BROOME-BASED conservation group Environs Kimberley has applauded business leader Andrew Forrest’s withdrawal from fracking and oil and gas in the Kimberley region.

Mr Forrest’s Squadron Energy has been in a joint venture with Goshawk Energy since applying for 220,000sqkm of petroleum leases in the Kimberley five years ago.

“We congratulate Andrew Forrest for recognising that the Kimberley is way too important environmentally and culturally to be fracked and industrialised. To have oil and gas fracking fields like you have in Texas would be a disaster for the $500 million tourism industry and would threaten our reputation for vast intact landscapes which the Kimberley is known the world over for,” Environs Kimberley director Martin Pritchard said.

“Andrew also knows that in an increasingly carbon constrained world the shale oil and gas in the Kimberley’s Canning Basin has become a stranded asset,” Mr Pritchard said.

Mr Forrest’s move comes after years of failed attempts to frack the Kimberley for oil and gas. ConocoPhillips and PetroChina withdrew in 2014 after spending tens of millions of dollars on drilling wells for no return.

Mitsubishi spent tens of millions before exiting and selling its interests to Texan frackers Black Mountain Oil and Gas subsidiary Bennett Resources. Alcoa canned a $40 million deal with Buru Energy in 2015.

These global companies have pulled out of fracking the Kimberley but unfortunately Origin Energy has not heeded the lesson and recently invested $35 million to join up with Buru Energy to look for oil and gas here.

“Origin Energy and their investors like Australian Super need to take a close look at Andrew Forrest’s withdrawal from the Kimberley to make sure they’re not going to make the same mistakes and waste millions on exploration before realising its never going to work,” Mr Pritchard said.

Bennett Resources currently has a 20-well fracking proposal in the Kimberley’s Fitzroy River catchment open for public comment.

“The McGowan government’s support for fracking the Kimberley has to end if they are to be taken seriously in wanting to look after this globally important part of Western Australia. The recent IEA and IPCC reports have said if we want a safe climate then there can be no more new oil and gas, this includes the Kimberley’s Canning Basin,” Mr Pritchard said.

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THE House of Representatives Standing Committee on the Environment and Energy will on Friday hold a public hearing for its inquiry into the Australian Local Power Agency Bill 2021 and Australian Local Power Agency (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2021.

The private member’s Bills were introduced in Parliament by Dr Helen Haines MP in February 2021 and referred to the committee for inquiry and report.

The Bills would establish the Australian Local Power Agency (ALPA) to support the development of community energy projects in Australia and the involvement of regional communities in local renewable energy developments.

Committee Chair, Ted O’Brien MP said, “The committee is looking forward to hearing the views of interested parties on the new agency proposed by the Bills. We will speak to a range of organisations including Australian government agencies, community energy groups, peak bodies, local governments and investors.

“The Committee’s inquiry provides an opportunity to hear and consider all viewpoints, in order to advise the House on the merits of the Bills,” Mr O’Brien said.

Public hearing details

Date: Friday, 27 August 2021

Time: 9.30am to 4.30pm
Location: via videoconference

Program

A full program for the Committee’s hearing on Friday is available on the committee’s website here.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, committee proceedings held in Parliament House are not currently open to the public. The hearing will be broadcast live at aph.gov.au/live.

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THE Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) will be holding a public hearing tomorrow (August 27) as part of its review into the Migration and Citizenship Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Information Provisions) Bill 2020.

The Migration and Citizenship Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Information Provisions) Bill 2020 amends both the Migration Act 1958 and the Australian Citizenship Act 2007.

The Bill amends the Migration Act to safeguard protected information provided by gazetted intelligence and law enforcement agencies to refuse or cancel a visa on character grounds, or revoke or set aside such decisions (Protected Information).

Chair of the Committee, Senator James Paterson said, "The committee will hear from various government and non-government witnesses on the importance of safeguarding protected information where it is in the public interest while balancing the need for transparency."

Public hearing details

Friday, 27 August 2021
9:30am—2pm (AEST)
Committee Room 2R1, Parliament House, Canberra

A program for the hearing can be found on the committee website

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, teleconference and video conference facilities will be used to connect witnesses to Committee Members. The hearings will be broadcast live at aph.gov.au/live.

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THE Australian Workers' Union and Mining and Energy Union are jointly calling on all Australian governments to get behind the Energy Security Board recommendations for Australia's explosion in low-cost renewable energy production to be matched with "sufficient investment in reliable generation".

The Energy Security Board is recommending incentives to stop the early closure of coal-fired power plants and create long-term signals for investment in dispatchable generation. Mining and Energy Union national president Tony Maher said it should not be left to the market alone to manage major transition in the energy grid.

"You cannot have a Hazelwood situation repeated across the country, where power stations close suddenly because they are no longer commercially viable,” Mr Maher said.

“The consequences of this ad hoc approach would be devastating for workers, their families and their communities. It would also trigger price spikes and blackouts.

"The nations that have most successfully managed energy transition, like Germany, have recognised that it needs to be orderly and predictable. Australia has been built on coal-fired energy, and it's still where the overwhelming majority of electricity in our grid comes from. Those who argue you should just let the market rip are arguing for unnecessary chaos and pain."

AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said making the Energy Security Board's recommendations law would be critical to securing Australia's manufacturing sector.

"If reliable, dispatchable power, like coal-fired power, disappears from the grid overnight the consequences would be catastrophic for Australian manufacturing," Mr Walton said.

"Steel mills, glass factories, and aluminium smelters can't stop operation when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow. They need to run continuously or they break and fail.

"It’s vital to ensure that coal and gas power is accessible to manufacturing until renewable dispatchable power is available to replace it. Australia can and should be a 21st century, zero-emission manufacturing powerhouse. But if we want that future we need to keep manufacturing alive today. That means locking in dispatchable power.

"On behalf of all our members in manufacturing, I strongly urge every government in Australia to get behind the Energy Security Board's recommendations and ensure dispatchable power is retained in the near future."

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