Grandstanding Gasholes

An embarrassing report this month revealed, via Freedom of Information, that NT Enviro minister Eva Lawler was selected as the patsy for delivering a controversial announcement regarding a government grant to build a new grandstand for the turf club.

A media adviser for the Minister said she was unsure about the announcement “putting it all on Eva”,

It'd attract attention any time, given the unique status of bookmaking - indeed, any gambling - in the NT, but with the Territory suffering our worst ever bust, coming off the unprecedented boom of the large Inpex gas project, those with an eye on debt had fair questions about priorities and value.

But Ms Lawler must have been good for it, because this week she was trotted out again, in parliament and on TV, to make another difficult announcement. And this one is illuminated by yet another FoI discolosure.

Under fire in a by-election from the NT Greens, who have slammed Labor's record on fracking, the minister was called upon to read a 20 page speech, claiming environmental achievements over the past four years. Dumbed down for low-attention spans, this was reduced to a general claim (on TV) and factoid (for social sharing).

and thereby, risking precious finite groundwater resources for the sake of hastening climate chaos is a laudable achievement for the NT ALP

Trouble is, a chunk of the claimed achievements were actually the process of making hydraulic fracturing a regulated activity. Actions claimed to be environmental wins (eg changes to the Water Act) turn out to in fact be enabling instruments, that have the perverse effect of protecting operators from liability for routine contamination.

But most glaring is the juxtaposition of claims to a climate policy (whch looks more like a directionless discussion paper). No clues are provided about how a long-term 'aspirational' emissions target might be met in the face of massive new emissions from fracking.

And this is where the next FoI comes in.

A recommendation from the Pepper Inquiry, that provided cover for NT Labor's fracking agenda, required NT and Commonwealth governments to co-operate on offsetting the estimated annual NT emissions from fracking, of 26.5 - 38.9 Mt CO2e. Analysis of the Inquiry's data show that the moderate scenario represents a whopping 4.9% increase to Australia's emissions.

So Chief Minister Gunner wrote to the PM in 2018, informing him that fracking would go ahead, begging for a greater cut of royalties, and requesting the recommended assistance.

The response?

Easy-peasy. We've already committed to meeting and beating (by cheating?) our Paris targets, and its going so well (???) we can just wrap up another 5% in that.

...

of course we all know it's not going so well, neither internationally, nor here in Australia. The NT's intended contribution is an unbearable addition to a poorly managed burden.

So where does this leave the NT, and in particular Minister for the Environment Eva Lawler?

Relying solely on the Federal Liberal Government to make good their empty assurances on Paris. and then some.

Clearly, NT ALP's claims to enironmental achievement have a few holes. Regulatory reform related to fracking would be better recognised as enabling legislation, rather than environmental protection. Meanwhile, a vague climate policy is crueled by a failure to describe how the huge emissions from fracking might be offset. At an estimated cost of over $4b, it seems like another case of piling debt upon debt.