- by Marcus Browning
- The Guardian
- Issue #2170
Photo: Kate Ausburn – flickr.com (CC BY 2.0)
Lock the Gate Alliance has condemned “in the strongest terms possible” NSW Premier Chris Minns’ threats to grant coal seam gas company Santos permission to compulsorily acquire properties owned by landholders who oppose the company’s Hunter Gas Pipeline.
NSW unions have been strong supporters of Gomeroi Traditional Owners in their fight against Santos’ Narrabri Gas Project.
There is staunch opposition to the Hunter Gas Pipeline along huge sections of its route between Narrabri and Newcastle, with more than 100 impacted property owners in the Hunter Valley alone opposed to its construction. 66 per cent of landholders along the entire HGP route have so far not agreed to host the pipeline on their land.
Liverpool Plains farmer John Hamparsum, whose property, including waterways and shallow aquifers, would be directly impacted by Santos’ Hunter Gas Pipeline, said, “It makes me angry to see the state government rubber stamping something just because they want it to go ahead.
“Santos has not even properly undertaken the negotiation process to get access to farms to survey to determine the final route they’d like the pipeline to take, yet Chris Minns is now talking about compulsory acquisition.
“Chris Minns is putting the cart before the horse – he’s not following due process and it’s his government’s own process, it’s the law.”
Lock the Gate Alliance National Coordinator Carmel Flint said, “It’s very disappointing to see Premier Chris Minns take the side of gas giant Santos against local farmers and Gomeroi Traditional owners who merely seek to protect land, water, and culture from dangerous gasfields and associated pipelines.
“Santos is the primary cause of Australia’s gas price hike because it has been siphoning our domestic gas and sending it to overseas markets the past ten years. Rewarding this company with more gas fields is contrary to the national interest and will do nothing to reduce energy prices.
“The Narrabri Gas Project and associated high pressure gas pipelines threaten precious groundwater resources that agricultural communities rely on. These projects would damage Gomeroi Cultural Heritage and important ecological sites in the mighty Pilliga Forest, and they would drive dangerous climate change through the extraction and burning of fossil gas.
“Renewable energy, backed up with battery storage, is the solution to NSW’s power needs. Opening new polluting coal seam gas fields is financially reckless and at odds with the need to urgently reduce the burning of fossil fuels.”
UNION STAND
In a statement in September unions rejected NSW Premier Chris Minns’ stance on Narrabri gas, calling his government’s support of the Santos project “a staggering contempt for the Indigenous and broader Narrabri community” in an escalation of tension between NSW unions and the state government.
“The Gomeroi Traditional Owners have again and again voted to reject this unnecessary mining project as it puts the Pilliga’s water supplies and ecosystem at risk,” said Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) National Assistant Secretary Thomas Mayo. “The Premier should be at the meeting of Gomeroi in the Pilliga to listen instead of spruiking how much money millionaires and executives can make by ignoring them.”
Shaye Candish, General Secretary, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association said, “Climate change is a critical health issue that has direct impacts upon nurses, midwives, and our communities. Our union is deeply opposed to the approval of new fossil fuel ventures, and we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Gomeroi people in their fight against the Narrabri Gas project.”
Dr Nicholas Spooner, President, ASMOF NSW – the doctor’s union – said “the Narrabri Gas project poses serious risks to the health of regional communities, from water and air pollution to strain on already overstretched local hospitals. Doctors are deeply concerned that the project will worsen health inequities in rural NSW, where services are already thin and outcomes already worse than the state average.”
“The Independent Education Union is proud to stand with other unions alongside the Gomeroi people in their campaign to stop the mining company Santos drilling 850 coal seam gas wells in the Pilliga region of northern NSW”, said Carol Matthews, Secretary of the IEUA NSW/ACT Branch.
“No government can justify the environmental destruction and cultural vandalism of the Pilliga Forest for the sake of profit. Respecting the rights of the Gomeroi people means standing against this project and protecting Country for generations to come.”
Vince Caughley, Secretary of National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) NSW Division said “Australia is already one of the world’s largest gas exporters, with most of it sold to benefit multinationals. Projects like Narrabri deliver little for domestic supply, jobs or revenue, but carry a huge cost for the climate and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Our members know this first-hand, many through direct climate research that makes clear the urgent need to move away from fossil fuels. This project undermines the secure, sustainable future NTEU members are fighting for.”
CORPORATE HEIST
“Santos is reeling from their collapsed sale in the wake of damning revelations about unchecked gas leaks in the Northern Territory. What we’re seeing is State governments desperately trying to throw a lifeline to their mates in a mining industry that has passed its use-by date,” MUA Sydney Branch Secretary Paul Keating said.
Australia is the only country in the world that allows its gas to be sold into the global market without keeping reserves aside for its own people. This has resulted in very expensive gas prices despite being the world’s largest gas exporter, putting substantial pressure on local manufacturers.
Research undertaken by the Centre for International Corporate Tax and Accountability Research (CICTAR) demonstrates that, despite billions in annual revenues, Australia’s largest LNG producers pay nothing in corporate income tax and will pay no royalties on the vast new supplies of offshore gas for decades to come.
“We are watching one of the greatest corporate heists in Australian history,” said Keating. “These companies are exporting unprecedented mega-volumes of gas, not paying any tax, driving manufacturing out of the country, and gouging the community. Now they’re telling us that they need to go and build another 850 wells smack bang on top of Australia’s food bowl against the wishes of the Traditional Owners? I don’t bloody think so.”
“Australian governments can’t on the one hand claim to be supportive of First Nations people and seeking to reduce carbon emissions while at the same time approving record numbers of new coal and gas mines against the wishes of Traditional Owners. Its rank hypocrisy and we have had enough” said Allen Hicks, Electrical Trades Union NSW/ACT State Secretary.
“Australian state and federal governments are closing ranks and lining up behind the billionaires, and completely disregarding the interests of First Nations people,” said Unions NSW Assistant Secretary Vanessa Seagrove.
“These Premiers need to listen to Gomeroi Traditional Owners that have been the custodians of this land for centuries and know the devastating impacts that this project will have on the Pilliga and the Great Artesian Basin that sits underneath it.”
The NSW union movement has been in strong opposition to the Santos project since the Gomeroi Nation overwhelmingly voted to reject the project at a historic meeting in March 2022.
A committee of unions has been formed to campaign against the project comprising representatives from the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, the Australian Services Union, the Electrical Trades Union, National Tertiary Education Union, NSW Teachers Federation, the Independent Education Union, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Maritime Union of Australia and the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union.
