Eve Jeffery
Not ones to be thwarted by the aftermath of the floods, yesterday the Knitting Nannas Against Gas (KNAG) put their thinking berets on and tracked down Kevin Hogan MP at his new digs in Lismore for their weekly knit-in.
Though the shopfront on the corner of Carrington and Conway Streets is unidentifiable from the outside, and unidentifiable from the inside apart from a couple of Kevin Hogan notepads on the counter, the intrepid Nannas found Kevin’s place anyway and a game of hide-and-seek was on the cards.
Hogan’s old office was awash a few weeks ago so a move was in order. His new place overlooks fellow MP Thomas George’s – if they both stand on their verandah they can wave and share stories from the trenches.
It seems that Kevin was busy or away as he wasn’t able to come out to play even though Nannas made a special brew of homemade lemon Nanna-ade, so the Nannas decided to send him a note about that horrid Adani mine, asking him to represent them in parliament.
‘Dear Kevin, as our Federal Member for Page, we ask that you vote in Parliament AGAINST allocating public funds of $1,000,000,000 ($1 billion) to the Adani Carmichael coal mine project in the Galilee Basin, Queensland,’ the letter read.
‘A billion dollars is a difficult amount of money to comprehend but it equates to one thousand million dollars that our future generations need spent NOW on renewable energy in order to combat climate change.’ (full letter below).
As Mr Hogan appeared to be out of the office altogether, Nanna Jally handed the letter over to the gentleman receptionist at the counter who growled at the Tree Faerie and told her it was illegal to take photos in the office unless she had permission.
When she asked for permission, he said: ‘No!’ (He was wearing his cranky pants).
The Nannas will be sitting and knitting at the new office until further Nanna notice.
Photos Tree Faerie
Dear Kevin,
As our Federal Member for Page, we ask that you vote in Parliament AGAINST allocating public funds of $1,000,000,000 ($1 billion) to the Adani Carmichael coal mine project in the Galilee Basin, Queensland. A billion dollars is a difficult amount of money to comprehend but it equates to one thousand million dollars that our future generations need spent NOW on renewable energy in order to combat climate change.
Westpac Bank has just joined other large banks in saying NO to funding Adani as coal mining is now a poor investment. Adani cannot be trusted. The company is under a cloud of allegations of environmental destruction and tax evasion. Only two weeks ago Adani was caught releasing coal sediment water eight times above their authorized levels at the Abbot Point coal terminal.
Kevin, as a country man you know the importance of protecting water. There are 64,000 tourism jobs along the Great Barrier Reef threatened by this mine and only a projected 1,400 mining jobs for Australians with Adani. The Queensland government has given permission for Adani to use 12,000,000,000 (12 billion…why is it always billions?) litres of water each YEAR for FREE to wash the coal and yet our farmers and townsfolk must PAY for water. This is preposterous! Our grandkiddies haven’t even seen the Great Barrier Reef yet and it is bleaching and dying due to global warming. This is an absolute disgrace on the watch of both Federal and State governments.
Knitting Nannas Against Gas are part of a large, growing social movement that is determined to stop the Adani Carmichael coal mine. We will not rest until we know that it has fallen over. We may be Nannas but you can bet your bottom dollar it will fall over before we do. Please, STOP Adani Kevin.
Saving the land, air and water for the kiddies,
KNITTING NANNAS AGAINST GAS LISMORE LOOP
Go Go Go you good Nannas!
Go Nannas!
Your brilliant Knittiing Nannas campaign over several years is a real inspiration for me and others I know. I think it is a really innovative way of campaigning. It deserves national publicity.
Jim Beatson (Byron Bay)
Congratulations Knitting Nanna’s , and thanks for locating his office ! I fully support your action to protect this country !!!
Next we need to send The Hon Kevin Hogan a letter about this….!!!
Dear The Hon Kevin Hogan,
I want to bring to your attention, the United Nations Treaty for the Banning of Nuclear Weapons World Wide, to be signed by members states on July 7th 2017. see http://www.icanw.org/
Currently the Australian Government, supports the United States boycott of the treaty. This treaty represents an opportunity to change the course of humanity. A world where Nuclear Weapons exist ultimately has no future and is in grave danger of extinction
I urge you to raise this matter with your fellow ministers to pressure The Hon Julie Bishop, Minister of foreign affairs, The Foreign office and Gillian Bird, Australian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, for the Australian Government to sign the treaty.
We have the opportunity to make a stand against these weapons of indiscriminate mass destruction. The largest bombs created are 3000 times greater than the nuclear bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. When these weapons are used not only is everyone destroyed in the blast radius but the radio active shock wave and resulting fall out indiscriminately kill. As a consequence of their destructive power and radioactive fallout, nuclear weapons inherently violate several articles of the Geneva Conventions meant to protect the victims of international conflicts.
For ourselves and the future of all generations, please act to save this humanity from a terrible destruction.
Peace is all our responsibility , and we stand for peace and express to you that it is our will
that the Australian Government listen to the will of the people and act on their will to live in a
peaceful world with NO Nuclear Weapons, and that The Australian Government UN representatives sign , and give a Yes vote to ratify United Nations Treaty for the Banning of Nuclear Weapons World Wide this coming July 7th 2017
Yours faithfully