5G!
No 5G!
The removal of our basic
human right!
Get on the ground!
Back off!
No 5G!
Oh, I'm under arrest?
Um, what for?
My greatest concern is that
our children are going to end up
in a soup of electrosmog.
I think we're flying blind here.
And that's a very dangerous
thing to do.
How much danger am I in
standing right here right now?
Absolutely none.
Why you filming?
Um, just having a friendly chat.
Uh...
How do I say that in an
eloquent way?
It's a s**t fight.
It really is.
Around the world,
there is a movement of people,
terrified about the health impacts
of the next generation
of wireless technologies.
5G.
One in eight Australians,
according to at least one survey,
even blame 5G for the spread
of coronavirus.
But why?
Why is this fight getting so ugly?
Even in one of the most
beautiful places?
This part of Australia,
it has a long history of
standing up to big corporations,
standing up against coal seam gas,
stopped fluoride in the water,
we stopped McDonalds,
so there is a community here
that is cohesive and they know
how to stand up to
big corporations.
This is Mullumbimby,
right near Byron Bay on the
northern coast of NSW.
And people here are fighting 5G,
and they have been for months.
Fighting, and to some extent,
winning.
Hey!
How are you?
How do I do this?
Do you want to climb over?
As the world was going into
lockdown and public gatherings
were banned,
Activist and filmmaker,
Dean Jeffreys,
and around 50 of his neighbours
were campaigning to block
Telstra's 5G installation.
No 5G!
This policeman behind me
has got his knee in my back
He's not social distancing.
I ended up
just getting in the firing line.
You've got to do what you can
just to
stand up for what you believe
is right and I just feel compelled
to act.
Gets me in some trouble but
you know, you got to do
what you go to do.
I'm under arrest.
Um, what for?
He has rights man!
It's against the law!
Here we go.
No 5G.
I'm sure the whales don't
like it either.
Telstra have now suspended
their installation in the area.
At least,
for now.
This sent shockwaves
around the world!
And people realise that wow,
we can actually
protest against this,
we can stop this and we don't
have to stay in our homes
and obey this lockdown.
When did you first start
getting interested in 5G
as an issue?
I've heard about 5G for quite
a while,
but I don't believe everything
that I read on Facebook,
you'd be silly to.
And at the same time,
I use it as a resource to get
information that the mainstream
media is not telling me.
Also that the government
is not telling me.
Yeah, it can cause cancers,
I've done the research,
and it could also affect
your immune system.
So, especially during a pandemic
like we're in at the moment,
you want to have a healthy
immune system.
Okay.
Before we go on,
we really do need to talk about
the fifth generation celluar network.
So you remember when
3G came out?
And then there was 4G?
Well 5G is supposed to be
quite a bit different.
As in,
it could change the world.
Its speed is meant to
revolutionise whole industries,
lay down the tracks for
super fast trains,
electrify roads for
autonomous vehicles,
rouse robotics,
and basically give our
smart phones super powers.
The question is
at what cost?
What happens when
children are exposed to
wireless radiation for the 10 years
while they're in schooling.
You know, we don't have
those answers and I think
we're flying blind here.
And that's a very dangerous
thing to do.
So this is my tiny little kit.
HD camera.
360 camera.
GoPro cameras and
the drone.
How are you deciding
which kinds of technologies
you're not comfortable with,
kind of walk me through that.
Wireless technologies
are amazing.
There's no doubt about it.
But you want to try and
limit your exposure.
So I always turn my phone off
before I go to bed,
I don't use it as an alarm clock.
Better option than always being
bombarded with wireless radiation.
There is
a certain irony here.
Because this is fine
that's largely being waged
online.
Hey! How are you?
Hi, I'm Tashi.
Nice to meet you!
Everything's on aeroplane mode.
I do all that,
Instagram and Facebook
admin work with a-
via a landline?
Yeah!
Hard wired.
Wow.
I didn't even know
that was possible.
When she's not
caring for her two kids,
Tashi spends hours each day
helping coordinate the local
anti-5G movement.
I don't have a background
in activism on the front line at all,
until about a year ago,
when this sort of
landed in my lap,
and so, you know,
went down the rabbit hole.
My greatest concern is that
our children
are going to end up in a soup
of electrosmog.
The thing with 5G is that
it's being marketed to us
as an upgrade, but essentially
it's an addition to the current
networks that we have.
So
there will be an increase
in wireless radiation.
It can affect sleep,
behaviour,
anxiety, depression.
I invite anyone that is concerned
to do their own
independent research.
Please don't take my word for it.
Those symptoms Tashi just listed
are disputed by governments
and scientists around the world.
But the thing is,
the internet is filled with
conflicting reports and information
when it comes to 5G.
The World Health Organisation's
cancer research arm has listed
electromagnetic radiation,
which underpins WiFi and mobile
technology as being
"possibly carcinogenic",
alongside things like lead
and chloroform.
There's a group of 253
international academics,
who are so concerned about the
potential health effects,
that they formally appealed
to the UN to reduce exposure,
and yet,
the Australian Radiation Regulator,
ARPANSA,
says there is no well conducted
research that 5G is unsafe.
But,
it also has a disclaimer
on its website,
waiving responsibility
for any health impacts.
When you hear that phrase
'no well-conducted research',
does it ever make you doubt
the research that you've done?
No because they're not putting
any research papers forward
proving that 5G is safe.
If it's safe, prove it.
I have been to
an information session with Telstra.
Unfortunately, I wasn't
given any information.
What did they say?
Well, they gave me some
information but it wasn't any
information that would
change my mind.
I've even got a meter.
Anything that goes into
orange and red is spiking so,
I can show you.
If I can put my phone
off aeroplane mode,
it will start seeking connection.
