nothing more than an attempt to deflect attention from its continued commitment to the interests of the mining industry over those of the people of NSW.”

You can sign the petition calling on the NSW government to revoke the PEL 469 licence here.

The Welfare Rights Centre was recently told – without warning – that the NSW Government’s Community Services agency would be cutting their funding at the end of the financial year, after a 30-year partnership.

Currently, the service provides vital assistance to NSW households who depend on the Welfare Rights Service to advocate a fair outcome with Centrelink. The centre employs five staff members, who have been able to help 120,000 social welfare recipients in NSW over the past 30 years.

The centre also plays an important role at a policy development level, as well as providing expert advice to charities and community organisations.

The NSW Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward MP has conceded that the Welfare Rights Centre plays an important role, although she does not believe it is her department’s responsibility to fund.

If you believe that the NSW Government ought to continue funding for this advocacy service for its most vulnerable families and individuals, then please write to the Minister to help save the Welfare Rights Centre.

Dear Minister Goward

CC: Premier O’Farrell

I write to express my disappointment with the government’s abrupt decision to cut funding to the NSW Welfare Rights Centre. This organisation plays an important role in advocating for some of our most vulnerable families and individuals when things go wrong with their welfare payments.

And we know they do.

I believe it is in the interests of the government to protect the poorest and most disadvantaged in our society. This is what the Welfare Rights Centre has been doing for over 30 years.

Minister, you have rightly acknowledged that this organisation plays an important role in our state.

I call on you to ensure that funding is restored for this vital service.

I look forward to your urgent and serious consideration of this issue.

Yours sincerely

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Greens MP Jan Barham also has a petition against the federal government’s cuts to single parent payments, which you can download and print off to collect signatures for here.

Greens MP Jamie Parker has also created a petition to present to the NSW Legislative Assembly, which you can dowload and print off here.

The Hunter has an air quality crisis. It’s time the government did something about it. 

A study into air quality just released by community groups shows unacceptably high levels of particulate pollution near coal lines and coal stockpiles in the Hunter region.

Key findings of the report, Coal dust in our suburbs: A community-led study of particle pollution in Newcastle and the Lower Hunter coal train corridor prepared by the Coal Terminal Action Group include:

• National Pollutant Inventory standards are being exceeded regularly, including all five out of five test days at the Carrington site, when normally only five exceedences per year are considered normal to account for bushfires, dust storms and so on.
• Suburbs closer to industrial infrastructure, including coal loaders and train lines, experience worse air quality (PM10 and PM2.5) compared with the existing EPA monitor in Cooks Hill.
• Average PM10 levels are generally two to four times higher in Mayfield, Mayfield East, Tighes Hill and Carrington than at Cooks Hill.

The study confirms that air quality in parts of the Hunter has reached crisis point. An urgent commitment by the O’Farrell government to bring air pollution in the Hunter under control is needed today. This study leaves no room for doubt that the government’s blind loyalty to the coal industry is negatively impacting on the Hunter community’s quality of life, particularly on people’s health.

People living near rail lines used by coal trains, coal trucks, coal stockpiles and loading areas are exposed to dangerous levels of coal dust pollution. Health impacts of the coal industry on residential areas include high rates of heart disease, high blood pressure, lung and kidney disease and increased asthma, wheezing and coughs in children.  Scientific tests link coal dust to cancer and inhalation can cause permanent scarring of lung tissues.

We need to stand together and demand action for coal-affected communities. We should no longer sit back and accept that making people sick and diseased is just part of the way the coal industry does business in NSW.

The Greens have a simple plan - Clear the Air in the Hunter that the government can commit to today.

Clear the Air in the Hunter Plan

1. A rigorous and independent health study, funded by industry, into the impacts of coal particle pollution on the community, particularly children, living within 1km of rail lines used by coal trains and the Newcastle Port.
2. An immediate suspension of the assessment for a fourth coal loader in Newcastle.
3. Covering up of all coal wagons across NSW by the end of June 2013.
4. Covering of all coal stockpiles at the Newcastle Port.
5. Commitment to a Clean Air Action Plan for the Hunter region. This plan would outline concrete steps the government and industry will take to bring air quality in the Hunter to within national standards by 2015.

