The Sydney Climate Coalition organised a well-attended full-day conference to discuss how to build a strong enough climate movement to force Labor to act. Jim McIlroy reports.
McARTHUR RIVER MINE
Reporter Keira Jenkins travelled to Borroloola and the land nearly 100km south of Darwin on which mining giant Glencore’s McArthur River mine continues to make controversy, with traditional owners facing the poisoning of their water and wildlife.
“It is like a garden to Aboriginal people,” said Garawa elder Jack Green, who is now too scared of lead poisoning to fish in the river.
Locals say the lead and zinc mine has had an enormous impact and warn that even after it closes the environmental impact will need to be monitored for 1000 years.
Elder Josie Davey says: “I’m really worried about the mine, what they’ve done is not right. It’s my great-grandfather’s country and it hurts so much that I can’t even take my kids back there no more.”
For locals, the river and its banks are like a garden, having provided sustenance for generations.
It also has a strong spiritual significance for the local people.
Gudanji woman Josie Davey and her husband Jack Green, a Garawa man, used to fish along the banks of the river, not far from town.
Now the couple say they’re too worried to fish in their usual spots.
“All we know is that there could be something in this water,” Mr Green told The Point.
“We had a meeting here one time and they said you can eat the fish, but only as much of the size of your hand, because they reckon the fish does carry lead.”