Lock the Gate Alliance has expressed concern about the Turnbull Government’s approval of a 622km Northern Gas Pipeline from Tennant Creek to Mount Isa, reported today.
Pipeline company Jemena has been clear in industry seminars that the pipeline is designed to open up vast areas of the Northern Territory to industrial-scale fracking gasfields. The gas pipeline would be one of Australia’s biggest new fossil fuel infrastructure projects. A final decision on the project is due from the Northern Territory Government in the coming weeks, despite a moratorium on fracking.
"The Federal Government risks undermining the current fracking moratorium across the Northern Territory with this gas pipeline approval,” said Naomi Hogan, Northern Territory Coordinator for the Lock the Gate Alliance.
"The Northern Gas Pipeline could lock in decades of shale gas fracking across the iconic landscapes and waterways of the Northern Territory.
"If the Northern Territory Government follows suit and approves this gas pipeline, it would make it very clear that the wishes of the vast majority of Territorians are being undermined by gas industry pressure,” she said.
Gadrian Hoosan is a Traditional Owner from the Gulf region of the Northern Territory. His traditional lands are being targeted with fracking exploration licences.
"We will not allow our traditional country to be a sacrifice zone for fracking, while the gas industry profits at our expense,” he said.
"Families from Borroloola and across the Gulf are ready to do anything we can to support our fellow Countrymen faced with a gas pipeline across the Barkley. We are here and ready to help stop this fracking pipeline.
"Fracking gasfields threaten not just our land and water, but also our livelihoods and our culture,” he said.
Alice Springs business owner Marli Banks, said: “I have major concerns that this pipeline approval by the Federal Government gives a green light to future fracking, an industry that overwhelmingly Territorians do not support
"We have been participating in the NT Fracking Inquiry in good faith, and now we feel like the Federal Government is going over the top of us. It’s clear that the community does not want to be pressured to have fracking gasfields through our water supplies.
"We’re calling on NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner not to approve this gas pipeline, not before the NT fracking inquiry has been completed,” she said.