Murwillumbah activist stops Adani – at least for today

Work at Adani’s proposed rail corridor has been stopped this morning, with an activist locking herself to a worker access gate.

Kit Tomlinson was driven to act by her concern and anger that Environment Minister Sussan Ley decided last week not to apply the water trigger to the approval process of the North Galilee Water Scheme.

Ms Tomlinson feels this will make it significantly easier for Adani to gain the approval of 12.5 billion litres of water from the Suttor River in drought-stricken Queensland for their mine.

Ms Tomlinson from Murwillumbah, said that last week she saw an out-of-control fire ravage the land where she grew up. ‘It was yet another casualty of the climate-change driven fires destroying so much of drought-ridden Australia.

‘It is criminal that Adani has been given approval to take so much water when drought-stricken farms and towns are running out of water and rural fire brigades have insufficient water to fight bushfires.’ she said.

’We cannot afford to open a huge new coal mine in the southern hemisphere, which will contribute to the acceleration of the planet’s warming. The catastrophic fires we are experiencing now will seem insignificant compared to what the future will hold if nothing is done,’ she said.

‘If we are to survive into the future we, and the government, need to change our mindsets about mine-sites.’