Erin Brockovich, the name is synonomous with standing up for the little guy and taking the fight to big corporations who have wronged the community.
Taking time out of her busy schedule with Shine Lawyers, Erin appeared on Channel 7’s Today Tonight Thursday 5th April, to discuss Gladstone Harbour and the environmental issues the dredging has had on the local community.
“We keep taking, and taking, and taking, and taking, and we never give anything back. Eventually the system will stop, ” she said.
Erin Brockovich says she has seen the devastation the dredging has had on the environment, and is deeply, deeply concerned.
“ These are national treasures. These are god-given gifts,” Brockovich said.
“I lose sleep over it. I think it is a deep, deep tragedy, a great, great concern.”
Toxic sediment stirred up through dredging in order to make the harbour deeper, is being blamed for the devastation. The local fishing industry has been crippled, people have lost their livelihoods and fish and other marine life are suffering to accommodate the booming liquefied natural gas industry.
“And this is happening in your harbor, right at your Great Barrier Reef, and the fishermen have lost their industry. We are losing a food supply, and children could be being fed this, and potentially being poisoned, ” Brockovich said.
Working with Shine Lawyers, Erin is involved in the case against the Gladstone Ports Corporation, seeking to recognise the failure of the former Queensland Government and Gladstone Ports Corporation to follow their own Co-ordinator General’s directions.
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Dredging Today Staff, April 10, 2012; Image: shine