‘Vote Climate for All of Us’ – DCAN picket office of Fiona Richardson MP. Wednesday 3 November,

Protesters with placards outside the office

The stretch of High Street outside the office of ALP State MP for Northcote Fiona Richardson was more than usually noisy this morning as peak-hour motorists – and several cyclists- responded to the call from members of Darebin Climate Action Now! who were picketing the office with placards opposing the projected HRL coal-fired power station in the Latrobe valley and calling for real action on climate change.

This followed a successful action last week – see Push to Make Coal History – and will be repeated every Wednesday throughout November in the lead-up to the State Election on 27 November – see http://darebincan.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/rally-at-fiona-richardsons-office-this-wednesday-6th-october-8am-to-9am/. DCAN is also holding its own Q&A-style election forum on climate change next Monday – details on the website.

Placard - Say No to Dirt Units and Dirty Coal

Push to Make Coal History – Northcote, 28 October 2010

Protesters with pushers outside Northcote Town Hall

To chants of “Coal, don’t dig it/ Leave it in the ground/ Time to get with it”, members and supporters of Darebin Climate Action Now marched from Northcote Town Hall to the office of local Labor MP Fiona Richardson to demand an end to the Brumby government’s pro-coal policies. They handed out leaflets calling on people to ‘Vote Climate’ in the upcoming election, and posing the question ‘Can we trust Labor on Climate?’, and also delivered a copy of Beyond Zero Emissions’ Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan to the office.

(The report of this action on Melbourne Indymedia includes a brief video – http://indymedia.org.au/2010/10/28/push-to-make-coal-history-northcote-28-october-2010)

Protesters on the march along High Street

Marching past shop front 'ImagineMe'

Just imagine...

Outside Fiona Richardson's office

After the protest there was a chance for some of youngest members to make friends:

Toddler patting small puppy

The leaflet:

Flier: Victoria has a dirty secret

DCAN plans a series of protests at Fiona Richardson’s office during November, in the lead up to the State Election:

PROTEST every WEDNESDAY morning in November up to election…..

DCAN are organising a series of protests outside Fiona Richardson’s office on Wednesday mornings to protest the double standards being pushed by the Brumby Government.

“Mr Brumby,

You want us to trust that you will take action on climate change this time. You hope we’ll be impressed by your offer to (maybe) close a quarter of Hazelwood power station, Australia’s dirtiest.

But you are offering $50 million of taxpayers money to open a new fossil fuel power station that would cancel out all the emissions saved.

If you were genuine, you would replace ALL of Hazelwood and not support the building of a new, dirty, coal power station.”

It’s clear that Brumby and hence Fiona Richardson are not serious about doing what needs to be done to deal with the threat of climate change. Their double standards and political weakness risk serious climate change impacts for us and especially our kids.

So, please join us in sending a message outside Fiona Richardson’s electoral office on every Wednesday morning in November leading up to the election from 8am to 9am. The first protest was great – with lots of support from people on their way to work! Come and give us hand on your way to work too…..

404 High St Northcote ( just north of Separation St)

* 3rd November
* 10th November
* 17th November
* 24th November

(From the DCAN website)

Earth Hour vigil at office of Energy Minister Martin Ferguson – 28 March

Outside Martin Ferguson's office

Darebin Climate Action Now (http://darebincan.wordpress.com/) with support from the Friends of the Earth ACE anti-nuclear and clean energy collective (http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/?q=an/home) held a ‘candle-light’ vigil outside the office of Energy and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson to mark the nation- and world-wide Earth Hour (http://www.earthhour.org.au/). Among speakers were Jenny McCracken, making the case for a vegetarian/vegan diet to combat climate change, and Carol Ride, also from DCAN, calling for the replacement of the ‘Minister for Dirty Coal':

Carol with 'No Minister for Dirty Coal' stop sign

with a ‘Minister for 100% Renewables':

Anti-Ferguson placards and 'Minister for 100% Renewables' sign

The reverse of the sign in the previous image

For more on this event and the campaign generally, see the DCAN site – http://darebincan.wordpress.com/ – and the Fow ACE collective meets every Wednesday at 6.30pm at the Friends of the Earth office, 312 Smith St, Collingwood, for those who happen to be in Melbourne ….