The Barmah-Millewa Collective has been working closely with Indigenous and environmental organisations to push for a fundamental reform in water management: recognition of the water rights of Australia's First Nations. Read on for an article by campaigner Will Mooney that appeared in the most recent Chain Reaction magazine. 

MEDIA RELEASE – 3 June, 2014

Friends of the Earth call on Premier Denis Napthine to clarify the Victorian government’s position on the Renewable Energy Target.

Join us to rally for public transport not traffic for our city!

Fund public transport, not the East-West Link.

Saturday 28 June at 1pm

Support Muckaty Traditional Owners on World Environment Day

For the past seven years there has been sustained community opposition to a federal government plan to dump Australia's radioactive waste on Aboriginal land at Muckaty in the Northern Territory.

Now Traditional Owners opposed to the dump plan are taking their case to the Federal Court with a trial starting on June 2 in Melbourne.

Friends of the Earth (FoE) has welcomed the Victorian government’s announcement that it will put the brakes on the onshore gas sector for 12 months.

Energy Minister Russell Northe will today knock back the approval of work plan applications for exploratory drilling activities until the community consultation process on coal seam gas is completed in late 2015.

PLEASE NOTE that today's planned ride has been cancelled as a result of yesterday's announcement by the government.

On thursday May 29, community members from Seaspray in Gippsland will ride horses up Bourke Street to Parliament to announce their intention to blockade oil and gas drilling.

Please show your support by greeting them at Parliament at 1pm.

Friends of the Earth are shocked by the Essential Services Commission's decision to grant Alcoa a license to pollute, ignoring the wishes of Anglesea residents who want the coal power plant closed.

Victory! But the struggle goes on.

From 2011 until 2017, Friends of the Earth played a key role in the successful campaign to:

• win a permanent ban on the process of fracking (a dangerous drilling method used to access unconventional forms of gas),
• win a moratorium on all onshore conventional gas drilling and exploration, and
• see off a number of plans for new coal mines in Victoria.

Now in 2019, we're working to see a halt to government plans to open up ew sections of Victoria to gas drilling.

Stopping new fossil fuel projects.

Offshore: While many people are aware of plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight, they may not know about the gas fields being opened up offshore in Victoria. We are working to oppose these new operations. A simple thing would be to sign our petition to the premier calling on the government to cancel the development of this gas.

Onshore: From 2011 until 2017, the Victorian community, especially regional communities in the south of the state, campaigned hard to win the ban on fracking and the moratorium on onshore conventional gas drilling.

While fracking (unconventional gas drilling) was banned permanently, a moratorium was placed on onshore conventional exploration and drilling. This has been in force since 2014, and will expire on June 30, 2020.

We have until 2020 to build a strong voice demanding that the state government acts to protect our state by extending the onshore gas moratorium for another five years.

Please sign the petition to the premier calling on him to extend the moratorium on drilling. You can sign it here.

Please add your voice to the call to extend the moratorium.

You can donate here. Thanks!

Below is a summary of the campaign so far.

Residents of Seaspray are nervously awaiting a decision by the Minister for Resources and Energy, Russell Northe. Mr Northe needs to decide whether to approve an application from Lakes Oil to carry out horizontal drilling.

The community steadfastly opposes the proposal, and is currently preparing for the likelihood of having to carry out peaceful direct action in coming weeks.

The 2014-15 Budget will be released on Tuesday 6 May 2014.

State budgets define the priorities of the government of the day. They speak to what type of world view that government holds. Will next weeks budget be another indication that we have a Coalition that is in denial about the reality of climate change, instead clinging vainly to the technology of the 20th century in the hope it can realise the dream of ‘clean coal’?

Or, in light of the massive impacts of the Hazelwood mine fire, will it use this budget as a chance to draw a line under the policies of the past, one where it starts to acknowledge the true economic costs of climate change and commits to the transition to clean and renewable energy that we so urgently need?