WEBVTT - Fracking the Outback: Australia's Plan to Go Big on Fracking & Plastic 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.119 This year, I've been looking at what's behind the explosion 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:11.840 in disposable plastics, and as you have heard on earlier episodes, 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:15.280 nearly everywhere I looked, I found fracking. 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:19.520 And the plastics fracking connection has even reached Australia, where 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:22.280 the government called its strategy to respond to the pandemic 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:23.840 a gas fired recovery. 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:26.759 Oh hello, what's that? We have an Australian reporter. 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:31.000 Now, yes, you've been asking for it. 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:34.320 And now we're digging into the oil and gas industry 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:37.479 down Under. And when I say we, I mean you, 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:40.160 Lindall Rollins, Welcome to drills. 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:43.000 Thank you so much, Amy, I'm so excited to be here. 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:49.080 And so as I was saying, Australia's recovery from the 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:50.960 pandemic is fired by gas. 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:54.800 Fossil feed stock is all of your modern life. You 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.360 want to live a modern life, you need a fossil 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:00.680 feed stock. You can't get calmon any other way. If 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:02.640 you want a chemistry lesson, I'll help you at the back. 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:07.240 That's Andrew Laveres, the former CEO of Dow Chemicals, the 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:11.600 world's second biggest maker of plastic waste. Lavers was born 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:14.720 and raised in Darwin in the Northern Territory. He's gone 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:19.880 on to advise US presidents, including Obama and Trump. More recently, 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:23.600 Lavers was back home in Australia during the pandemic and 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:27.440 in his spare time, became a strategic advisor to Australian 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:33.640 Prime Minister Scott Morrison's National COVID nineteen Coordination Commission. Lavers 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.080 joined the Commission's Manufacturing Task Force and they quickly put 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:41.119 out a report titled creating a Competitive Domestic Gas Market. 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:44.440 That's what terrific At the moment, we have got blastering winds, 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:46.120 we are surrounded by. 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:50.000 A red sky, choking dust and slike. 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.800 That is just one of countless dramatic stories to come 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:55.520 out of this bush fire season which is raging on 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:56.960 with no relief in sight. 0:01:57.120 --> 0:02:00.520 The report came out in May twenty twenty this month 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.480 that the devastating fires that had been burning in Australia 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:07.720 since June the previous year, eleven months in total, burnt out. 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:13.119 Here's Lavers on Australian National television earlier this year, echoing 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.600 some of the talking points Amy has been reporting on 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:20.120 this season around gas. Their feedstock. Laveris keeps talking about 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.400 is the byproduct from fracking that gets used to make plastics. 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:28.040 The National COVID Commission work we did was for manufacturing, okay. 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.640 It wasn't for electricity, It wasn't for doing the power 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.240 balance or any of that. The work we did was 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:39.560 totally based on using the carbon for manufacturing. That's the 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.920 work we did, Okay. I have no skin in the 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:46.400 game to keep in natural gas for power for anything 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:48.680 other than a transition. There's no reason to do that 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.919 because it is an emitter. It's not a bigger emitter 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.600 as call, but it's surely as an emitter. So you've 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.520 got to use it as a transition. That's it until 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:01.840 batteries become affordable and scatable can actually get more snowy hydros. 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.119 And why you need a gas pipeline is as much 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.800 to provide that transition for that, but more for industry, 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.040 which is why I'm trying to bring it back to 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:12.160 the feedstock troilware. 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:17.560 So when the former CEO of Dow Chemicals, who is 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:19.640 still on the board of some of the world's biggest 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:26.080 plastic manufacturers, talks about manufacturing, he's talking about plastics. I 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.840 looked into the National COVID nineteen coordination Commission report that 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.880 Laveras contributed to, and sure enough we get a picture 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.280 of the subtext of his appearance on Q and A, 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.120 one of the most popular shows from Australia's public broadcaster, 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.440 the ABC. On page twenty two, the report describes how 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:47.080 domestic demand for gas could grow further if a weldscale 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:51.360 ethylene complex were built Saudi equivalent created ten billion dollars 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:55.160 in revenues and twenty five thousand jobs. The Gas Fired 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:59.960 Recovery centers on fracking five key strategic gas basins in Australia, 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:02.920 and the first to be explored is the Beterloo basin 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:07.040 in the Northern Territory, near la Veris's hometown Darwin. Plans 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:10.240 to frack the Beterloo have attracted opposition from at least 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.560 six First Nations whose country and water will be affected. 