Knitting Nannas protest Santos gas plan

August 7, 2020
Issue 
Sydney Knitting Nannas showing Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher with his pants on fire outside the Independent Planning Commission on August 6. Photo: Robin Murray

Sydney Knitting Nannas and Friends rallied outside the offices of the Independent Planning Commission on August 6 before marching to the back of NSW Parliament to show their opposition to the Santos Narrabri Coal Seam Gas (CSG) project in the Pilliga forest in north-west New South Wales.

Later in the day, a debate over the CSG project took place inside triggered by the lodgement of an 11,000-strong petition in March.

Outside the IPC, spokesperson Marie Flood reminded the group about the “wheelbarrow load” of petitions, which had been lodged to MPs before the COVID-19 lockdown. Debate on the petition had to be delayed.

She explained that the IPC had previously rejected plans for two coal mines in NSW, at Rocky Hill and Bylong. Then, the commission had faced criticism from the Minerals Council and the Murdoch media. It is important that the strong public opposition to the Santos CSG project in the Pilliga be fully expressed to the IPC right now, Flood said.

Nick Clyde from Lock the Gate Alliance told the gathering that “the vast majority of submissions to the IPC were opposed to the Santos Pilliga project”, and that a recent opinion poll showed that less than 20% support CSG.

Greens MPs David Shoebridge and Cate Faehrman, ALP MP Trish Doyle, Independent MP Justin Field and Animal Justice Party MP Mark Pearson expressed their support for the camapign to end CSG in the Sydney Domain.

[An online forum on fighting Santos' push for gas in the north-west of NSW will be held on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 at 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM.]

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