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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/10/the-australian-government-admits-its-funding-is-supporting-the-gas-industry-thats-politically-risky>
"Events in Canberra this week point to a significant political battleground for
the next federal election.
More than 80 doctors converged on the capital to protest against government
support for fossil fuel expansion in the Northern Territory. It might not sound
like that many people, but it’s representative of a bigger movement backed by
several crossbenchers, notably David Pocock and Monique Ryan.
About 2,300 medical professionals have signed a letter calling on the Albanese
government to withdraw $1.5bn funding for an industrial development at Middle
Arm, south of Darwin. The funding is a carryover from the Morrison era. Labor
came to power last year planning to cut support for the Coalition’s
never-delivered “gas-led recovery” from the pandemic, and it did in several
cases. But the money for the NT development survived.
As
Guardian Australia’s Lisa Cox has reported, the government knows this is
intended to support the development of the large Beetaloo Basin gas resource in
remote country south of Middle Arm – it just doesn’t say so publicly.
Labor has struggled to get its story straight on gas in the NT. The project is
described as a “sustainable development precinct”. Anthony Albanese told
parliament on Tuesday that one project at Middle Arm was “potentially
associated with fossil fuels” but five were for clean energy and resources,
including hydrogen, critical minerals and solar.
We know from documents released under freedom of information laws this is not
how it has been described internally."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
