Future Gas Strategy: consultation paper

Nurrdalinji Native Title Aboriginal Corporation
ABN: 32 608 508 769
ICN: 9392

Future Gas Strategy Consultation

Submission from
Nurrdalinji Native Title Aboriginal
Corporation

13 November 2023
Overview
The Nurrdalinji Native Title Aboriginal Corporation (“Nurrdalinji”) presents this submission to inform the Federal Government’s Future Gas Strategy, in response to the consultation paper on the future of gas in Australia. We appreciate the opportunity to present to your consultation team in
November 2023 in Canberra, while this submission constitutes our formal feedback.

We have taken this opportunity to make a submission in order to express our concern that the
Federal government continues to support both fracking the Beetaloo Basin and transfer of gas from the region for processing and use as feedstock for various industrial projects at the Middle
Arm Precinct in Darwin Harbour.

We note your commitment to consider the needs of ‘those who live near, work and are affected by natural gas developments, including local communities and First Nations people’ (p 1).

We believe in our culture. It’s very old, and it’s still very much alive. We have a responsibility to speak up for our country and our songlines.

Fracking will further alienate Traditional Owners from spending time on country, and living there.
Fracking will make it more difficult to hunt and fish and to be on and care for country as precious cultural practices. Fracking will bring trucks, noise and disruption to our communities. It will bring workers from out of town and drive up housing prices and rents.

Jingili elder and then Nurrdalinji Deputy Chair Samuel Janama Sandy said of fracking:

“We don’t want fracking, at any cost. The gas should be kept in the ground. Everything will
be changed if they start production pretty soon like they say. We won’t be able to go out on
country with our children and grandchildren.1”

Once companies put all their thousands of wells across the Beetaloo Basin, where are we going to take our kids fishing and hunting? Where will we go when they damage and pollute the water?
What will happen to all our sacred songlines if fracking goes ahead?

1
Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation. (2023, March 21). FOI: Secret Morrison Govt Report reveals NT fracking offers limited benefits for Aboriginal people. Link here.

3
Nurrdalinji members have visited Santos’ flaring fracking wells on Tanumbirini Cattle Station, and are greatly alarmed by what they've found there. Senior Alawa man and Nurrdalinji member Alan
Watson has explained the importance of Tanumbirini in this way:

“Tanumbirini is a special place because there’s songlines there and special ceremonies that
happened there in the olden days..I visited Tanumbirini and saw with my own eyes what
fracking by Santos looks like. I felt the heat and smelt the fuel. We don’t want hundreds of
wells across our country, or for sacred sites to be destroyed to do it.”

Now that we have seen what’s happened with fracking in the United States, we are very worried about the prospect of fracking on our country. Our cultural heritage is connected by the waters that flow under the ground. Those waters hold us, and our stories together. We are telling you we do not want gas mining on our country. The drilling and taking of gas risks destroying our country, water and culture.

We take this opportunity to stand in solidarity with the Larrakia Traditional Owners, on whose country the Middle Arm Industrial Precinct is proposed to be built. Larrakia Traditional Owners have made it clear they have not been spoken to, and if they had, they would say they are opposed2, not least due to proximity to one of the only rock art sites in Darwin that have survived colonisation. In June 2023, Jingili elder and then Nurrdalinji Deputy Chair Samuel Janama Sandy said this of the $1.5 billion commitment of public funds to Middle Arm:

“The Albanese government should listen to Traditional Owners who want to protect country
and don’t want fracking in the Beetaloo Basin. Public money shouldn't be used to fill the
pockets of big gas companies like Tamboran Resources who do not care about our country,
water and cultural heritage3.

We also stand with Tiwi Islanders opposed to the proposed offshore Barossa gas project.

2
Cox, L. (2023, May 12). ‘Another Juukan Gorge’: Darwin’s Middle Arm hub threatens Indigenous rock art, traditional owners say. The Guardian. Link here.
3
Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation. (2023, June 12). NT Middle Arm Gas Announcement: Beetaloo Basin TOs call for stop to $1.5B subsidy. Link here.