I don't even have service here
but you can see it's spiking
intermittently,
trying to seek connection.
There is goes again.
What would you say to
somebody watching this
that thinks the views you hold
make no sense?
I think not taking my word for it
and doing some independent
research is the best place to start.
Free thinkers are
not necessarily in alignment with
the mainstream media
point of view,
or even the government's
point of view.
Just because the government
says so doesn't mean that
we can't question.
And that free thinking
extends all the way
to the local council.
What are your biggest fears
about agreeing to do an
an interview about this
particular story?
What are you most
concerned about?
Well clearly,
appearing like a nut job.
Sarah Ndiaye is the Deputy Mayor
of Byron Shire Council,
who asked for a moratorium
on Telstra's 5G installation to
to address community
health concerns.
Unfortunately,
that opportunity was refused by
ARPANSA and Telstra.
They didn't want any kind of
public interface to occur.
When the community started to
become vocal about 5G,
how did that manifest?
What does it actually look like?
Well, it's an enormous
responsibility.
This issue
I can see has just divided
our community.
People who are friends
with other people are completely
dissing them and,
how do I say that in an
eloquent way?
It's a s**t fight.
You have the Chief Medical Officer
of Australia in the last couple
of days, getting up and saying
literally 5G is considered low risk.
You would think,
in some communities,
that would calm people's fears.
But the sense I get is that it
really hasn't here.
Am I misreading that?
I mean, I don't have
incredibly strong feelings
either way
around this.
My children are vaccinated.
I don't believe there is a big
conspiracy going on.
There's just so much mystery
around the role out of 5G.
I don't think it's an unreasonable
request that there is more
recognised, independent testing
done on these technologies.
We will all have to get new devices,
which means that our old devices
will go to landfill.
I think we're going to feel
a substance of energy that's just
going to cause destruction
to our own bodies.
Not everyone here in Byron Shire
is dead against this technology.
In fact,
some see the benefits of it.
The conversation we're having
around 5G,
is about health impacts
or about fast video downloads
and I think that's a really
simplified conversation for
something that can be,
could possibly be truly
groundbreaking
in the way that business is done
in the next five, ten years
in Australia.
Andrew Wadsworth is a local
technology entrepreneur
who runs his software automation
business in Mullumbimby.
When people feel something,
and they feel like they need
to act and protest,
it comes from a place
that should be listened to,
regardless of the fact
that we might not agree.
Do you agree with the protesters
that there are
health concerns with 5G?
The stuff that I've read,
doesn't lead me to believe
that I would be putting myself
in any harm
by using 5G technology.
However,
all technological upgrades
have some unintended
consequences that are worth
thinking about.
It's time we talk about
those consequences.
I'm here to meet a man
who actually helped decide
just how much electromagnetic
radiation we,
humans,
can be safely exposed to.
I thought this made sense,
as a place to meet.
Yeah.
So,
just so I know,
and I feel like I should ask
this in the beginning,
how many danger am I in,
standing right here right now?
Absolutely none,
absolutely none.
So-
unless it fell down and hit you.
Professor Rodney Croft
has been studying the health
impacts of mobile phone use
for nearly two decades.
Is there any way in which
5G technology
can be harmful
to a human being?
Look, with all electromagnetic
radiation,
it really comes down to
how much there is.
A microwave oven
uses a similar frequency
to what we use for mobile phones.
If the exposure is high enough,
you'll cook someone
and you can kill them.
But we have
international standards,
Australia follows those
and so long as you stick within them
then there is no harm at all.
There are future plans to move
5G to a higher frequency.
Closer to,
but not at the stage where it
can damage human tissue.
But,
weirdly,
the higher the frequency,
the less it will penetrate our skin,
according to Rodney.
But,
what will that feel like
on our skin?
Well...
we're still only talking about
temperature rise.
The difference will be
that the temperature rise
will be very superficial.
But what about the World
Health Organisation's warning
that classed electromagnetic
radiation as
"possibly carcinogenic"?
What they’ve actually said is that
we don't have any evidence
that mobile phones cause cancer,
but it's possible that it does.
That's as far as it goes
and that level of certainty equates
with things like coffee,
pickled vegetables.
I suppose one of the things
the distinctions that
the protesters make is
that there's plenty of research
into the long-term effects of
mobile phone use
and mobile phone towers,
but it's specifically about 5G.
Certainly, look it's very true
that the amount of studies that
have specifically looked at 5G
are very limited.
But from a science perspective,
that just isn't relevant.
What's relevant is the
electromagnetic energy,
how that affects us.
I think it's important to remember
that we did also have these
concerns with 4G, 3G, 2G
and microwave ovens as well.
I think it's come at a time when
there already is a lot of fear
around technology
and it's come at a time when
it's easy to get information
on the internet.
The thing is all you need to do is
look at the history of technology
to see that it constantly
leaps forward and then
government and regulators
have to play catch up.
I mean just think about the way
Uber changed the taxi industry,
the way Facebook changed media.
So
is 5G going to kill us?
No?
Probably not?
But
it would be a mistake, I think,
to ignore the context,
the stuff that’s driving that fear.
They said tobacco was safe,
they said that Formaldehyde
was safe,
they said that DDT was safe,
they said that asbestos was safe
and now they're saying 5G is safe.
It's scary,
I'm scared for the children.
Do you think you can win?
Yes, definitely.
Even if the government body
says that it's safe.
My suspicious mind would go to
what is the government’s
agenda here and start asking
some questions.
Do you think people are
fair to question when new
technologies roll out?
Yes, I do think it's very fair
to question.
But I think that people also
have to be prepared
to accept the answer.
It's not good enough to merely say
anything new is bad
and society has to stop
exactly where it is now,
forever,
which in essence is what
the argument is
with 5G.