National Fuel Blockade
Extinction Rebellion Australia, 11 June 2021
XR Rebels block fuel supply terminals around the country to demand urgent action on the transition to net zero transport systems
This week Extinction Rebellion members from local groups across NSW and Tasmania began blockading fuel terminals. The intention: to disrupt business as usual and demand immediate action by the government to address the climate emergency.
XR Rebels from local groups from XR NSW blocked the liquid fuel terminal at Port Botany, Sydney on Thursday 10 June 2021.
National fuel blockade outside Botany Bay terminal in NSW.
Live footage of the Sydney blockade is available here. (Please note talking starts 10 minutes into the video.)
Meanwhile XR Tasmania rebels in Hobart dressed as oil slicks blocked the fuel supply on Friday 11 June 2021.
XR Tasmania rebels dressed as oil slicks for fuel blockade
More photos from XR Tasmania here
Watch live footage from the Hobart blockage by XR Tasmania
This blockade is part of a series of coordinated actions by Extinction Rebellion groups in Australian capitals in the coming days.
"We must move our society and economy to a renewable and sustainable post-carbon energy system and provide a just employment transition for those currently working in the fossil fuel industry."
Over the past few week the National Fuel Blockade Sydney affinity group, which planned this action, engaged with the police and the port authorities, informing them of XR's intention to blockade the facility. This resulted in the facility voluntarily shutting down for the period that the XR activists were present at the Friendship Road port exit. A victory in itself.
Billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money is being gifted to fossil fuel companies by Scott Morrison’s Government. In this time of climate crisis such hand-outs are detrimental to the interests of our nation and the world.
These billions could be used to launch Australia into a prosperous and secure future by investing in emerging renewable energy industries. Instead the Morrison government is using billions of tax payers' dollars to prop up failing fossil fuel infrastructure that will make Australia an international rogue state with carbon taxes being levied against our exports.
The Morrison government is putting the interests of the fossil fuel industry ahead of the national interest.
The perilous state of our liquid fuel security is an example of the failure of strategic planning by Scott Morrison and Angus Taylor. We could be 10 years into a transport electrification transition that would, by now, have eliminated our strategic exposure, as well as having reduced our carbon emissions. Such a project would have enhanced grid security and made NSW's air cleaner.
The time for change is now. We cannot waste another decade.
Join us!