The call by the NT Government for bipartisan support to fund the struggling gas pipeline idea demonstrates they are out of touch in maintaining support for the shale gas fracking industry, according to the Territory Frack-Free Alliance.
“The Northern pipeline has never had a solid economic case and was dreamt up before gas prices crashed across the world,” said Lauren Mellor of the Territory Frack-Free Alliance.
“With no proven shale gas reserves anywhere in the Territory it was simply madness for a major export pipeline project to be built on the basis of a non-existent gas market.
Plans to downsize its capacity, and the reduction in gas exploration activity, are a direct response to the global oil and gas price crash.”
“The Giles Government is trying to blame everyone but themselves for the fact that their pipeline idea is uneconomic, but they need to face the fact that the onshore gas fracking sector is struggling and not a safe bet.
“Whether the pipeline is built or not, fracked gas from the NT is expensive to produce and is unlikely to have a customer base,” she said.
The Chief Minister wasn’t upfront with the public about the pipeline’s reliance on fracked gasfields across the Territory when announcing the project, but now expects taxpayers to foot the bill for an industry that is increasingly clear has no social licence to operate here.
“The Chief Minister promised that no public money would be used to subsidise this project. Now Giles’ is attempting a backflip on his promise, seeking to use taxpayers funds to prop up this dying project.”
“The last thing we Territorians should be doing is throwing more good money after bad on doomed fracking investments.
“The NT Government knows it is political suicide to go to an election in regional and remote areas, where opposition to shale gas exploration is strongest, and push support for fracking and a pipeline that relies of fracked gas.
“Trying to use any public money to subsidise Giles’ failed pet project will be met with strong opposition from the community-led campaign to protect land, water and communities from shale gas fracking across the Territory.”
“Territorians are not having a bar of the Giles’ government’s reckless plan to offer blind and baseless support to the fracking industry.