By Nick D

In a powerful display of unity, hundreds rallied in Sydney on September 14 against Santos’ plans for coal seam gas (CSG) expansion in northwest New South Wales (NSW).   

Co-organised by Gomeroi traditional owners, Lock the Gate, Farmers NSW, the Country Women’s Association (CWA) and Unions NSW – the action was part of a long-running fightback against the $3.6 billion Narrabri Gas Project by the Gomeroi community, farmers, trade unionists and environmental activists.

Starting at Customs House in Circular Quay, the rally first marched to the Santos’ office on Pitt Street where organisers delivered a letter demanding the cancellation of plans to drill 850 new CSG wells in the Pilliga forest and Liverpool Plains. The letter also opposed Santos’ Hunter Gas Pipeline and Narrabri Lateral Pipeline projects.

This was coupled with chants of Gamil means no! Yaanay Santos! And city and country united we stand! Protect our water, protect our land! Ten speakers then addressed the rally after it made its way to Macquarie Street where NSW Parliament was sitting.

Gomeroi woman and campaigner Sue-Ellen Tighe demanded, “the state and federal governments stop the extraction, consumption and selling of fossil fuels in this country”. She told the rally, “shed the shackles and chains of fossil fuel industry! We must transition to green and renewable energies!”

Speaking about the extinguishment of Gomeroi land rights – including by the National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) which shamefully ruled in favour of Santos in December 2022 despite mass community opposition – Tighe continued,

“Our DNA is in the very soil of the Pilliga and the Gomeroi nation. When our traditional lands are dug up, trees are cut down and ecosystems decimated, we feel this pain as if we are being struck ourselves. Our people, culture and traditional lands continue to be commodified by those who do not have the cultural or moral authority to make such decisions”.

Gomeroi leader and Lock the Gate Narrabri activist Karra Kinchela emphasised the fight against all fossil fuel mining on Gomeroi land, “northwest NSW is under attack from mining – not just coal seam gas, but from coal as well. We need to change; we need to move to a more sustainable future. That’s not just for us Gomeroi people, but for everyone”.

Kinchela explained how state institutions are set up to fail indigenous communities and highlighted the need to mobilise against ongoing attacks on land rights,

“We’re going to continue fighting. We’re in the federal court waiting on a decision from the federal government on whether they’re going to listen to us and acknowledge our rights over the Pilliga. We know that they’re not going to listen and that’s the thing. We have to still come here and raise our voices”.

Four politicians opposed to the Santos project spoke including Independent Member for Barwon Roy Butler, Greens Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) Cate Faehrmann, Legalise Cannabis Party MLC Jeremy Buckingham and Independent MP for Wagga Wagga Joe McGirr. Notably, there were no speakers from NSW Labor.

Faehrmann highlighted the Greens historical opposition to CSG in NSW and recalled successful campaigns against mining such as in Bentley and Gloucester. Buckingham – who was in the Greens until 2018 and recently introduced a bill to outlaw CSG mining in the Liverpool Plains – stated, “I am making my vote in parliament conditional on the Labor Party stopping this [coal seam gas] industry in this term of government”. 

Butler – who represents in parliament the areas threatened by Santos’ plans and was in the right-wing Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party until 2022 – challenged the government’s argument that the Santos project will solves issues of state revenue and energy supply. In doing so, he emphasised parliamentary mechanisms to defeat the Santos project and did not call out the use of fossil fuels in general,

“Every year we export 3,000 petajoules of gas at ridiculously low prices. Why would we place our groundwater and our prime agricultural land at risk when just a public interest test on exports or a domestic gas reservation policy would look after people in Australia?

…You’ve heard of the Port Kembla Squadron gas import terminal. What’s that going to do when AEMO [Australian Energy Market Operator] says the gas at the well head for Santos is $7.41 a gigajoule. If you’ve got cheaper gas coming into the country then a project that’s already unviable and risky looks even more unviable and risky”.

Like Butler, NSW Farmers president Xavier Martin and Doug Frend – a farmer on the Liverpool Plains – spoke of the risks CSG poses to agriculture, particularly on groundwater and the Great Artesian Basin. Frend called for the cancellation of all CSG exploration licenses in NSW noting, “if there our soil and water is contaminated there is no more farming. If our climate continues to extremes, we simply can’t grow enough to feed to world”.

CWA president Joy Beames explained the organisation’s “evolution from cautious engagement to unyielding opposition” to CSG since its first rally on the issue in 2012. She said, “for far too long our communities have been told that we must bear the irreversible impacts of coal seam gas developments with our voices silenced and our concerns ignored”.

Assistant Secretary of Unions NSW Vanessa Seagrove spoke of the collaboration of trade unions and Gomeroi leaders since 2022. She highlighted trade union’s historical role in land rights campaigns – including the Wave Hill Walk-Off – and ended her speech,

“Land rights are not something that can be played with. You can’t just come in and put 850 coal seam gas wells on traditional country when the traditional owners have said ‘get stuffed.’ We say: piss off Santos. You’re not welcome and Gomeroi have made it very clear that they say no. Get out of the Pilliga!”

The Sydney rally was an inspiring show of unity against a gas project that has zero positive impacts for local communities and the planet. Yet it is unclear what will happen next. Earlier this year, the Gomeroi people submitted an appeal which is still before the Federal Court after the NNTT ruled in Santos’ favour in late 2022.

At the same time, both Federal and NSW Labor governments remain supportive of the Narrabri gas project. NSW environment minister Penny Sharpe and Premier Chris Minns do not seem to have wavered in their backing of Santos over local communities in northwest NSW and elsewhere.

Yet a powerful campaign – particularly one that unites groups as varied as were on display this Thursday – poses a serious challenge to the Australian state’s criminal inaction on climate change.