PHOTO: Farmers, Gomeroi First Nations peoples, union members and community members vote in support of The Breeza Declaration on Sunday.
A new coalition has united to produce what they say is an historic declaration of unity against the Narrabri Gas Project over the weekend.
Gomeroi Traditional Owners, NSW Farmers, the Country Women’s Association of NSW, Unions NSW and the Lock the Gate Alliance have signed a joint declaration calling on the NSW government to withdraw support for Santos’ Narrabri gas project, as tensions escalate over threats of compulsory land acquisition.
The document is known as The Breeza Accord, after it was signed at a gathering of community members and supporters held at the Breeza Hall on Sunday 22 March.
Coonamble farmer Jeremy Borowski was there as President of the Australian Bore Water Users Association.
He says the opposition to both the Narrabri Gas Project and the Hunter Gas Pipeline are gathering steam, especially after the NSW Government quietly resurrected multiple “zombie PELs” (petroleum exploration licences) across the Liverpool Plains.
“I can’t believe they’re having the same fight we were five years ago,” he said, referring to the local action against the proposed Central West Gas Pipeline that would have cut through the Coonamble district.
“It’s very similar to what we went through and when the time comes they may need us to stand with them as they stood with us to stop the previous pipeline proposal.”
Mr Borowski says nothing from Santos’s Narrabri Gas Project in its current iteration will have any feasible impact upon gas prices in the foreseeable future.
“The only way we can expect to see any feasible benefit from coal seam gas to the current New South Wales energy market will be once gas extraction is allowed to expand onto the Liverpool Plains where they are forecasting better quality and better quantities of gas to be available,” he said.
“The Narrabri Gas Project is simply the wedge that drives the doors apart to get into the Liverpool Plains, which is why they’ve gone to this extent, this madness of putting a pipeline through the Liverpool Plains, and why they have resurrected the zombie PELs that have remained dead and buried for the last three or four years.”
With the NSW Government already giving survey access to farms, Mr Borowski says a planned horse ride along a 400 kilometre length of the planned pipeline route organised by Narrabri farmer and activist Sally Hunter will give farmers information about their rights and what they can do.
“I think about 25% of farmers on the line have so far signed access agreements of some type but there is still significant community pushback about this.
“I think ultimately it’ll come down to making people aware of what they can and can’t do in this day and age, and then getting the greater community aware to the fact that drilling holes all through the Pilliga Forest or the Liverpool Plains is not going to be the magic bullet that saves Australia’s cost of living or energy crisis.
“It simply won’t have that effect.”
In February, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) released a report entitled ‘Narrabri is a costly way to increase gas supply’.
“The likelihood is that Narrabri will be more costly than the alternatives available, while its timelines remain uncertain,” said energy finance analyst Kevin Morrison in his report.
“In IEEFA’s view, the government should focus on designing a domestic gas reservation scheme that encourages the cheapest new gas supply, which would involve diverting more gas from Queensland.
“This would lower gas prices in NSW, Victoria and South Australia and help to address cost-of-living concerns.”
Mr Borowski says The Breeza Declaration brings “varied but unified” groups together to combine their resources in opposition to the gas extraction.
“It’s important to remember that this fight is not just about prime agricultural land.
“The fight is about the impact of this industry on communities and agricultural land.
“And if drilling in the Pilliga Scrub has the potential to harm the productivity, or the well-being of surrounding communities, or the quality or quantity of groundwater that we can currently extract that supports our communities, then that industry has no place in our region.”
Country Women’s Association of NSW CEO Danica Leys says coal seam gas is not something her organisation takes lightly and that it has been CWA NSW policy to oppose gas exploration, extraction and production since 2017.
“This community has been clear with this declaration,” Ms Leys said.
“It does not want to be an industrialised gas field and it does not want its water resources harmed, and that should be the starting point for any decision.”
“Gomeroi Mob don’t want to see hundreds of coal seam gas wells drilled into the sacred Pilliga Forest,” said Gomeroi Traditional Owner Karra Kinchela.
“We will continue defending our land, water and cultural heritage from industrial gas development and are proud to be joined with unionists, farmers and country women in defending the land we all love.”