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:15.840 You know, it's not like the big hole in the ground. 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:21.040 We can cover it all up. This could destroy country forever. 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:26.760 You can't go abuck and fits as aquifers, those underground 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:31.000 water systems. You can't fix the water once you've destroyed it. 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:35.200 Australia has only recognized native titles since the nineteen nineties, 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.320 but in practice the law gives little protection to sacred 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.600 sites and drinking water from fracking. More on this in 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.640 a minute. Under the Gas fired Recovery Plan, the federal 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:48.440 government has handed tens of millions of dollars worth of 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:52.880 grants to companies for exploration. In a press release, Minister 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:56.599 for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor declared that be 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.719 Toloo Basin was a key element in the gas fired recovery. 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:05.120 Recent exploration has shown promising signs finding liquids rich gas 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:10.320 at a shallower depth than previously expected. Liquid's rich gas, 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:15.000 also known as wet gas, is particularly useful for plastics manufacturing, 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:19.160 which brings us back to Andrew Lavers's hometown, Darwin, where 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.799 Laverus was also an advisor to the Northern Territory Economic 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:24.159 Reconstruction Commission. 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:27.960 And the plan is to further industrialize Darwin Harbor to 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.840 create what they're calling value adds for gas. So that 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:35.560 would be the production of plastics and petroch chemicals in 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.440 Darwin Harbor, which we know to be a very toxic process. 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:42.640 So why exactly was Leveris on national television teaching us 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:46.920 about this word feedstock. Here's Kirsty Howie from the Environment 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:48.279 Center Northern Territory. 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.400 It's extremely important to resist the development of plants that 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:55.120 use gas as a feedstock plastics, because they would continue 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:58.479 to provide an impetus for further gas field developments even 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:01.280 if demand for gas for energy falls because of climate 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:02.680 change concerns. 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.359 We'll get back to plastics in a bit, but first 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:11.720 let's rewind back to twenty nineteen, when exploration first started 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:15.360 in the Beaterloo Basin on Gadangee Country. 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:19.000 Our creation story is about three mermaids that came in 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:23.320 from Nukah, and they traveled all around the old Country, 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.400 and they came to our place where they were really 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.640 sad for the ocean, and so they called up the ocean. 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:34.120 That's Ricky Dank, whose ancestors have lived on Goadangee Country, 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.880 about ten hours east of what is now called Darwin, 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:40.320 for thousands of years. Ricky says that the first her 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:42.960 family knew that a two kilometer deep well would be 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.640 drilled near one of her family's sacred sites was when 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:50.000 her grandmother saw trucks arriving. Water is sacred to Dank's 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.560 family because in their creation stories, it was mermaids who 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:54.719 brought the water inland. 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.520 Our creation story is about three mermaids that came in 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:02.520 from Nukah, and they traveled all around the country and 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.839 they came to our place where they were really sad 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:08.760 for the ocean, and so they called up the ocean. 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:14.080 Gadanjie country is mermaid's country where water is sacred and 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:18.480 women make the decisions as a matriarchal family. It's Ricky's 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.880 grandmothers who are the senior nimerinki old country. 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:27.280 It's Marabana, which means it's mermaid's country, women's country. So 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:31.560 women make the decisions for our country. So that's why 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:35.320 you'll see when I'm talking, it'll be me or my 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:39.760 granny's our senior nimrinki are grandmothers talking for country. So 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:41.200 it's women's country. 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:46.040 Ricky's grandmothers have seen a lot in their lifetimes. They 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.760 were only finally given native title to parts of their 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:52.920 land in the nineteen nineties when Australian courts overturned the 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:58.600 myth that Australia was uninhabited before colonizers arrived, known as Terrannalius. 