Lock the Gate

Where would you rather see our taxpayer money invested?

The Government wants to frack, but what does Australia want?

We’ve put together a letter you can sign below and add your ideas for the Federal Government on what they could do with our hard-earned tax dollars.

Please add your name and give us your ideas for where you’d rather see your tax dollars spent.

Petition text:

To Federal Parliamentarians, Ministers, Departments,

We are alarmed and disappointed to see the Federal Government now rolling out a suite of actions to prop up expensive and dangerous gas fracking across Australia without any proper public accountability.

As voters and concerned Australians, we ask that you hear our message - do not spend our money on gas fracking projects and big new gas pipelines.

Farmlands, water resources and the climate can’t afford to keep propping up polluting gas.

It’s time for Australia to grow stronger and tool up to embrace cleaner energy and storage.

There are a multitude of ways the Government could take a smarter approach to the Covid recovery. The Australian community has many ideas on how we can boost agriculture, tourism, First Nations opportunities, community health and disaster relief.

We know we can create jobs by genuinely supporting diverse Australian businesses, not throwing our money at the gas fracking industry.

We see huge opportunities to help Australia to get off polluting and expensive gas into the future, to modernise our power and heating and to save on gas and energy bills.

I ask that you oppose the measures being rolled out to fast-track gas fracking, including the ill-considered and secretive National Gas Infrastructure Plan, and take on board our ideas for how the money could be better spent.

Yours sincerely,

Please add some comments.

What would you rather see money spent on?

Here are some ideas:

Helping Australian businesses get off gas
Funding community projects in your neighbourhood
Land stewardship programs
Supporting First Nations organisations and businesses working on country
Renewable energy projects and battery storage
Disaster relief

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Showing 30 reactions

Geoff Davies commented 2021-03-23 15:18:56 +1100

There are many reasons NOT to frack and no good reason to frack. We don’t need the energy, storage will replace gas and the planet requires NO MORE FOSSIL FUELS. Fracking destroys groundwater, no matter what they say.
Rob Parkes commented 2021-03-23 15:18:56 +1100
Matthew Allison commented 2021-03-23 15:18:51 +1100

In a race for resources this government is sponsoring the constant degradation of our homeland. This is unacceptable for a sustainable future and more development on renewable energy and storage is required as opposed to risking aquifers with gas fracking in the driest habitable continent on this finite Earth
Steve Hicks commented 2021-03-23 15:18:47 +1100

Please invest this wasted money into aged care for Australians who have contributed to this country and get very little back in retirement.
chris oakden commented 2021-03-23 15:18:38 +1100
Ian Reynolds commented 2021-03-23 15:18:30 +1100
Pamela & Dick Evans commented 2021-03-23 15:18:29 +1100

Money should be spent at a community level. Covid has shown us that community is where true support comes from
Helen Weight commented 2021-03-23 15:18:28 +1100

Scomo, do not spend taxpayers money on gas unless the majority want it.
John Nightingale commented 2021-03-23 15:18:17 +1100

Rather than gifting tax-free money to multinationals based mainly in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, for activities that will never make a profit or provide taxation receipts to the Australian people, spend you money on activities that will benefit Ausrtalians, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide for your own grandchildren’s future.

Your current policies will only lead those grandchildren to despise your memory and attempt to forget that you spawned them.
Brett Jeffery commented 2021-03-23 15:18:08 +1100
Richard Marschall commented 2021-03-23 15:17:57 +1100

I’d like to see the government stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. I’d like to see them shut down the water thieves. I’d like to see the Australia’s national parks expanded and habitats for endangered and threatened species restored. Upgrading public transport, especially the railroads for both freight and passengers would be very nice.
Jacqui Campbell commented 2021-03-23 15:17:54 +1100

We need to remove tax-payer funds from propping up the Gas, Oil and Coal industries and invest that money in renewable energy. This includes the tried and tested wind and solar as well as emerging renewables such as wave power and biomass (not the biomass from cutting down trees though!). Our inaction on moving towards zero emissions is making Australia an international pariah and setting us up for failure.
Maree Plummer commented 2021-03-23 15:17:47 +1100
Paul Wilson commented 2021-03-23 15:17:45 +1100
Dan R-J commented 2021-03-23 15:17:37 +1100
David and Vivien Street commented 2021-03-23 15:17:34 +1100
Ross Hunter commented 2021-03-23 15:17:34 +1100

Money would be better spent elsewhere.
Errol Corrie commented 2021-03-23 15:17:27 +1100

The money would be better spent investigating alternative renewable energy projects as well as addressing homelessness and poverty in Australia
Gregory Hall commented 2021-03-23 15:17:25 +1100

Propping up a dying industry will only trap it’s owners into more stranded fossil-fuel assets. The Dampier-Bunbury pipeline is to be written off early, as it’s owners can see the (renewable) writing on the wall.

A corrupt use of public funds, and a fundamental corruption of so-called Liberal free-market principles.
Dereka Ogden commented 2021-03-23 15:17:19 +1100

Fracking ruins land and wastes precious water. Gas is a fossil fuel and gives off greenhouse gases and this is why we should not be fracking or burning this gas.
Lynn West commented 2021-03-23 15:17:04 +1100
Kevin Cato commented 2021-03-23 15:16:30 +1100
Penny Stanford commented 2021-03-23 15:16:20 +1100

All we need is Renewable Energy and Battery Storage.
Sara Carroll commented 2021-03-23 15:16:12 +1100
Caroline Quinlivan commented 2021-03-23 15:16:06 +1100

Renewable energy projects and battery storagr
Carl Milton commented 2021-03-23 15:15:41 +1100

It would be wise to spend ‘fracking’ money’ on projects and education that will help prepare Australians to navigate the looming challenges of Advanced AI and algorithms and to adapt to future climate change ramifications.
Richard Leplastrier commented 2021-03-23 15:15:40 +1100
R Bryn L Troath commented 2021-03-23 15:15:39 +1100

Environmentally focused employment projects that hire unemployed people and support landholders to fence off creeks and rivers from stock, provide water points and revegetate with endemic species.
Glenn Warwick commented 2021-03-23 15:15:39 +1100

Don’t waste taxpayers’ money on projects which will damage the future of the world, and of Australia. Of course, I am talking about money-down-the-pit when discussing fracking. Spend the money instead on renewables and sustainable agriculture.
Maggie Storey commented 2021-03-23 15:15:25 +1100

We must spend money on renewable energy and retraining the workers who may be made redundant as a result of the shift away from fossil fuels. Water contamination has been one of the biggest environmental concerns of fracking and where some of the most egregious incidents have occurred. A years-long piece of research by the US Environmental Protection Agency concluded in 2016 that in some cases fracking had harmed drinking water supplies. Earthquakes caused by hydraulic fracturing have been another big concern. Other local concerns listed by fracking critics include industrialisation of rural areas, noise from lorries and the air pollution impact from flaring, when excess gas is burned off.

The big picture issue, of course, is climate change. Fracking advocates have argued the technology is good for global warming because, at least in the US, gas has been displacing coal in the power mix.

But that coal is usually still burned elsewhere in the world, meaning fracking is simply adding to fossil fuel supplies – and the stock of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Not Rocket Science.

Condensed from an article in the Guardian