The cash-strapped NT Government has awarded a Melbourne-based company almost one million dollars to help design a 670 km long corridor for a high pressure gas pipeline that risks opening up the Beetaloo Basin by enabling the transport of fracked gas to Darwin for export.
The $936,100 tender for the “Territory Energy Link” for "on-demand specialist technical advice on pipeline and corridor development" from Elliott to Darwin, was awarded to Melbourne company CNC Project Management earlier this month.
In 2020, CNC also received more than $327,000 from the Territory Government for studies on a Tennant Creek to Darwin pipeline corridor.
Des Barritt, Mataranka resident and owner of Little Roper Stock Camp Tourist Venture said,
“This pipeline will cause a lot of people between Elliott and Darwin considerable pain.
“While the government is cutting back funding for tourism and funding for water resources, they have found a million dollars to support this fracking project that shouldn’t even be happening.
“I set up a business here with my own money to employ local people and promote the Territory without wrecking the environment. Fracking puts sustainable businesses like mine and many others at risk.
“I’m totally amazed how much the government continues to spend on supporting the gas industry, which has resources well beyond what the NT government does.”
Arid Lands Environment Centre spokesperson Hannah Ekin said,
“The NT government is crying poor and predicting to be $14B in debt while paying a million dollars to develop a pipeline route that will enable fracked gas to be exported out of Darwin.
“We want to know why Territorians are effectively paying to design this risky gas pipeline, which threatens land and water, and why it’s not being paid for by a gas pipeline company as is usually the case.
“The NT Government would be better off spending this public money encouraging sustainable, local businesses, investing in renewable energy, or addressing the chronic housing shortage in remote communities.”
ENDS