4
This submission addresses key issues of importance to us, raised by the consultation paper, chapter by chapter and under its sub-headings where appropriate. It answers relevant questions asked in the paper. It also makes the following recommendations.

Recommendations

1. We do not want the Federal or Northern Territory governments to back fracking on our
country in the Beetaloo Basin, nor have this gas used, processed and exported as LNG from
Middle Arm
2. The Federal government must maintain its promise and extend the ‘water trigger’ to apply
to shale gas, by amending environmental laws by the end of 2023
3. Any Federal funding for the Middle Arm Precinct must be made subject to a condition that
it not be used directly or indirectly to fund gas-related industries.

Who we are
Nurrdalinji was incorporated in 2020 and is made up of more than 60 native title holders from 11 native title determination areas throughout the Beetaloo Basin. Nurrdalinji was registered with the
Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations on 9 October 2020, following an historic meeting of native title holders from throughout the Beetaloo Basin at Daly Waters.4 The name “Nurrdalinji” means “mixed tribe” in Alawa language, reflecting the diversity of members in the Corporation.
Our members include native title holders and Traditional Owners from the Amungee Mungee,
Beetaloo, Hayfield, Kalala, Newcastle Waters-Muranji, Nutwood Downs, Shenandoah, Tandyidgee,
Tanumbirini, Daly Waters Township, Ucharonidge native title determinations.

Nurrdalinji’s purpose is to support its members to be consulted about what happens on our country. It seeks to enable its members to be heard, and to determine their future aspirations for their country.

4
Bardon, J. (2020, Sept 25). Beetaloo Basin gas fracking wells to be challenged by new Aboriginal corporation in bid to protect environment. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Link here. See our website www.nurrdalinji.org.au

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Chapter 1: Demand
Gas as a heat source in homes and small businesses
Q 10 - How can governments, industry and households work together to manage impact for homes?

This chapter of the consultation paper discusses future gas needs. As you would be aware, our communities are already experiencing extreme heat, made worse by climate change. This, coupled with poor housing, is impacting our health and wellbeing.

Right now, many of us do not rely on gas to power our communities in the Beetaloo Basin, we rely on diesel fuel which is expensive, polluting and reduces our ability to live a healthy life. Energy security is a pressing issue. More than 10,000 Indigenous households across the Northern Territory access electricity via a pre-paid power card meter on community or government-owned homes, which disconnect when credit runs out. Data from the NT Government’s Power and Water
Corporation shows Indigenous households with pre-paid meters are disconnected, on average, every four days. During hotter temperatures this figure increases to every three days.

A 2022 paper published in the esteemed international Nature/Science journal analysed the NT’s disconnection data, reported an overwhelming number of all households (91%) experienced a disconnection from electricity during the 2018–2019 financial year. Almost three quarters of households (74%) were disconnected more than ten times. In contrast, less than 1% of electricity customers in the National Electricity Market experience disconnection in a given year. The loss of essential electricity supply has wide-ranging impacts on us. It makes it hard to safely store medicine and food, makes it hard to sleep and for children to turn up at school.

The answer for the problems of energy security in our communities is not gas but solar energy which is free, plentiful and does not cause further damage to the climate. This is where we want governments to concentrate. The world is turning towards solar and other renewable sources of energy. We want the Federal and NT governments to be promoting renewable energy, not gas, so we can ensure our communities are powered by the sun which is cheap, safe and plentiful.

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Australian LNG in the world’s transition to net zero

Q 17 What role will LNG - and Australian LNG in particular - play in your economy’s energy transition?

LNG, and in particular LNG using gas sourced from the Beetaloo Basin where we live, will not help our energy transition, only harm our country and communities.

We do not support the LNG plant which Tamboran seeks to build at the Middle Arm Gas Hub. An internal briefing document from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and
Water5 accessed through an FOI request, describes Middle Arm as “a key enabler for Beetaloo gas to be transported north,” a project that would “..support a hub for activities such as gas production, minerals processing, hydrogen production and exporting gas.”

Gas fracking companies accord with this view: Tamboran asserted to a 2022 Senate Inquiry on 10
October 2022 that “gas that will be extracted from the Beetaloo will be necessary for a full range of industrial purposes at the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct, near Darwin. This includes ammonia and urea production for fertiliser, hydrogen production, energy-intensive manufacturing, power generation and LNG export.”

