Communities consulted during the Fracking Inquiry’s latest Social Impact Assessment have accused consultants of betraying community views on fracking, and burying opposition in a report released late Friday afternoon.
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According to Frack-free NT, the report fails to mention the overwhelming support for a ban on high-risk fracking in targeted communities, and instead offers a blueprint for the gas industry to forge ahead despite strong opposition.
The Independent Scientific Inquiry into Hydraulic Fracturing of Onshore Unconventional Reservoirs in the Northern Territory has released a draft Social Impact Assessment Framework (Framework) produced by Coffey Services Australia Pty Ltd (Coffey).
The tender required Coffey to develop a leading practice framework for the identification, assessment and management of the social impacts associated with any onshore shale gas development in the Northern Territory.
The work included describing how a best practice framework would operate within existing Northern Territory and Commonwealth environmental assessment frameworks.
Working with its partners, the University of Queensland Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM) and CSIRO, Coffey was also required to describe how a social licence to operate applies to any Northern Territory onshore shale gas industry.
The Inquiry Chair, Justice Rachel Pepper, said Coffey was asked to use the Beetaloo Sub-basin as a case study to show how the proposed Framework might operate.
“The Beetaloo Sub-basin is an area of the Northern Territory where exploration for onshore shale gas is most advanced, and includes towns and communities typical of urban, rural and remote areas of the Northern Territory. This made it the most appropriate case study to test to efficacy of the proposed Framework”, Justice Pepper said.
The Inquiry has committed to providing its final report to the NT Government in March.
The Inquiry will hold its final round of public hearings from February 5-12.
The Katherine hearing will be held on February 7.
The Inquiry will also hold its final round of community forums in urban centres, rural and remote communities from January 30 February 16.
In a statement from Frack-Free NT, Vanessa Farelly, an Arrernte custodian from Alice Springs covered the consultations on behalf of CAAMA Aboriginal media association. “We recorded and reported directly from a majority of the community consultations,” she said.
“The strong views consistently expressed by residents showed a high level of opposition to fracking, plus a distrust of industry and the promises from government to safely regulate.
“This report buries those views, and is simply a recipe for industry to sideline community concerns.”
Gadrian Hoosan a Borroloola region Traditional Owner said, “We made our views to the consultants very clear, as we have at all earlier Inquiry consultations. We want fracking banned. It’s too dangerous for our communities, land and waterways. We won’t accept it.”
“Years of dealing with the impacts of invasive mining in our region have taught us the industry can’t be trusted. Yet this report fails to mention our strong support for a ban on fracking. Despite this, we are not giving up, we are going to keep fighting to protect country.”
Raymond Dixon organised his community to attend the Elliott consultation, where residents made a strong case for a fracking ban.
“We are very disappointed that this report goes against everything our people are calling for. We do not want fracking gasfields in the Beetaloo, on our homeland.”
“This report shows the consultation process has been hijacked to favour the gas industry, at the expense of our people. It’s not right,” he said.
Kerrie Mott, a rural supplier from Katherine said residents in the region, where chemical contaminants have already poisoned local drinking water supplies, expressed anger and a deep mistrust of the Inquiry process during the consultations, but their views were largely absent from the report.
“We felt the process was loaded and consultants provided no opportunity to reflect fracking opposition. Residents asked for these views to be recorded in the final report, but it looks like another government whitewash on behalf of this contested industry,” she said.
Ross Williams, a senior Warumungu Traditional Owner from Tennant Creek said he advised the consultants at the Tennant Creek hearings that his community wanted fracking banned.
“There was no one in the room who supported fracking. Why doesn’t the report reflect that? Instead all we get is hundreds of pages of spin,” he said.