Ballarat citizens protest to-morrow, Sunday 28 April, at the big subsidies to big polluters

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.*

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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

  Polling reference:            http://www.marketforces.org.au/ffs-polling.html*