The fossil fuel implications of Middle Arm are huge. At a time when we need to be significantly and urgently decreasing our emissions, new fracking projects such as those proposed for the Beetaloo, as well as any associated fossil fuel infrastructure such as Tamboran’s LNG plant at Middle Arm, take us in the wrong direction.

In June 2023 Tamboran announced its plans to power NT industry, mining and remote Aboriginal communities with LNG. The company is trying to have people think it will turn exploration gas into
LNG and power our communities with gas instead of diesel. It is shameful that this company is characterising this proposal as a positive, green development. In reality this is not technically

5
Cox, L. (2023, May 18.). Darwin’s ‘sustainable’ Middle Arm development is key to huge fossil fuel projects, documents show. Link here.

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feasible, creates many risks and is just a fig leaf for Tamboran’s bigger plans to profit from our country, without our consent.

Chapter 2 - Supply
Gas-producing regions and reserves

As pointed out in the consultation paper, our country in the Beetaloo Basin of the NT is subject to exploration and potential production, at a very large scale. In considering the Federal government’s support for future development of these reserves (p 20) it is important to know that while we seek support from the Federal government to develop new jobs and economic opportunities for our people, we do not want fracking on our country.

There is no safe or emissions neutral way of digging up gas, without risking our country, our communities, our water and our culture.

The Final Report of the 2018 NT Pepper Inquiry notes that the response of Aboriginal people from regional communities “almost universally expressed deep concern about, and strong opposition to, the development of any onshore shale gas industry on their country.6” Crucially, the report further notes that this near unanimous opposition is based on the lived experience of communities’ dealings with other mining projects. It is these community voices that make up the membership of
Nurrdalinji, and whose views we take every opportunity to advocate for, including in this submission.

Q 26 What opportunities exist to improve engagement and consultation processes with industry?

The gas industry, and the NT government, do not properly engage and consult with us and have not since the very beginning of the proposed exploitation of our country.

6
Northern Territory Government (2018). Scientific Inquiry into Hydraulic Fracking in the Northern Territory (Final
Report), p.266. Link here.

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No free, prior and informed consent to fracking

Gas exploration agreements were signed across communities in the Beetaloo region more than a decade ago, but these decisions were not made in the proper way. In the first case, information about likely impacts of fracking were not well understood. Secondly, any such impacts, such as they were then understood were very poorly communicated to community members. Information was not shared with community members in their own language, little to no advice or support was offered to support communities to consider the nature of fracking proposals, not least any associated risks to water and country.

Traditional Owners have described the “consultation” that happened ahead of signing exploration agreements as processes in which companies said “you’ll get a lot of money, we’ll even give you money for your children’s education.7” Reflecting on these processes, Nurrdalinji director and
Jingili Traditional Owner Janet Gregory has said:

“Nobody ever told us the other side - about what sort of havoc this type of mining could do
to our land and our people…I deeply regret that I did not have the information at the time
that would have allowed me to tell those old people – before they signed the agreement –
to get as much information as they could from different sources. You need knowledge to
make the right decision, but it didn’t seem to me there was adequate truth telling then - or
now…Sadly, this fracking business creates division among families and the biggest division
is created by the benefit some believe they’re going to reap. But in reality it seems likely the
few families that support fracking will get a pittance, in return for their cooperation with
the mining companies.8”

No one could credibly claim the above as free, prior or informed consent.

Many Nurrdalinji members still insist they have not been properly consulted about the plans that gas companies have to frack their country at a large scale, or the impacts that such operations would have. Members point to being provided with poor quality information about the impacts and risks of fracking, saying this has compromised their ability to make properly informed

7
Gregory, J. (2023, June 20). I feel responsible for my role in fracking agreements signed long ago. But I won’t stop fighting to save the Beetaloo basin. The Guardian. Link here.
8
Ibid

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decisions prior to signing agreements. Since such agreements were signed, the scale of production fracking companies are now planning to pursue goes far beyond what was originally presented to members over a decade ago. We never consented to what is now planned. Indeed, if the scale of fracking operations, and the associated risks had been properly explained to us, we would never have agreed to grant the permits for these companies to enter onto our country in the first place.

