Community members cancel cheque to big polluters
This
Sunday the 28th of April at 11am community members from the electorate of Ballarat will be
‘cancelling’ a
giant $65 million cheque to big
polluters at local member
Catherine King’s office.
The event is
part of a series of
rolling
actions happening
across Victoria in
the lead up to the Federal
budget calling for a substantial
reduction in $10 billion
dollars in
fossil
fuel
subsidies currently handed
to big
polluters every year.
Local resident, Micah Demmert says “Every year over $10 billion of taxpayer money is spent subsidising
big polluters, including
some of
the
world’s most profitable mining
companies.
That’s the
equivalent of giving them $65 million
from people in
this
electorate alone. We would
much rather this
money was spent in the community on health, education, or making Ballarat a more sustainable city”
A broad coalition of environmental groups, including Environment Victoria, Australian
Conservation Foundation, World Wildlife
Fund, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth
and
many others have launched
a major nation-wide campaign calling
on both
the
Government and
Opposition to commit to a
substantial reduction
in tax payer funded subsidies set to be given to the country’s biggest polluters at the upcoming Federal Budget.
A campaign website was recently launched
featuring a petition
to government and
an overview of the top four
polluting
subsidies.
Environment Victoria Safe Climate spokesperson, Victoria McKenzie-McHarg said, “The federal
government committed
at
the G20 meeting in 2009 to phasing out fossil
fuel
subsidies. This
should be a serious and urgent priority to free up money for government priorities such as health,
education or
public transport, and stop
the
gravy train
for polluting industries.”
Leading international organisations including the World
Bank, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations have all
called for an end to government subsidies for fossil fuels.
Polling this year
by
Essential research indicated that a majority of Australians -
64% disapproved of
the
current petrol
and diesel subsidies (over $2 billion) to the mining sector.*
--
More information about the campaign and
a backgrounder on
the
key beneficiaries of fossil fuel subsidies is
available here:
www.paidtopollute.org.au
Local Contact: Micah Demmert 0407 060 108
Environment Victoria: Victoria McKenzie-McHarg 0428 480 409
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