Narrabri farmers have nothing to worry about from the $3.6 billion coal seam gas project, because Australia is a first-world country with proper engineering standards, former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson claims.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A 20-year struggle over the Narrabri Gas Project will reach a climax this week, with seven days of public hearings into the controversial $3.6 billion coal seam gas project set to begin today.
NSW Farmer's President James Jackson, who is scheduled to speak on the project on Thursday, has repeatedly said farmers have told him they're concerned the proposed 385-well mine's would be a threat to ground water.
READ MORE:
But Mr Anderson said "we need to take a cool, calm look at" the project.
"This is a very technologically sophisticated country, it's not aquifer water that will be drawn as I understand it, it's water from far further down," he said.
"My point is this is not a third-world country with sloppy engineering standards. As the Chief Scientist of NSW and Federal Chief Scientist have said it can be done safely."
The former Nationals MP for the Division of Gwydir left politics in 2007 and took up a job as chairman of Eastern Star Gas the same year.
The company, which struck gas in the Pilliga in 2000, spent years working on a proposed scheme to exploit it before they were bought out by Santos in 2011. Mr Anderson also left the company then and has not worked in the industry in many years. He's retired to a farm west of Tamworth.
Two decades on, the idea could soon become reality, if signed off by the Independent Planning Commission (IPC).
There were a record 22,485 written objections to the project DA of the controversial project.
Farmers who oppose the project like Mr Jackson have long said their biggest concern with the project is the potential for something to go wrong and cause a problem with local ground water.
"Essentially that is the major problem cockies have got with this gas project. They're very concerned about the potential impact to the ground water resources," he said earlier this month.
But Mr Anderson said the project will help drive a future for manufacturing, drive down energy costs and help the transition away from coal-fired power - and won't pose a threat to water aquifer.
"Plainly gas is an ideal transition fuel because it is cleaner than coal, there's no two ways about that. We can't yet go totally renewable, we can't do it," he said.
"And what's more an extraordinary number of Australians actually depend upon the gas industry for the things that are made with gas, everything from fertiliser to plastics. Australia's biggest plastic manufacturer uses gas. Well we don't want our biggest plastic manufacturer to go offshore."
Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher, Lock the Gate spokesperson Georgina Woods, Gary Dunnett from the National Parks Association, David Walton from the Australian Workers' Union and representatives from Narrabri, Gunnedah, Dubbo and Newcastle councils are among the 38 speakers registered to give their view on the project today.
Hearings were initially slated to be held for five days from July 20 to July 25, but they were extended to add Saturday July 25 and Saturday August 1 due to "unprecedented" demand, according to the Independent Planning Commission. Public hearings will be conducted online due to COVID-19.
If approved the project would produce enough gas from as many as 850 wells to provide 200 terajoules of gas a day for domestic use for 20 years, about half the state's demand, according to Santos.
