Contributed by Joe Montero

While the new phase in the Australia wide campaign to stop Woodsides extension of its massive gas extraction in the North West Shelf, backed by the deferral and West Australia’s state government, state governments around the country, are giving the green light for more gas projects.

This exposes the sham of both the Labor leadership and Coalition’s carbon reduction policies. It seems like they have used s tm hen public attention has temporarily moved away from this critical matter by the circumstances, to push through more deals for their corporate mates. This is specialty damming on Labor, which has just won an election bringing greater community expectations than this.

There is a groundswell of opinion that won’t give up on fighting to change this.

Peter Dunn, a former commissioner of emergency services for the Australian Capital Territory, had this to say.

“I’m bloody angry, bitterly disappointed, and I see a government that I was really hopeful for doing great things trashing its integrity.” 

Thia one project already passed its legislated emissions cap by 607,983 tonnes in 2023-24 and will now leave this way behind. The government is continuing with the false carbon credits system, which doesn’t cut carbon emissions. It just allows a backroad out by allowing polluters to purchase credits and neglect investing in alternatives. The promised carbon reduction policy is in tatters to benefit the interests of the gas companies.

Other projects approved include  Santos’ Barossa offshore gas project off the Northern Territory, two coalmine extensions in NSW, Viva Energy’s floating gas terminal in Geelong, and nine new areas for gas exploration in Queensland.

This is a betrayal of commitments made by Anthony Albanese and his ministers during the recent election campaign.

Georgina Woods is the head of research and investigations for the Lock the Gate Alliance, a national organisation that developed out of community opposition to fracking proposals. She says people feeling the effects of climate change are frightened about what the approval of new fossil fuel projects means for them.

An important part of campaign against expansion of the gas industry is to expose the lie that this is a clean fuel, or necessary as means of transition from coal. There are far cheaper and cleaner alternatives. The argument that turning from gas will damage the economy is also false. Failure to turn away will hold back transition, make Australia lag further behind other countries, make doing business more expensive, and lock Australia into technical backwardness and trade disadvantage.

Shifting to clean energy would mean transitioning the whole economy by compelling innovation and processes that lead to less pollution. What Australia makes could become more derisible on the domestic and global market, and this would mean an expansion in trade under the sound conditions of a green economy, including the needed reduction of Australia’s carbon footprint towards zero.