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:03.360 It really ap say to me, because my grandmothers were 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:07.640 made to work with no pay. The were essentially slaves 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:12.600 by people coming onto their land and basically taking away 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:16.480 their rights and their freedom. And I feel like it's 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:20.040 kind of happening again now to them, that you know, 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.440 people again coming onto their country and stealing it after 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:27.800 it was rightfully handed back to us by the courts. 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:34.400 Ricky says her family were not properly consulted before fracking 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:38.560 started on their land. The Northern Land Council and Empire 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:42.800 Energy claim that consultations did take place, including during community 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:46.400 meetings where Ricky's grandmother, who Ricky says does not read 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.840 or speak English, was present. A moratorium unfracking in the 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:54.800 Northern Territory was only lifted after the government made commitments, 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:58.760 including that an independent body would be responsible for consultations. 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:02.480 At a Senate inquiry earlier this year, many concerns were 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:06.440 raised about the process, including the independence of research on 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.760 the effects of fracking on land and water in Australia, 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.880 much of which is funded by the gas industry itself. 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:16.480 Ricky's family has passed down the knowledge that the water 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.800 on their country is special from generation to generation, but 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:25.439 Australia's national science body, the CSIRO, is only just beginning 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:29.760 to catch up. Earlier this year, the Csiroro released new 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.960 research showing that the water in the aquifer is connected 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.640 across hundreds of kilometers after they discovered that tiny animals 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:40.440 living in the aquifer known as Staigafoona are closely related. 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.240 The scientific studies through the Northern Territory they're way behind. 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:46.600 They're basically flying through the dark. 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:51.640 Here's Nicholas Miliari, Fitzpatrick, A Yanyuwa and garrowa man and 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:54.680 a community organizer for seed Mob, speaking to a Senate 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.040 inquiry about the scientist's discovery. 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:59.439 They need to go and do all that scientific study 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:02.839 as it's been proven that the b lewis connected to 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:06.520 Matarankas through these little pawns in the water and they're 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:08.800 the same their brother and sister that they're not cousins, 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.000 they're the same. So they're very well connected in the 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:16.480 same water table. And that kind of scientific research needs 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:20.480 to be undertaken across the whole Northern Territory before anything 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:24.880 like this happens. I heard before someone was talking about, oh, 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:28.439 the water is not physically connected. We'll go and physically 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:31.920 prove that, because I'm pretty sure that no one's done 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:36.320 that work. You cannot just say that doesn't physically connected. 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.600 We know for thousands of years that a lot of 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:42.320 these water tables have been connected, and signs only catching 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:42.760 up now. 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.920 And you can actually see the water pulsating out of 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.920 the ground in certain places, and in those places you 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.680 can't actually see, you know where their bottom is because 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:56.000 of course it's connected to the aquifer. 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:00.440 For Ricky's family and thousands of First Nations people, the 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:04.640 water from the aquifer is literally life. Fracking poses risks 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:08.040 to their water supply as well as her family's cattle farm. 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.760 Yet despite the risks, the Australian government has been providing 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:16.040 funding for exploration in the region. In recent years, Australia 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.199 has been selling the idea that gas is a transition 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:23.800 fossil fuel. Although this hasn't stopped the government from approving 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:26.840 new coal mines, it has led Australia to becoming the 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:29.920 world's second biggest exporter of gas after Qatar. 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.720 So we've gone from being a relatively small gas exporter 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:38.240 to being the first or second largest lergy exporter in 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:42.079 the world. You know Katar is it's either rustle. 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:46.839 Then that's Stan Gosher from the Australasian Center for Corporate Responsibility. 