Bill Shorten’s proposed plan to spend $1.5 billion opening up dirty natural gas drilling in the Galilee and Beetaloo Basins proves that the Labor Party just isn’t serious about tackling dangerous climate change and the Greens will use our power in the Senate to block any such move, Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale and Greens Sen. Larissa Waters said.
“We are in the middle of a climate emergency and we can’t be opening up any more coal, oil or gas fields if we are going to hand over a sustainable environment to our children and grandchildren,” Di Natale said.
“Australia’s fastest growing source of emissions is leaking methane from gas projects and Labor’s plan will simply add to Australia’s growing emissions when they need to be going the other way.
“The Greens will use our numbers in the new Senate to exclude any NAIF funding for fossil fuel projects because taxpayer money shouldn’t be used to continue subsidising polluting industries.”
“The Beetaloo Basin, for example, is the single biggest gas reserve in the country. Bigger than any of the North West Shelf reserves that have already propelled Australia to be the World’s biggest gas exporter.
Even the NT government’s own report into fracking found that opening up the Betaloo Basin would increase Australia’s emissions by 6.6%. So Bill Shorten needs to explain how exactly he’s going to reach Labor’s 45 per cent emissions target while also opening up these dirty, polluting gas fields?”
“What Queensland needs is a plan to help transition coal and other affected communities away from dirty, polluting fossil fuels and towards a clean green energy future based on renewables, not empty promises of jobs that we know won’t last over the long term,” Waters said.
“The Greens would protect our land, water and climate by pushing to ban any new or expanded gas mining and to ban gas fracking, and instead drive a jobs and investment boom in clean renewable energy.”
“The big gas companies have anticipated around 1,200 fracking wells will be mined right across NT’s countryside if the Basin is opened up.”
“We need to keep it all in the ground if we want any hope of keeping a safe climate system.”
“This is the policy you get when corporate donations corrupt our political parties. Labor has accepted $2 million from gas and oil companies since 2012,” she said.
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