CLIMATE ACTION SHOW 

APRIL 14th 2025

Produced by Vivien Langford

Keeping the Ocean pristine 

and

Whyalla Green Steel in Public Hands?

Guests

Lisa Deppeler is a prominent figure associated with the OCEAN (Otway Coastal Environment Action Network) organization. She is particularly focused on stopping seismic blasting proposals off the coast. Lisa has been a key voice in raising public awareness about the potential impacts of seismic blasting on marine life, including whales and zooplankton. She has also been involved in organizing the "Great Ocean Rescue Tour" to inform people about the issues. 

Renfrey Clarke is an Australian journalist, translator and left activist. Throughout the 1990s he reported from Moscow for Green Left Weekly,  His article about reviving the vision of Green Steel in Whyalla prompted this interview. 

His conclusion is that public ownership isthe best way forward.

"Profit margins for steel firms are mostly wafer thin, and a buyer for the plant will not be easily found. The chances seem high that the complex, after being modernised at taxpayer expense, will again be sold off for a derisory sum.

Worse, there is the real prospect that the only credible-seeming bidder will be another “adventure capitalist” such as Gupta.

Re-establishing a viable steel industry in SA requires the kind of financial resources that the private sector is unlikely to want to risk. The only realistic source of this money is the public purse. But if taxpayers are to bear the cost, they are entitled to demand that the assets stay in public ownership.

Further, the public are entitled to demand that the steel plant be saved as part of a rational plan that takes in the whole of the Northern Spencer Gulf industrial region, and that stresses new processes and highly productive, clean technologies".

 https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/why-whyalla-steelworks-must-be-publ...

Here's what you can do to support OCEAN's campaign against seismic blasting

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1. Sign the petition to abolish SPA permits

Special Prospecting Authority permits are a cheap and easy way for companies to buy access to large areas of ocean to conduct seismic blasting. The Australian Marine Conservation Society have a petition to abolish SPA permits. Please also share the link to your social media!

Sign the petition here.

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2. Email the PM urging him to declare a moratorium on seismic blasting

Send an email to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urging him to declare a moratorium on seismic blasting until the recommendations from the 2021 'Making Waves' Senate Inquiry are acted upon.

Click here to send an email to the PM

3. Phone The Federal Minister for Resources Madeleine King

She is in Western Australia : (08) 95279377

The electorate concerned in Wannon 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/federal/2025/guide/wann

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