Protesters blockade Xstrata coalmine

Members of climate action group NoPlanetB.org blocked the haulage of coal from Xstrata’s West Wallsend underground mine for several hours on May 30.

A climber was suspended in a tunnel entrance on a haul road, used for transferring coal to the port of Newcastle. Others stood in front of trucks.

The group sought to raise its concern about the demands from the coal industry, including Xstrata, that pollution from coalmines be exempt from the federal government’s proposed carbon tax.

The coal industry already receives billions of dollars in public subsidies. Xstrata is one of Australia’s top 10 polluters — its Australian operations emit more than six million tonnes of carbon a year.

NoPlanetB.org spokesperson Jonathan Moylan said the coal industry hurt local industries and was the biggest human cause of climate change.

“Australians are sick of paying for our climate to be jeopardised by outdated industries like coal,” he said.

Moylan also criticized the hundreds of millions of dollars coal companies receive from the government each year in fuel tax credits.

“Diesel subsidies are lining the pockets of rich coal companies at the expense of every other industry in the Hunter,” he said. “Few realise that our biggest polluters are paying 38 cents per litre less than Australians pay at the bowser.

“It’s time for Xstrata to stop crying poor and get off the public purse.”

The group said Xstrata paid its CEO $14 million in 2009 — about the same as the median wage of 129 miners.

[For more details visit noplanetb.org ]

From GLW issue 882