 Please write to the Premier, Health Minister and Planning Minister below.

Dear Premier O'Farrell, Minister Skinner & Minister Hazzard

The Report Coal dust in our suburbs: A community-led study of particle pollution in Newcastle and the Lower Hunter coal train corridor prepared by the Coal Terminal Action Group, shows unacceptably high levels of particulate pollution near coal lines and coal stockpiles in the Hunter region.

The study confirms that air quality in parts of the Hunter has reached crisis point. Comprehensive studies from all over the world have consistently shown the clear links between coal dust pollution and serious health impacts. The impacts on children are particularly nasty.

I am calling on you to urgently enact the five point plan below:

1. A rigorous and independent health study, funded by industry, into the impacts of coal particle pollution on the community, particularly children, living within 1km of rail lines used by coal trains and the Newcastle Port.
2. An immediate suspension of the assessment of the fourth coal loader in Newcastle.
3. Covering up of all coal wagons across NSW by the end of June 2013.
4. Covering of all coal stockpiles at the Newcastle Port.
5. Commitment to a Clean Air Action Plan for the Hunter region. This plan would outline concrete steps the government and industry will take to bring air quality in the Hunter to within national standards by 2015.

Please commit to the first point of this plan as a priority. Evidence contained in this report justifies an urgent health assessment, especially for children in the area.

I look forward to your urgent and serious consideration of this issue.

Yours sincerely

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Download a copy of the report here.

Support the Greens bill for mandatory CCTV in abattoirs.

I met this calf on my travels last year. By now he could well have ended up in a NSW abattoir that is not monitored with closed circuit television.

We have all seen the sickening cruelty that takes place behind closed doors in abattoirs. We have seen Australia’s ‘live exports’ suffer in Indonesia and we have seen it in multiple exposés here in Australia.

Animal Liberation and Animals Australia have worked with whistleblowers using undercover cameras to bring routine horrific acts of cruelty to light in several Australian abattoirs.

The RSPCA is currently in court prosecuting one case that took place at an abattoir at Wilberforce, western Sydney in February 2012. In that case, cows were repeatedly bashed over the head with a metal rod and sheep were still alive and thrashing for agonising minutes after their throats were cut. Whistleblowers have to risk their personal safety and employment to secretly record and expose these cruelties.

It shouldn’t be this way. The NSW Food Authority should require mandatory CCTV in all abattoirs and should regularly inspect the footage. That way there are no ‘closed doors’ and consumers will be able to have confidence that animal welfare laws and standards are being complied with at all times – not just when the auditor visits.

Animal welfare organisations have called for this for a long time, several supermarket chains in Europe demand it of their suppliers and, while some meat processing companies have installed CCTV voluntarily, the NSW Government failed to include it in their response to the Wilberforce abattoir exposé last year. The Greens will act to stamp out such cruelty and I have given notice of a bill to make CCTV mandatory in all NSW abattoirs and knackeries.

Please contact my office if you would like a briefing and copy of the draft bill.

Please help me persuade the government to support the legislation by writing to the Primary Industries Minister the Hon Katrina Hodgkinson.

Dear Minister

Please support the Greens' bill for mandatory CCTV in abattoirs and knackeries (Food Amendment (Recording of Abattoir Operations) Bill 2013).

I do not have sufficient confidence in industry self-regulation and believe mandatory CCTV with footage regularly inspected by the NSW Food Authority is necessary to ensure animal cruelty offences do not take place in NSW abattoirs behind closed doors when auditors are not present.

Sickening cruelty has taken place behind closed doors in abattoirs. We should not have to rely on workers and animal rights activists to expose cruelty. We need to stop it before it occurs.

Yours sincerely

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