The day we went to Canberra
The message from Victorians that we don’t want new coal power was heard loud and clear in Canberra on Thursday, 9 February.
That day, hundreds of our supporters took action to call on the federal government to withdraw their $100 million grant to the proposed new coal-fired power station HRL.
In just two hours hundreds of tweets to the Prime Minister and the Labor Party showed how deep support for this campaign was. At the same time, over 150 of your calls were recorded in the Prime Ministers office and over 100 at the Finance Minister Penny Wong’s office (Energy Minister Martin Ferguson didn’t count the calls they received). Many more couldn’t get through as the lines were so busy. An advisor to the Prime Minister told us that all messages had been noted.
That afternoon, Labor MP Kelvin Thomson tabled our petition in Parliament with almost 13,000 of your hand-written signatures on it calling for the funding to be withdraw. Check out Kelvin in action here
Unfortunately, the next day Federal Energy Minister Martin Ferguson announced a final six month extension of HRLs funding until 30 June, ignoring the pleas of the Victorian community.
But all is not lost. This extension means that HRL are on final notice – make good in six months, or the government funding from both the state and federal governments is over.
That means we’ve got six months to make sure that all politicians and other potential funders understand that HRL is a dud investment.
Sign up for the Safe Climate Ebulletin now to stay up-to-date with the latest actions you can take to help us Stop HRL. Sign me up
P.S. Here are eight good reasons why HRLs funding should be withdrawn
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