It’s important to note that the approach of gas companies in promoting their fracking plans and seeking support for them has caused, and continues to cause, untold divisions within family and community.

To date, neither the federal government, the Northern Territory government, the Northern Land
Council (NLC) or any of the gas companies have genuinely attempted to give native title holders information about the combined or cumulative impacts of fracking proposed for the Beetaloo
Sub-basin. The impacts upon culture, songlines and sacred sites have not been properly assessed.
The combined and/or cumulative impacts of fracking proposed in the Beetaloo - particularly for water and sacred sites - demands much more significant information being provided to communities, as well as consultation processes that support their meaningful engagement in good faith decision-making processes.

Problematic representation for Traditional Owners

Under the Native Title Act, recognised native title groups have their own representative corporation - a prescribed body corporate (PBC). PBCs are controlled by native title holders to manage their own affairs, facilitate their interaction with third parties like governments, miners and developers.

The Northern Territory has a different arrangement to the rest of the country, whereby a Top End
Default (TED) PBC has been established to serve this function for native title groups. The Northern
Land Council is the managing entity of the TED PBC, it controls its operations, and as part of that, negotiates with mining companies. In effect, the TED PBC (and consequently, the NLC) manages and controls the native title rights and interests of native title holders over an area of land more than twice the size of Tasmania. There is no comparable entity operating across any other state or territory in the country.

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Unfortunately, the TED PBC does not adequately represent or engage with all native title holders.
In fact, such was the concern of community members about the poor communication and community engagement from the NLC-managed TED PBC, Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation was formed in 2020 with the aim of more properly engaging with, informing and representing the views of community members. Three years into operating, Nurrdalinji remains concerned that the
NLC has centralised control of all native title negotiations across the Top End, leaving the communities that NLC is supposed to represent poorly equipped to make decisions about their country and their future, on any terms other than those set by the NLC.

Nurrdalinji has formed the view that rather than representing community, the NLC is in the business of facilitating fracking.

We want the Federal and NT governments to ensure the NLC and NLC-managed TED PBC are held accountable and do the job they were formed for - to act as our faithful representative, listen to us and act on our concerns.

Oil and gas regulation in Australia

Chapter 2 notes the distinct roles of the Territory and Federal governments in regulating the gas industry.

Territory regulation

There is very limited regulation of the gas industry in the NT when it comes to protecting our natural environment, plants and animals and water. The activities of the gas industry are largely self-monitored and reported, with government authorities rarely proactively monitoring or taking action in response.

As a case study, we point to Tamboran, the company that intends to frack our country and the biggest fracking operator in the Territory, which also plans to build an LNG facility at Middle Arm to process their fracked gas.

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We are greatly troubled by the conduct of this company, in their dealings with us as Traditional
Owners, for their dealings with pastoralists, and for the alarming incidents at their worksites before production has even begun. They do not respect the rights of Traditional owners or work to minimise harm to the local environment.

This is not a company that should be a beneficiary of public funding, which is precisely what the
$1.5 billion dollar subsidy from the federal government towards Middle Arm amounts to. Jingili elder and then Nurrdalinji Deputy Chair Samuel Janama Sandy has been especially critical of the prospect of Tamboran being part of this massive federal subsidy at Middle Arm:

“Tamboran Resources can’t be trusted. They have already been fined for polluting on
Tanumbirini cattle station and are under investigation for other incidents. They don’t
deserve this kind of leg up from the federal government.9”

Traditional Owners have been locked out of their own country by Tamboran. In 2022, a subsidiary of Tamboran locked out our then Chair Mr Wilson Jabarda, jungai and proud Gudanji-Wambaya man
(now deceased), preventing him from visiting his sacred sites. This represents a serious repudiation of both our cultural authority and our fundamental right to practise our culture.

