Lock the Gate Alliance has condemned the Morrison Government’s latest multimillion dollar subsidy to the fracking industry, labelling it foolish at a time when the need to move away from fossil fuels has never been more urgent.
Keith Pitt and Michelle Landry today announced $60 million in taxpayer money to help fracking companies rip apart the precious Channel Country floodplains of the Queensland Lake Eyre Basin and adjoining areas.
“The Channel Country floodplains of the Lake Eyre Basin are some of the last free flowing desert rivers on earth and will be irreparably damaged if fracking is allowed to occur,” Lock the Gate Alliance national coordinator Carmel Flint said.
“Graziers who rely on these floodplains will suffer major impacts and economic loss if industrial fracking takes over, with thousands of gas wells and a vast network of roads and pipelines diverting precious floodwaters, causing erosion, and degrading the land.
“This is more corporate welfare from the Morrison Government - people need help to recover from COVID but instead of doing that this government is bankrolling multinational gas giants.
“Keith Pitt is already facing a Federal court challenge over his taxpayer funded grants that went to fracking companies in the Territory.
“It shows terrible disregard for the global effort to limit climate change to throw money like this at gas companies just the week after the historic Glasgow Climate Pact called for urgent action to reduce fossil fuel subsidies.
“With this one move, Keith Pitt has moved to damage graziers at home and further damage Australia's reputation as a climate laggard abroad."
The announcement comes after a hidden independent scientific report commissioned in 2019 by the Queensland government, but exposed last year, called for a ban on unconventional gas exploration in the region.
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