In a considerable victory for people power, the national pressure group Rising Tide and its local Northern Rivers membership has just declared a significant win for the climate.
ANZ bank was the only one of the big four that was prepared to consider funding a monstrous pipeline project of well over a thousand kilometres, from far north NT to Gladstone on the NSW coast – the North to East Australia Pipeline or NEAP for short.
Without this pipeline, heavily subsidised development of the infamous Beetaloo gas basin, and the associated nightmarish profusion of fracking infrastructure cannot go ahead, at least not on the scale desired by certain profiteers and NT pollies.
This is where the win is for the climate, as the gas produced, according to the Climate Council, would be ‘a climate bomb… pollution more than three times Australian domestic production over the next two decades.’
Bank picket
Rising Tide developed a nation-wide campaign in which members all over this great southern land picketed 70+ branches, and ANZ HQ, meeting staff and customers and passers by, distributing leaflets, having conversations, and yes, disrupting business as usual for a short while.
It turned out (from a survey) that a majority of staff were actually in favour of RT’s demand, and an undisclosed number of customers were prepared to close their accounts absent a change of policy.
The bank’s 2026 Annual Report, signed off by the Board last week and just announced to the ASX states clearly ‘…we will not directly finance… new transmission pipelines.’
Rising Tide’s next big project, again with very strong Northern Rivers support, is for the 2027 Blockade, of Newcastle coal port, the biggest coal export hub in the world.
Watch this space! (And consider lending your support via their website?)
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. 