Ahead of production even commencing, there have been a number of alleged pollution incidents.
In May of this year, reports of three pollution incidents10 emerged relating to Tamboran’s exploration well at Tanumbirini Station. The use of more than 300,000L of toxic sump wastewater for dust suppression led to a fine. Secondly, a bund wall around a well-pad failed, such that sediment and potentially toxic chemicals from the well-pad were washed off the site, onto a paddock and towards the sacred waterway of Newcastle Creek. The third incident related to an alleged pumping of wastewater containing heavy metals including lead, the drilling fluid additive barium, from its sediment dams out onto paddocks that the pastoralists Rallen use as breeding paddocks for their livestock. These events are potentially in breach of Tamboran’s own environmental plan, as well as relevant Territory laws, regulations and guidelines. While an

9
Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation. (2023, June 12). NT Middle Arm Gas Announcement: Beetaloo Basin TOs call for stop to $1.5B subsidy. Link here.
10
McCutcheon, P. (2023, May 22). Questions raised about the largest fracking project in the Northern Territory. Australian
Broadcasting Corporation. Link here.

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investigation was reported to be underway of the third incident, we have not heard of what the outcome of this investigation, if any, has been.

What can we expect from such a company if full production with potentially thousands of hundreds wells proceeds? Contractors on Tamboran’s work site have alleged that they were instructed to continue to spray contaminated drill water at a gas fracking site for dust suppression, exposing workers to the contaminated water in the process. We note that it is reported that when a contractor contacted the NT EPA to report this he said he received no reply. In the media reports that followed, experts were quoted as saying drill water often contains toxic substances including heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, chromium and arsenic, as well as volatile organic chemicals like benzene and polyaromatic hydrocarbons11 that could pose risks to human health. We worry for these workers, and for the potential environmental impacts of spreading this water on our country.

In the wake of these incidents, Djingili Elder and Nurrdalinji Director Janet Sandy Gregory said

“this shows us once again why we do not want fracking which will poison our water, our
animals and upset the songlines that run across our country. When I heard that Tamboran
has polluted I felt my spirit and heart were breaking. I worry about the country and the
future and what it’s going to hold for my family and my people. We want the government to
take action against Tamboran.12”

There is also widespread concern, held by experts, about the NT government’s water plans and regulation, with experts criticising groundwater studies that underpin the Northern Territory government’s decision to permit fracking in the Beetaloo Basin. For example, Matt Currell, a professor of environmental engineering at Griffith University recently wrote:

“Our analysis shows that there are significant and critical gaps in the knowledge base
underpinning fracking approvals in the Northern Territory…. This means that, at present, it

11
Bardon, J. (2023, August 24). Contractors allege Tamboran Resources kept spraying contaminated Beetaloo water for up to five days. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Link here.
12
Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation. (2023, May 23). Tamboran fracking pollution: Beetaloo Traditional Owners shocked at sacred waterway risk. Link here.

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is not possible to properly assess the risk of contamination and over-extraction of Northern
Territory water due to fracking13.

Djingili elder and director of Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation, Elaine Sandy, said in response to
Professor Currell’s research:

“we have a responsibility to protect water, for our communities and everyone living
here….If fracking damages our water it can never be put right,”

Country is linked by water. Risks associated with fracking in one area may well cause problems throughout the whole region, because water which runs through all our country connects all of us as one. We need better regulation, including the introduction of a water trigger for shale gas, as promised by the Federal government, as one step towards protecting our water from fracking.

Reducing emissions from Australian gas production

It is incoherent for the consultation paper to argue that “Australia is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to achieve its climate targets and address dangerous climate change,” (p
24) while progressing new gas projects like the Beetaloo Basin and Middle Arm Gas Hub which will only serve to drive more dangerous climate change.

The dangers of gas for our climate is clear. The United Nations14, the International
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,15 and the International Energy Agency16 all agree that we can no longer pursue any expansion of fossil fuel projects in order to stay within safe limits of climate change. For its part, Australia cannot pursue any more new coal and gas projects if we are to meet our emissions reduction obligations under the Paris Agreement.

