The Galilee Blockade campaign was launched yesterday with a leaked video of Queensland premier Campbell Newman stating it would be a great idea not to mine the Galilee Basin.
Four years ago yesterday, when he was lord mayor of Brisbane, Newman spoke at an Australia Day Awards Dinner.
Amateur video footage taken at the dinner records a speech he gave at the dinner, which included the following statement, ‘It would be a great idea if rather than digging huge piles of black stuff out of the ground a few hundred kilometres north of here to keep those lights on, perhaps it would be better in the long term for our children, our grandchildren and generations to come that we actually set things up a little differently.’
He went on to add that the City of Brisbane was the country’s largest user of green energy.
Ben Pennings, spokesperson for the Galilee Blockade said, ‘Campbell Newman has changed his mind dramatically on coal in the same time period when millions of dollars have been donated by coal companies to the Liberal and National parties.
‘The Newman government has repaid this by spending billions of taxpayer dollars in Central Queensland on coal mining infrastructure we may never use. Taxpayers are even going to pay to dredge the Reef and dump the spoil on precious wetlands.’
‘The billionaires wanting to mine the Galilee Basin are eco-terrorists. They are threatening the Reef, the Great Artesian Basin and runaway climate change. All for a few extra dollars. And our governments are supporting them.
Mr Pennings added, ‘Where governments have failed, we will succeed. We will do what is effective and necessary to stop these eco-terrorists threatening our ecosystems and climate.’
Sunshine Coast music producer Almost Lazy has turned the leaked video into a funky musical take on dirty coal politics (above). Brisbane MC Master Wolf raps powerful lyrics with the clip featuring the infamous ‘Bad Tony’, mining moguls, rapping grandmothers, and heaps of cute kids.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
