Lock the Gate Alliance says the Prime Minister is not listening to regional communities if he thinks gas companies have a social licence to operate, as he was quoted saying this morning before meeting with the gas industry.
"Saying gas companies have a social licence to operate is deluded and an insult to the farming communities who have been bullied and taken advantage of by unconventional gas,” Phil Laird, Lock the Gate National Coordinator, said.
"Nothing could be further from the truth. Only last year a report from a South Australian parliamentary committee into unconventional gas said there was no social licence in the South East.
"Farmers and Traditional Owners have been protesting and locking their gates to protect the land and water we all rely on from dangerous unconventional gas mining for years and they won’t be stopping.
"The Prime Minister’s gas push is threatening our national food security and it’s being left to farmers and Traditional Owners to once again protect our land and water from short-sighted politicians.
"We have renewable energy solutions, which don’t cost our land and water, like dangerous unconventional gas mining does.
"The Prime Minister should be meeting with renewable energy companies which hold the sustainable long-term solutions, instead of the gas companies which have contributed to the current problems.
"The Prime Minister should also meet with regional communities who will tell him that regardless of whether unconventional gas is for export or domestic use, if it’s ruining our land and water, it doesn’t have a social licence," Mr Laird said.
