REPORT ON PROTEST AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER!

NO TO NUKES protest by Anti-Nuclear Alliance of WA: the first of undoubtedly the many that will be needed to counter the nuclear industry's latest ‘charm offensive.' 28 June saw a vibrant, colourful and peaceful protest at the Perth Convention Centre re the luncheon presentation by Ian Hore-Lacy (of the self-styled World Nuclear Association) on why Australia needs N-power, hosted by the Australian Institute of Energy. Well, it happened, so that lunch guests certainly knew there was still a movement out there! At least 50 of us came, which we felt was a quorum for short notice, a weekday and early days of this latest wave of our movement. Especially appreciated were 83 year old Doris Lymbery, Jude and Kim who'd come up by train from Bunbury for the occasion. (Doris had collected around half of the 50,000 petition signatures on the ‘Go Away Pangea' petition in 99-2000.) We were very colourful and would have made a great TV newsclip if SBS, 7,9 and 10 had bothered to show up and ABC hadn't dropped us on the editing floor. Old and new banners made it loud and clear that West Australians want energy efficiency and a mix of renewable energies, NOT dangerous, dirty nuclear or coal power. One new banner reads 'Nuclear needs Greenhouse more than Greenhouse needs Nuclear!' We had gorgeous sun goddesses, nuke-persons in "rad suits" and Raging Grannies in sunflower aprons, demanding a nuclear-free future for planet and generations to come. A choirem from Working Voices Choir had us singing our way through a batch of nuke-free songs to well-known tunes. Speakers were Greenhouse campaigner Tristy Fairfield, Greens MLC's Giz Watson and Paul Llewellyn, new Senator Rachel Siewert (re discussions with her 15 year old son and the need to educate 'from scratch' young folk who can't remember Chernobyl), and Labor MLC, Louise Pratt, who read out a very encouraging message from Geoff Gallop, which ends with the words "Nuclear energy Is illegal, unsafe, uneconomic and unwanted in Western Australia" Robin Chapple and attended the presentation and reported that much of the promotion was the same historic data but with the added twist that it was now all about saving the planet and having a sustainable future. One comment that was made during question time that exposed the lie of the nuclear industry being the savior of spiraling emissions was when asked by a member of the audience how he saw the resurgence of nuclear power effecting the export market of coal from Australia, Ian Hore-Lacy replied by saying nukes were just going to a part of the suite of energy industries in an expanding energy market of which coal was still going to be an integral part. Judy ('irrational') Blyth and Brenda ('illogical') Conochie. Insults hurled at us by representatives of the Nuclear Industry in response to our protest.

the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia email robin@anawa.org.au