Nurrdalinji was so concerned about the climate impacts to our country of fracking and Middle Arm

13
Cox, L. (2023, October 20). ‘Methane bubbles in groundwater cast doubts over Beetaloo basin fracking approval, scientists say”. The Guardian. Link here.
14
United Nations Secretary General. (2023, June 15). Secretary-General's press conference - on Climate. Link here.
15
IPCC (2023, March 20). Sixth Assessment Report. Link here.
16
Harvey, F. (2021, May 18). No new oil, gas or coal development if world is to reach net zero by 2050, says world energy body. Link here.

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that we commissioned climate scientist Dr Bill Hare at Climate Analytics to prepare a report,
"Emissions Impossible" scrutinising GISERA’s report on offsetting Beetaloo emissions, which was widely criticised by climate scientists at the time of its publication.

Dr Hare's report shows Beetaloo and Middle Arm emissions would produce a climate bomb that cannot be offset.

Yanyuwa and Garawa woman and Director of Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation, Ms Joni Wilson, lives with her young family at Lightning Ridge, a tiny outstation located close to Imperial’s exploration wells. She says in response to Climate Analytics report, on the climate impacts of fracking:

“We put our feet to this land and it talks to us - it’s alive. As a jungayi for my country I have
a responsibility to protect and care for it. We used to live off a seasonal calendar, but we
notice changes. Country is our supermarket and already we’re seeing less and less birds,
turkey, fish and goannas and collecting food is becoming harder. Climate change, which will
affect everyone, is seeing longer dry seasons and much heavier rains where we live. We
don’t want fracking, which this report shows will make it hotter and harder for us and

future generations to live on country".

For more than a decade, successive governments have been warned17 that the Territory will be hit with climate impacts harder and sooner than other parts of the country. 2020 CSIRO modelling18
(see Figure One) makes clear the trajectory of more and more days in excess of 35oC between now and the end of the century.

17
ABC (2011, November 9). NT to face worst of climate change. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Link here.
18
Northern Territory Government. (2020, October 9). Climate Change in the Northern Territory: State of the science and climate change impacts. Link here.

15
Annual average number of days over 35°C under a high emissions pathway
Historical 1981–2010 Mid-century 2036–2065 End of the century 2075–2104
FIgure 1. Projected number of annual average number of days over 35°C for the middle (orange) and end of the
century (red) compared to the historical (grey) under a high emissions (RCP8.5) pathway. Green shading indicates
Monsoonal North projections region, orange is Rangelands. Source: CSIRO Report, p.14

These current and future climate impacts amount to a singular public health and social justice challenge for both the Territory and Federal governments. It is this challenge that governments should focus upon - and fund - instead of facilitating gas expansion that will only make climate change worse.

Geological storage of carbon dioxide

Q 29 How can the Australian government better communicate and provide more transparency to local communities regarding CCS projects?

The consultation paper discusses carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a way of dealing with emissions from gas projects. We know that companies operating in the Beetaloo Basin, such as

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the key player Tamboran Resources, are looking to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in order to make their projects appear to be clean and acceptable to the public.

The UN Secretary General has recently charactierised CCS as greenwashing. He says there have been “far too many willing to bet it all on wishful thinking, unproven technologies and silver bullet solutions.” 19 We see CCS as an underhand industry that gas companies will try use to justify fracking our country, putting at risk water, culture and country. We do not want governments to be backing gas industry projects like CCS which are just a desparate attempt to try manage pollution.

Royalties and revenue

The consultation paper claims “Gas production is a significant source of royalties and revenue for state, territory and Commonwealth governments.” (p 31). Again, research does not support this claim. It is impossible to judge how much money the Northern Territory government is receiving in royalties, as the budget does not disclose this revenue in a transparent manner. ACIL Allen’s modelling for the Pepper Inquiry into Fracking found that even if the most optimistic “Gale” scenario occurred, royalties would be $69 million annually on average, less than 1% of the NT government’s total 2023-24 revenue.20

The gas industry in the NT is also heavily subsidised by the Federal government, using valuable public money which could be spent on health and education for our communities. This includes
$1.9 billion promised for the gas hub at Middle Arm that will drive demand for gas from the
Beetaloo and $217 million for roads for the onshore gas industry.

19
Jones (2023) See here.
20
Australian Government (2023) Budget 2023-24, Budget paper No.1, Statement 5 as analysed by The
Australia Institute. See here.