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:50.320 They currently have a court case pending against one of 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:54.680 Australia's biggest gas companies, Santos, over it's claims that natural 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:59.120 gas is clean energy. Although the industry is leaning heavily 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:01.720 in Australia on suppose it get out of jail free 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:06.200 card of carbon capture and storage, even Angrea Laveres, as 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:09.240 we heard earlier, is aware that demand for gas as 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:13.760 an energy source is falling. One in four Australian households 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.280 now have rooftop solar and there are plans for a 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.960 solar farm in the Beterloo Basin that would export renewable 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:24.080 energy to Singapore. But this hasn't stopped both of Australia's 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:28.160 major political parties, the Liberal Party, which in Australia is 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.520 our right wing conservative party, and the Labor Party, which 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.880 is the major center left party, from backing a significant 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:39.480 increase in Australia's emissions by fracking five new basins, including 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:40.240 the be Toloo. 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:45.000 And we had been speaking to politicians about this and 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:50.439 warning them about this, but from our understanding, our feeling 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:57.880 that politicians are welcoming fracking their welcoming mining, there seems 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:02.160 to be a push towards this kind of industry in Australia, 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:05.800 even though everywhere else they're stopping it. 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.880 Among the companies planning to frack the Beterloo, one relatively 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:14.040 junior company known as Empire Energy has done surprisingly well, 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:18.360 attracting twenty six million dollars in government grants and tax subsidies. 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:22.760 Empire got its start in the heart of fracking Pennsylvania, 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:26.520 that has recently switched its strategy to focus on Australia's 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:31.160 Northern territory. The Environment Center Northern Territory is currently in 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.640 court challenging the Australian government for providing a twenty one 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.839 million dollar grant to a subsidiary of Empire Energy called 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:42.599 Imperial Oil and Gas. Yes, they really called their companies 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:44.479 Empire and Imperial. 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:50.000 And the likely emissions from cranking the Beloo Basin are exorbitant. 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:54.480 It was estimated that they could increase Australia's total emissions 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:59.560 by some eight percent, and subsequently it became apparent that 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.480 actually that might have been a vast underestimation, and indeed 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:07.959 its emissions could increase Australia's emissions by up to twenty 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:13.800 percent and really undermine any ability for Australia to meet 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.520 it's already poultry targets under the Paris Agreement. 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.400 So if fracking is so profitable, why do the companies 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:25.320 behind it in Australia need government subsidies to fund exploration. 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:28.400 Amy has been asking a lot of questions about the 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:32.600 supposed profits of fracking this season. Questions about the economic 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.640 benefits of the industry also came up during a Senate 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:38.920 inquiry into fracking in the Beaterloo Basin earlier this year. 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:43.840 Here's Senator Sarah Hunson Young of the Australian Greens questioning 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:48.200 the managing director of Empire Energy, Alex Underwood. Okay, so 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.320 you haven't actually pumped anything into the Australian economy yet. 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:55.480 No I would disagree with that, Senator. We are investing 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:59.560 heavily in the Australian economy right now. We carried out 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.360 a size program in same we drilled our first well 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:06.320 in twenty nineteen. We carried out practice simulation and flow 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.440 testing of that well earlier this year, and we will 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:16.480 continue to invest and that is putting capital into Australia's economy. 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:19.880 This is a two kilometer deep exploration mind that Ricky 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:23.000 Dank's grandmother discovered was going in when she saw trucks 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.280 turning up on their country. Can you tell us how 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:30.920 much tax Company Tax Empire and its subsidiaries have paid 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.360 in Australia in the recent. 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:38.160 Years, certainly, Well, we've never generated profits in Australia and 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:40.480 so there's no tax on which to pay because we've 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:41.840 only ever generated losses. 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:44.320 We obviously pay. 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.720 We obviously paid taxes associated with the payrolls and so 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.000 on and so forth for the people that we employ 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.520 in this country, but we have not ever generated a 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:56.960 profit that would have tax. 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:57.200 Paid on it. 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:01.120 So you haven't paid any company taxes yet. How many 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:02.160 people do you employ? 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:04.600 So in. 