THE BENTLEY EFFECT SCREENING IN GRAFTON THIS WEEKEND

There will be two screenings of 'The Bentley Effect', an award-winning documentary on Bentley's fight against Coal Seam Gas exploration. 

This 90-minute film will be screened at The Pelican Playhouse on Saturday 1st July at 7:00pm with a matinee on Sunday 2nd July at 2:00pm.  There will be a Q&A session with Brendan Shoebridge, the Producer/Director, following the film.

Tickets are:   Adults - $15;  Concession and high school students - $12;  Children under 12 - Free.

Tickets available at Buckley's Music Grafton as well as online at www.thebentleyeffect.com (click on Screenings).

 BACKGROUND  INFORMATION

‘The Bentley Effect’ is a film that captures and celebrates the ‘Eureka Stockade’ of our time and the social movement that led to it.

After drilling 50 wells virtually under the radar, the CSG industry arrived unannounced in 2010 to drill an exploratory well in a peaceful farming community in the Northern Rivers.  A group of concerned neighbours investigated.  Alarm bells rang out across the region as the community’s immune system was triggered.

A trickle of environmentalists and local farmers soon grew to a torrent of concerned citizens from all walks of life – and through this unlikely alliance, a broad social movement was born. 

Following a series of increasingly dramatic blockades, the gas industry threw down the gauntlet.  They announced plans to commence drilling on a farmland property in Bentley, a peaceful stretch of country, just 12 minutes from Lismore.  The community’s response has now become the stuff of legends.

A cow paddock adjacent to the drill site became home to a highly organised, self-governing tent city – complete with meeting halls, kitchens, cafés, nurseries and toilets, with strict codes of non-violent conduct.  Labelled by the government as ‘radical extremists’, these people were not your usual suspects.  Here at Bentley stood an army of conservative, everyday Australians uniting with their entire community to fend off the mining threat and protect their land, air and water.

The bravest locked themselves onto cement fixtures blocking the way into the site.  Each morning they gathered before dawn at ‘Gate A’ to rally together, set themselves tasks for the day and sing the songs that would become their protest anthems.  High profile musicians gave regular pop-up concerts to the delight of the 'Protectors'. 

The industry and its political supporters rallied too, with reports of a steadily growing police force with orders to break up the blockade.

The stage was set.  Eventually, over 850 riot police with horses were on standby in Sydney, with orders to remove the Protectors.

Told through the eyes of the Protectors over a five-year period, ‘The Bentley Effect’ documentary forces us to ask the question:

What is truly valuable?

CAN THE NSW GOVERNMENT BE TRUSTED TO KEEP THE NSW NORTHERN RIVERS GASFIELD FREE?

Late in 2015 the NSW Government reached agreement with gas-mining company Metgasco about a buy-back of its petroleum exploration licences in the Northern Rivers of NSW.  This followed years of community protests against coal seam gas and unconventional gas mining with major campaigns at Glenugie near Grafton, Doubtful Creek near Kyogle and which culminated in massive protest at Bentley close to Casino and Lismore.

The agreement with Metgasco effectively meant that the Northern Rivers became gasfield free.  This was what community groups like Gasfield Free Northern Rivers, Lock the Gate and the Knitting Nannas Against Gas had been aiming for in the Northern Rivers area.  And local National Party MPs like Chris Gulaptis, Member for Clarence, assured the community that the area indeed was and would continue to be gasfield free.

However, since then community members have learnt about a number of developments that cast considerable doubt on these assurances.

On February 9 2016 the Lismore-based paper The Northern Star published a story about NSW Mining Minister Anthony Roberts stating that the NSW Government intended to unlock new coal seam gas reserves "to local mining companies that will supply into local markets rather than export".

In support of this plan Minister Roberts claimed that NSW last year had come within a hair's breadth of "catastrophic" gas shortages because of a lack of a local supply.

This is a repetition of the spurious arguments that were used by the Government during the Northern Rivers community campaign to declare this part of the state gasfield free.  It completely ignored the fact that NSW had a very plentiful supply of gas from interstate and there was no danger of gas shortages, catastrophic or otherwise.

The next development which caused concern was the release of the NSW Department of Planning's Regional Plan.The Draft North Coast Regional Plan which was put on exhibition in March is the "proposed blueprint" for the next 20 years.  According to the foreword it "outlines a vision, goals and actions that focus on a sustainable future for the region as it grows that protects the environment, builds a prosperous community and offers attractive lifestyle choices for residents." 

The Draft Plan also states clearly that gas mining in the Clarence -Moreton Basin is still on the agenda.  "The North Coast also includes areas of the Clarence-Moreton Basin, which has potential coal seam gas resources that may be able to support the development and growth of new industries and provide economic benefits for the region..." It also states that the NSW Department of Industry is mapping coal and coal seam gas resources in the region.

If the two developments above were insufficient to cause community concern about the government's intentions, early in May the community learned of another indication of the government's desire to restart gas-mining in the region. Marketing material, prepared by NSW Trade and Investment bureaucrats, was presented in March to a mining conference in Toronto attended by thousands of mining investors from more than 100 countries.

Investors were told that a 16,000 sq km area of the Northern Rivers, the Clarence-Moreton Basin, "has very good petroleum potential" and that almost all the wells drilled have yielded gas or oil.

Was the marketing promotion a "bureaucratic error" as claimed by some local politicians? In the very unlikely event that it was, it indicates that the Government is performing very poorly in communicating its policies to the bureaucracy.  Presumably the inclusion of gas-mining in the Draft Regional Plan was also a "bureaucratic error".

The Northern Rivers community has good reason to be very suspicious of the Baird Government's commitment to a gasfield free Northern Rivers.

GASFIELD FREE RALLY IN LISMORE - November 1 @ 10 am

With the State Election due in March next year, Gasfield Free Northern Rivers wants to put more pressure on all state politicians to ensure that the Northern Rivers is kept gasfield free. The November 1^st Lismore Rally is an important part of this campaign.  Below is an abridged version of an email from Gasfield Free Northern Rivers.

 

 

 

For more information see http://csgfreenorthernrivers.org/news/gasfield-free-northern-rivers-rally-november-1st/

Whilst Bentley was a great win, our region is still NOT SAFE from invasive gas mining! Active licenses still cover most of the Northern Rivers and Metgasco plans to start drilling as soon as they can if the current suspension at Bentley is lifted!

With a state election looming NOW is the time to remind our politicians that we are determined to keep our region GASFIELD FREE by keeping this issue on everyone’s agenda.

Will you help us make the BIG RALLY in Lismore on November 1st one of the most powerful events in our region’s history?

 

On November 1^st the communities of the Northern Rivers will be taking the momentous step of declaring our whole region GASFIELD FREE! We will also be calling on the NSW Government to take decisive action to support our declaration by CANCELLING all the gas licences that cover our region.

 

Here’s how you can join us in making the November 1st rally a truly momentous event and help to make gasfields history in the Northern Rivers:

-Show up at 10am at Riverside Park, Lismore on Nov. 1st for the march, rally and declaration

-Pledge to bring FIVE of your family, friends or work colleagues on the day

-Spread the word

The movement for a Gasfield Free Northern Rivers has grown from strength to strength in the last four years because people like you care enough to take action.

Let’s keep building the momentum for decisive action from government by making the rally an event our politicians can’t ignore!