The Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea  invite you to join us in petitioning the Premier, the Deputy Premier, the Minister for the Environment, the Leader of the Opposition, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Steve Dickson, State Leader of One Nation in the lead up to the forthcoming Qld election.

Out of nearly 800 Sisters of Mercy, 125 live in Queensland electorates. We are deeply disturbed by a growing lack of reverence for all creation and the continual degradation of the Earth.

We urge all politicians to develop policies and plans that address the concerns raised recently by the Bishops of Townsville. In particular we are concerned about:

• the impending loss of the Great Barrier Reef with back-to-back yearly coral bleaching across two thirds of its length
• the future of the Artesian Basin and its age-old water resources which are threatened by extraction by  mega- mining developments across Queensland, and especially in the Galilee Basin 
• the impact of proposed mines in Queensland on the global climate
• the significant increase in lung disease in local coal mine employees
• the one-third increase in land-clearing across the state
• a need for urgent dialogue critiquing cultural factors such as individualism, self-centredness, unlimited progress, the unregulated market, and consumerism.

We invite you to show your support for the Earth by signing this petition which calls on the major parties to provide strong indications that these concerns are also their concerns and that they have policies and plans in place to address them.