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.920 Terms of direct full time employees in Australia, it's approximately 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:14.640 around eight and then when we carry out work programs, 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:19.440 obviously they are not people directly employed by our company, 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.800 but that can grow to thirty to fifty people. 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:24.560 At a time. We also. 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:32.400 Provide a lot of work for Australian small businesses, including consultants. 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:37.120 That would be roughly double that eight people full time workforce. 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:46.120 So Mba Energy, which has received millions in government subsidies, 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.080 has yet to make a profit in Australia and employees 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.960 fifty or less people here. So where exactly will the 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:54.960 money and jobs that will make fracking the be to 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:59.040 looo basin profitabile come from. Here's Levers again on Q 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:02.600 and A. This time he's been questioned by another panelist 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:06.639 on the show, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, about 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:09.480 a pretty questionable figure Levers had just mentioned. 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:12.760 Andrew, where are the eight hundred and fifty thousand jobs 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:13.800 that used gases. 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:19.520 Feedstock, fertilizers, plastics, chemicals explore eight hundred and working on 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:20.800 Australia making plastic? 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:21.040 Yes? 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:21.440 Is that right? 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:22.679 Not plastics all those industries. 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:24.120 I don't think that's true. 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:26.879 Q and A is a live program and often the 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.560 host will fact check claims during the show, but in 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.120 this case, the ABC took over a month to put 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:36.240 out a correction. It seems somehow the former CEO and 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:40.040 advisor to US presidents got confused and was referring to 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:44.280 the total number of people working in manufacturing in Australia and. 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:47.720 Behind this Manufacturing task force. You know, he claimed that 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.159 there was eight hundred and fifty thousand jobs that were 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:54.040 currently dependent on gases of feedstock and that's pretty much 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:57.800 the number in all manufacturing, which so we know that 0:17:57.840 --> 0:17:59.600 it's only about ten percent of those jobs are actually 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:04.119 dependent on gas to manufacture products, whether it's fertilizers, plastics 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:07.960 and chemicals and so on, So the numbers were completely overstated. 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:11.800 The Northern Territory government released maps as parts of a 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:15.600 tender process that show hundreds of hectares designated for potential 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.200 use as ethylene and petrochemical plants. 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:21.119 On Darwin Harbor, there's also a place which has a 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:26.280 very high concentration of mangroves of incredible biodiversity values, is 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:31.000 used by local people for fishing and recreation, and of 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:35.280 course has been used for many thousands of years by. 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:36.320 The Larachia people. 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:40.840 And what's proposed in Middle Arm is when you look 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:44.560 at the map of what's proposed which was released as 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:48.400 part of a tender last year in the Northern Territory, 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:54.600 it shows Middle Arm pretty much obliterated and completely covered 0:18:54.680 --> 0:19:02.600 by a range of industrial facilities to essentially facilitate gas production, 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:08.520 processing and these value adds for gas for plastics, petrochemicals, etc. 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.840 Even if the transition to renewable energy sees demand for 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:16.840 Beeterloo gas fall, as Amy has reported, the industry is 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:21.440 banking on demand for plastics increasing despite the environmental costs. 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:26.119 Clearly, plastics produce greenhouse gas emissions at every stage of 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:30.280 their life cycle, including most notably their decomposition at the 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.360 end of life in landfill across the world. 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:37.040 So far, the government has given about fifty million dollars 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:40.080 to companies exploring fracking in the Bee Toloo, but these 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.960 grants are relatively small in comparison to the billions of 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:46.240 dollars that both the federal and Northern Territory governments will 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.520 potentially have to spend on roads and pipelines in order 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:52.920 for private companies to pipe the gas to Darwin. Yet, 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:56.679 the Senate Inquiry also heard that, despite the significant costs 0:19:56.720 --> 0:20:00.240 to the public, gas companies in Australia only sporadically pay 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:05.639 company taxes. Here's Nicholas Miliari Fitzpatrick again telling the Senate 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:10.320 Inquiry what fifty million dollars could mean to Indigenous communities. 