Musician John Butler says it is time for people to hold an “intervention” about fracking in Western Australia.
Butler’s word came just minutes after he finished wowing the audience at a concert to celebrate the screening of Frackman, a film that looks at everyday people fighting against hydraulic fracturing in Queensland.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a controversial mining technique where a cocktail of water, sand and chemicals injected into wells to fracture the rock and allow more gas to flow through the well.
Mining companies state fracking is a safe practice but world wide protests have been held by residents worried about chemical leeching into their drinking water.
“In a country which has one of the driest lands in the planet it doesn't make sense that we’re going to use up water to mine and contaminate drinking water,” Butler said.
“If someone is just hurting them, then that is one thing but if they are hurting the community you need to have an intervention.”
More than a hundred people attended the screening and concert which saw Butler play a range of songs and he used the opportunity to try out a never-heard-before song he wrote about climate change.
“It was fun,” he said.
“I always get a bit nervous in front of a home crowd.”
Butler was joined by Conservation Council of West Australia director Piers Verstegen who hosted a Q&A session about fracking after the film and is calling on residents to sign a petition to halt the practice.
“Not many people know that it is happening in this state,” Mr Verstegen said.
“We’re telling people that they can do and that they don’t have to sit back and take it.
“We can stop it as a community.”
The Government of Western Australia Departments of Mines and Petroleum lists 42 drill sites where some form of fracking has taken place.
“The best way to stop them is to not let them start,” Mr Verstegen said.
With nearly everyone signing the petition on the night Mr Verstegen was thrilled with the response in Margaret River.
More than 20 people also committed to donate regular funds to support anti-fracking protests in the region.
The Margaret River screening of Frackman was the first of a long tour of Western Australia.
A screening has been arranged for May 22 at Busselton’s Orana Cinemas.
For more information visit: frackmanthemovie.com.au
