Local environmental groups are calling on the Australian Labor government to reverse its “reckless” embrace of new gas exploration and production.

The concerned residents – joined by a large and colourful contingent of Knitting Nannas – rallied outside Paterson MP Meryl Swanson’s office, in Raymond Terrace, on Friday 10 May.

While there, they also delivered a letter to the federal member on behalf of Getup, Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, 350.org Australia and Move Beyond Coal.

It coincided with a week-long national campaign against new coal and gas as well as for better protection for nature.

Ironically, the timing of the rally was ideal following Labor’s announcement of its Future Gas Strategy 24 hours earlier.

A spokesperson said they would not give up the fight.

“We just wanted to put our case to Ms Swanson,” she said.

“Having mocked the Morrison government’s ‘Gas led recovery’ plans before the last election, the Albanese government has now folded to pressure from the fossil fuel industries to extend the life of gas as a fuel to 2050 and beyond.

“This surrender to powerful vested interests is wholly inconsistent with Australia’s declared ambitions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“To the extent that some gas may be needed during the transition to renewables, there is already plenty of it being produced, but mostly exported.

“Requiring just a small part of that production to be supplied for domestic use (as in WA) would avoid the need for any new fields or further exploration.

“Labor’s backflip is a betrayal of future generations who will bear the brunt of ever more disruptive climate change.”

Letter to Meryl Swanson MP

Labor, keep us safe. No more coal and gas

To The Hon Meryl Swanson

We are your constituents, backed by organisations representing millions of Australians from Getup, Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, 350.org Australia and Move Beyond Coal. Together we are calling on the Albanese government to keep us safe from the dangers of climate change by saying no to more coal and gas and fixing our broken environment laws this year.  

No more coal and gas

We call on Labor to stop approving new coal, oil and gas proposals and to phase out existing projects. The International Energy Agency’s Net Zero by 2050 report is clear – beyond 2021, we cannot approve new oil or gas fields, new coal mines or mine extensions. Immediately, we call on Labor to reject the 32 coal and gas projects on Minister Plibersek’s desk including Woodside’s Burrup Hub, Tamboran and Empire’s Beetaloo fracking and Whitehaven’s Winchester South Coal project.

Within your electorate, we are also calling for the Hunter Gas Pipeline to be declared a controlled action under the EPBC Act. Further scrutiny of the pipeline’s impact on the environment via a new EIS is needed as the decision to approve the pipeline was made in 2009, and current decisions are being made on substantially outdated information.

The Hunter Gas Pipeline also potentially plays a big part in the Narrabri Gas Project going ahead. It is time the Labor government recognises that methane is a highly-potent greenhouse gas that absorbs heat 84 times faster than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. New gas developments cannot proceed if we are to honour the Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions across all sectors by at least 30% below 2020 levels by 2030. 

Labor’s Future Gas Strategy is every bit as big a fraud as Morrison’s Gas Lead Recovery. It locks in methane emissions, preventing us from meeting our Paris Agreement targets and contributes to exceeding 1.5 degrees temperature increase and catastrophic consequences for the planet and humanity. The reliance on carbon capture and storage (CCS) is farcical – the Global CCS Nameplate Capacity is 42.6Mt CO2e – the total emissions for coal fired power generation in NSW in 18/19 was 52.5Mt CO2e.

To spell it out – the entire world’s CCS capacity couldn’t capture the CO2 emissions from NSW coal fired power generators! CCS will not be saving the gas industry – it is a scam promulgated by the fossil fuel industry to prolong its own life and profits. Politicians who fall for it have been captured by the fossil fuel industry.

Instead, you are in a unique position to lead the charge for urgent assessment and advancement of offshore wind. This would generate electricity close to significant power consumers in the Hunter without CO2 emissions. It would also provide many more jobs than the gas industry – compare with the Kurri gas plant which provides only 10 FTE jobs. As the coal industry winds down, new jobs will be a critical issue in the Hunter. Your focus needs to be on supporting the future of the Hunter, not pandering to the gas industry.

Strong nature laws

Our national environment laws are out of date and must urgently be fixed. We call on Labor to ensure our new nature laws make climate a central decision-making consideration – a matter of national environmental significance. All projects put forward for assessment under the new laws must disclose their total emissions and decision makers should be required to say no to new projects that harm the climate and are not good for nature.

Our carbon credit scheme lacks integrity and must not be accepted to offset carbon emissions – it doesn’t stack up. We also call on Labor to ensure that assessments under the water trigger remain the responsibility of the Commonwealth (not states/territories), and to ensure that all environmental assessments for offshore oil and gas remain the responsibility of the Environment portfolio, not the Resources Minister. Immediately, we call on Labor to call in Tamboran’s Shenandoah and Amungee fracking proposals given the significant risk they pose to Northern Territory water resources.

We urge you to stand up for stronger nature laws to protect our koala population from climate impacts of heat stress and bushfires here in Port Stephens.

End coal, oil and gas handouts

We call on Labor to end coal, oil and gas handouts and refuse public funding for carbon capture and storage. In particular, we call for the redeployment of the $1.5-3.6 billion Middle Arm subsidy into the ‘Recharging the Territory Package’ and investment in Traditional Owners-led solutions, as well as the removal of the $1.5 billion Fuel Tax Credit benefit for coal, oil and gas.

The Fuel Tax Credit savings should be reinvested into the Australian Renewable Industry Package, providing support for people and communities experiencing financial and social disadvantage to benefit from the renewables transition, supporting communities and workers directly affected by the transition in the Hunter Valley and helping communities to build resilience in the face of increasing climate impacts. We further call on Labor to allocate billions more in funding to disaster preparedness and response, in consultation with communities.

The people are rising

We are disappointed and angered by the announcement from Tanya Plibersek to delay the nature law reforms and are gravely concerned that the Albanese government has no credible plan to address the extinction and climate crises.

As the Great Barrier Reef suffers the worst mass bleaching events ever recorded and Australian communities continue to suffer back-to-back extreme weather events; there is no more time for excuses or delays.

Everyone everywhere is diminished by the loss of nature, including the mining entrepreneurs and the enabling politicians and their children. We need our elected leaders to be helping provide ways forward to a safer future, where climate change is not threatening food security and vital infrastructure.

We hope you can become a voice for your electorate for the changes our country must quickly navigate.

We are a united and growing movement calling on the Albanese government to step up and act on your mandate to take meaningful action to address the climate crisis. We will be ramping up our people-powered campaigns and will not stop until you strengthen our environment laws and say no to more coal and gas.

On behalf of the people and nature

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