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:16.080 Fixing roads, more houses. We need programs in reviving our 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:20.000 language and cultural practices, but also into the tourism and 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:24.639 building small businesses in our communities. There's so much potential 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:28.640 for building our economy in that area of tourism and 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:31.600 even cultural education. You know, there's a lot of Australians 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:35.119 out there that need cultural education. We split up too much, 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:38.320 but there there's plenty of other ways to use that 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:41.080 fifty million dollars. And as we are in poverty up 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.480 here in the territory, like we've we got a mine 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.960 next to our country there MacArthur River mine making billions 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.760 of dollars. And you don't look at Borrella. Borrel don't 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.880 look like a billion dollar place. It looks like it's 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.879 been forgotten for thirty years. And that's exactly what's happened. 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:03.359 Like there's no footpath anywhere around Borloa. The kids are 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:06.400 still walking on the road. There has been people by 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:10.400 getting run over on them roads. You know, we need 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:12.960 to be really thinking for the future for all of us. 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:17.040 Like these kind of industries, all it's doing is hurting 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:21.240 us even more. We got the most number in juvenile prison, 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:26.440 most suicides. We've been in pain ever since colonization. We're 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:31.000 trying to recover and get back to get on our feet. 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:34.720 And industries like this threatening our water. Well, we live 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:39.520 on water. Everything runs of water, trees, animals. With the 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:43.440 driest continent on earth. Put that fifty million dollars into 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:47.920 building a huge water security around the Inte. 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:52.560 For Ricky's family, the potential damage caused by frecking could 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:56.160 irreversibly destroy their sacred sites and cultural practices. 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.560 If this happens, we won't be able to continue being 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:03.040 gone out push, which means we won't be able to 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:06.840 continue our ceremony. We won't be able to, you know, 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:11.639 follow our song lines, which is so deeply connected to water. 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:15.359 So we're scared not just for our country but for 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:19.520 our culture that this will discontinue our sixty five thousand 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:23.440 years of being. So that's what fracking means to us. 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:29.040 It feels like you're trying to grasp water and it's 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:31.240 slipping through your hands. That's how it feels like when 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:34.640 you're trying to protect country. And this is why we 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:37.160 want to look after it, because we know how precious 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:37.600 it is. 0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:45.480 Wow, Lindall, this is an incredible story, and it reminds 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:48.439 me so much of all the stories we've been hearing 0:22:48.480 --> 0:22:53.119 about in communities where they're just kind of being ambushed 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:56.080 by fracking here in the US too. One of the 0:22:56.080 --> 0:22:58.359 people that you spoke with said this too, But it 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:00.800 does just really strike me. Is I that while other 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:04.840 countries are starting to realize that they need to give 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:09.200 fracking the boot, Australia is doubling down on it. 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:13.720 Yeah, it's really not great. And the scientific research that 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:16.520 the government is supposed to be doing on the environmental 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:19.919 impacts of fracking, the Beterloo is being funded by the 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:23.400 gas industries, So I'm sure that's fine. 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:27.360 And so these five big tracking companies got together and 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:31.280 basically injected a whole lot of money into the CSIRO 0:23:32.359 --> 0:23:34.200 and said we want. 0:23:34.080 --> 0:23:38.280 To be the ones who do the research on what 0:23:38.359 --> 0:23:40.440 the impacts of oil. 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:42.600 And gas extraction are in Australia. 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:47.000 That's Mark Og from the Australia Institute, who closely follows 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:51.040 the research being done at Australia's National Science Agency, the CSIRO, 0:23:51.560 --> 0:23:54.600 by an initiative funded by five of our biggest fracking 0:23:54.640 --> 0:23:59.200 companies called the Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance. 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:01.000 Or to Sarah for sure. 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:06.120 A study that Jazeera did on potential contamination of air, 0:24:06.400 --> 0:24:10.119 soil and water by fracking. And what they did was 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:15.480 looked at six wells in Queensland and did some sampling 0:24:16.119 --> 0:24:21.560 around those six wells. Now there's nineteen thousand wells in Queensland. 0:24:21.720 --> 0:24:25.960 So they chose a very very small sample, and that 0:24:26.160 --> 0:24:30.520 sample of wells was chosen by Origin Energy, the proponement 0:24:30.640 --> 0:24:34.399 company right in Origin obviously have a huge vested interest 0:24:34.440 --> 0:24:37.000 in not finding contamination of their wells. 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:40.760 Industry funding of research has been growing in Australia, where 0:24:40.920 --> 0:24:45.520 universities were particularly badly hit by the pandemic. I looked 0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:50.520