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

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 Macleay 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
Peter Blackband commented 2021-03-23 15:15:22 +1100
David Williams commented 2021-03-23 15:15:16 +1100
Bronwen Evans commented 2021-03-23 15:15:04 +1100

I want time, effort and money put into a just transition. Many people currently working in the fossil fuel industry will need retraining and support finding a new job.
Barrie Barkla commented 2021-03-23 15:15:02 +1100

I would prefer to see the money invested in land stewardship programmes.
Diane Summers commented 2021-03-23 15:14:56 +1100
Peter Bee commented 2021-03-23 15:14:28 +1100
David King commented 2021-03-23 15:14:27 +1100

If you believe that gas is a transition fuel for moving away from fossil fuels, what are you plans for transition? Surely finding funding for a fast and just transition is more important than propping up a slightly less polluting fossil fuel such as gas, whose days are number also. If gas was cheaper than clean energy, then it wouldn’t need propping up with tax payer subsidies.
Jill Gordon commented 2021-03-23 15:14:25 +1100

Money for green energy initiatives.

Reversing mangrove degradation.

Support indigenous land management groups (more+++)

Biodiversity for green otpions

Hydrogen/ solar/ methane capture

Not coal. Gas. Petrolium. Deforestation.
David Lynch commented 2021-03-23 15:14:16 +1100
Dee Constable commented 2021-03-23 15:14:08 +1100

It is time that we put our beautiful and wonderous planet first!
Graham Taylor commented 2021-03-23 15:14:03 +1100

I would like to see more money spent on sources of renewable energy and the upgrading of the transmission grid to support the development of more solar and wind farms.
Jan Cox commented 2021-03-23 15:14:00 +1100

Please stop supporting further gas-fracking and coal, which only add further emissions to our over-heated planet.

Support renewable energy and battery storage – see South Australia’s example.

Support farmers trying to cope with the challenges caused by climate change – more frequent and severe droughts, bushfires and floods

Ensure that fossil fuel companies contribute to the problems their emissions have caused. Ie have the guts to introduce a carbon tax.

Do not use NAIF funds to prop up these damaging industries

Do it NOW!
Genevieve Kang commented 2021-03-23 15:13:59 +1100
Caddie Brain commented 2021-03-23 15:13:53 +1100
Adele Mitchell commented 2021-03-23 15:13:35 +1100

I would rather see money spent on helping Australian businesses get out of gas, and on renewable energy projects and battery storage.
Martha Ansarq commented 2021-03-23 15:13:35 +1100
Peter Marsh commented 2021-03-23 15:13:30 +1100
John Lee commented 2021-03-23 15:13:29 +1100

Fracking is like killing a fly with a canon. It has many unwanted side effects if not done properly.
Robyn Smith commented 2021-03-23 15:13:28 +1100

Australia needs to start planning for the future and establish industries that will provide new employment opportunities for people currently involved in the coal & gas industries. Other countries are doing this, we should too
Ash Fissenden commented 2021-03-23 15:13:21 +1100
Bernadette Evans commented 2021-03-23 15:13:12 +1100

“Democracy is not a state. It is an act.”( late US congressman John Lewis once wrote

it requires political leaders to act on principles of transparency, accountability and responsibility
Jill Fechner commented 2021-03-23 15:13:11 +1100

Spend the money on anything that turns the floodtide we are currently experiencing from Climate Change. Our ecosystems are in crisis. We need strong support for Landcare with input from first nations rangers and environmental scientists.
Sue Harmer commented 2021-03-23 15:13:04 +1100

Low cost housing is badly needed

Don’t put heavy haulage roads through small communities. They need to be near the industries they service.

No fracking. No coal mining.

Hospitals need to be upgraded if COVID has taught us anything.
Vince Collis commented 2021-03-23 15:12:43 +1100
Jaime McElchar commented 2021-03-23 15:12:40 +1100