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Australia’s gas workforce and LNG facilities

Q 37 How has the oil and gas industry impacted the local economy and employment opportunities in your region?

The consultation paper claims ‘gas projects represent a major source of economic activity and create jobs in gas producing regions.’ (p 32) But as you confirm in the paper, there are relatively few jobs beyond the construction stage, and in fact far fewer for Aboriginal people. The job rich nature of the gas industry is a myth that gas companies promote, with the help of governments.
This is definitely not our experience. We do not believe the claims that we will benefit from the gas industry. We see only the scars it will leave on the earth, the water it will take. We do not want it to go ahead.

Gas projects require a largely skilled workforce. We do not see our people provided training or jobs, they are merely promised training and jobs as a lure for agreement making. If the Beetaloo
Basin is fracked, research and experience shows that jobs will go to outsiders and our housing and goods and services will become even more expensive than they are now.

Modelling conducted for the Pepper Inquiry by ACIL Allen says that under a high production "Gale" scenario, which most reflects current expectations, there would be 524 additional jobs in the NT, but these would displace 524 jobs in the rest of Australia, leading to a net increase of 0 jobs.

A secret report, commissioned by the Morrison government but never released, was obtained under freedom of information laws by Nurrdalinji in 2023. The NIAA commissioned report concludes that

Traditional Owners from the Beetaloo Basin in the NT are unlikely to make economic, social, cultural or other gains from fracking plans for the region, explaining that “conditions are currently not conducive to strong agreements being negotiated,” contradicting claims by the gas industry that jobs and economic benefits will flow to communities21.

21
National Indigenous Australians Agency (2018). Blueprint for Aboriginal Benefits Realisation of the Beetaloo Basin.
Link here.

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The report continues, “Almost always, Traditional Owners and native title holders are at a political, strategic, legal, financial and information disadvantage to the companies with which they are negotiating.” (p 7). Critically, the report reveals that, “even where strong agreements have been negotiated, the benefits for resident Indigenous population can still be decidedly mixed.” (p 8).

While the jobs and economic benefits are not there, the costs to our country, water and culture are enormous. The benefits do not flow to our communities or the broader economy. They flow to
US gas companies like Tamboran Resources. As Djingili elder, native title holder and then Deputy
Chairman of Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation, Samuel Janama Sandy, said on 1 August 2023:

"We don't see jobs or economic benefits from fracking. The gas companies are only
interested in putting cash in their pockets, not creating opportunities for our families. Our
communities need power from the sun and for the government to build options which
protect our country and leave a positive legacy.”

Samuel Janama Sandy has also spoken about the false promises of fracking for his country:

“The NT government, the gas companies and the Northern Land Council get the big share
and our communities are left without jobs or support to grow stronger. We are getting a
peanut, while the white man is packing up his pocket with cash… we got nothing. I live in
Katherine in a housing commission flat, on a wheelchair, and haven’t got a car or any of the
benefits they say will come from fracking. Our people want jobs on country, but not jobs
that involve drilling into our country.22”

Q 38 What actions will assist workforce retention, upskilling and mobility in your community as the economy transitions to net zero emissions?

We need jobs and alternate economic activity but the gas industry is not the answer. We do not want jobs which involve drilling and destroying our country, we want jobs that involve training,will protect our country and will be there, long term, for our children into the future.

22
Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation. FOI: Secret Morrison Govt Report reveals NT fracking offers limited benefits for
Aboriginal people. Link here

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Conclusion
For all of the reasons outlined above, we do not support a future where new gas projects, including fracking the Beetaloo and the Middle Arm Gas Hub, are pursued in Australia. We are in a time when all governments should be looking to invest in the energy transition, including to urgently provide affordable clean energy for all First Nations communities across the Northern
Territory, not continue to support gas projects.

The Federal government must rule out any direct or indirect use of federal funds for gas-related industries. The Federal government must also listen, and meaningfully respond to, the concerns raised by Aboriginal people in relation to new gas developments.

We don’t want fracking on our country.

Thank you for considering our submission.

Yours faithfully,

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