The Crisafulli Government's decision to release an additional 16,000 square kilometres of land for gas exploration in the Cooper, Bowen, and Surat basins will only benefit multinational gas companies, not the people of Queensland. The vast majority of Queensland's gas is destined for export, not for domestic use.
Lock the Gate Alliance National Coordinator Ellen Roberts said, "There are more than 16,000 gas wells already drilled and pock marking the Queensland landscape - many of them capped and abandoned as gas companies haven’t found the gas resource they wanted. These wells, some many kilometres deep, will stay in our landscape forever - risking the underground water resources that Queensland’s farms and regional communities rely on.
"Prior to the last election, the Crisafulli government recognised the damage that coal seam gas was having on some of Australia’s best agricultural land on the Darling Downs. The LNP made an election commitment to protect it. Now six months on and they’re yet to progress that election commitment - instead expanding the land available for gas.
"We need an urgent moratorium on the gas expansions in Queensland to prevent further damage to land, water and our climate."
ENDS