Our voices must not be silent in the face of the decision by Dan Andrews to scrap the onshore gas ban that puts our climate and our futures at risk.
The restrictions on public gatherings means we are deferring from the face-to-face actions and change the way protest happens to ensure we protect communities.
That’s why we are calling on you to participate RIGHT NOW in our ‘DIGITAL SNAP ACTION’, by ‘checking in’ en-masse at the Premiers Office on Facebook.
Check in @Treasury Place with a selfie telling Dan Andrews why you think he has made the wrong call on with gas. (This needs to be done on a smart device like a phone, tablet, etc.)
We may not be able to protest in person, but we can still make our presence known!
How to join the digital snap action on a smart phone:
1. Get out your smart phone and follow this link (alternatively, search for ‘Treasury Place’ from within the Facebook App)
2. Click on the three dots to see more options:
3. Click on ‘check in’:
4. Upload a photo of yourself and write a post about why you are #NotHappyDan about his decision to expand fossil fuel mining in Victoria? And use #VicGasBan. Remember to set your post as 'Public'.
Tag the Premier @Dan Andrews in your post
For Example:
Can you believe Premier @Dan Andrews is trying to sneak through an expansion of Vic’s fossil fuel industry in the middle of the current health crisis?
Communities fought long and hard for the onshore #VicGasBan, and now we are rallying (in digital form) to say #NotHappyDan
Haven't got time for a selfie? You can use this image instead, and don’t forget to share with your friends! You can download it onto your phone by holding down the image and clicking download. Otherwise it is here.
**update: you can join on a desktop or laptop by Creating a public post, and checking in with the check in icon as below - then just type Treasury Place:
What is going on?
In the midst of an emerging public health crisis, the Andrews government announced that a decision has been made to scrap the moratorium protecting Victorian farmland from risky onshore gas drilling.
This is an appalling move by the government. Climate science makes it abundantly clear we need to keep most fossil fuels in the ground if we are to have a chance of avoiding dangerous climate change and today's decision is a profound lapse of judgement by the Andrews government.
This is not the news we wanted to be sending this morning. We know that people are doing all they can to keep families and communities safe, and trying to stay up to date with the important updates related to the COVID-19 outbreak.
While we are doing the same, and only just starting to imagine what campaigning in this era of COVID-19 might look like, this announcement sends us a clear message that our organising and our activism must not stop.
The announcement has come just as community members from local group Protect the West in the south west of the state prepared to submit over 1,000 signatures in opposition to a lifting of the ban to the Premier’s office this week.
Thousands more people like you have contacted the Premier over the past few months.
We need your help now to support communities on the frontline of fossil fuel expansion. Join the Digital Snap Action today!
Please continue to stay healthy and look after yourselves as we stay vigilant in these challenging times.