Australia: QRC Chief Executive Introduces Activist “Checklist”

Queensland Resources Council Chief Executive Michael Roche today released a checklist of coordinated activism aimed at shutting down Queensland’s export coal and gas industries.

“Two years after the strategy document Stopping the Australian Coal Export Boom was leaked to the media, it is valuable to see how the anti-coal (and coal-seam gas) campaign has unfolded in Queensland,” he said.

“For example, the strategy of mounting legal challenges to disrupt or delay new projects is well recorded with appeals in the Queensland Land Court over the Alpha coal mine project in central Queensland from a Canberra resident and an interest group with a postal address in Brisbane’s West End.

“Tactics for the so-called ‘Battle of the Galilee’ include organising landowners to help delay the development of mines and railways while noting the location of coal ports adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is seen as an opportunity for ‘alliance building’ with scientists and industries including fishing and tourism.

“The signatories to the strategy document have all contributed to campaigns high on slogans but void of science to support claims that shipping and port dredging are major threats to the environmental health of the Great Barrier Reef,” he said.

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Press Release, March 18, 2014