GetUp welcomes Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s announcement that the Albanese Government is keeping their election commitment to extend crucial water protections to fracking this week before Parliament finishes for 2023.
If the water trigger passes the House, fracking corporations will have to go through rigorous national assessment over the severe risk fracking poses to water, which could stop fracking in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin.
The news comes as fracking corporations ramp up their plans for large-scale NT fracking.
GetUp CEO, Larissa Baldwin-Roberts said:
“This is a big win for Traditional Owners who have been standing up to fracking corporations for a decade, backed in by GetUp members every step of the way.
“In the lead up to the last election, GetUp campaigned with Beetaloo Basin Traditional Owners demanding protection of their water. The remote vote determines who holds power in Lingiari and Labor plastered remote booths with signs promising the water trigger.
“The GetUp movement has campaigned nationally for 570 days to hold Labor to this promise. Last month, Traditional Owners joined GetUp and movement partners to deliver a 50,000 strong petition to Minister Plibersek to urgently pass water protections.
“We call on Parliament to get on with the job of passing crucial water protection laws this week, so fracking corporations can’t get away with using millions of litres of precious water without national scrutiny. Minister Plibersek must then use her powers to stop fracking once and for all – calling in Empire Energy’s Carpentaria pilot project and Tamboran’s Amungee appraisal wells over severe threat to water.”
ENDS
Media contact Amy Morgan, media@getup.org.au, +61 2 8188 2870