Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Today, 4 February 2016, is a historic day. It is a historic day for climate action; it is a historic day for steering Australia to a fossil fuel free future; it is a historic day for creative and courageous direct action. AGL, the second largest energy retailer in Australia, has pulled out of coal seam gas operations across this country. In one centre, Gloucester, AGL planned 330 wells alone. Now many in the business reports will attribute this to the slump in oil and gas prices. Yes, that has a role—I am not denying it—but the key driver that has pushed AGL to walk away from an industry that its US CEO, Andrew Vesey, has described as 'potential investment of $1 billion' is a range of organisations and individuals who today have taken their place in the rich protest history of this country. I very warmly congratulate Julie Lyford, a former mayor, and all the rest of the Groundswell Gloucester crew, who have done a most amazing job to take the great wonder and the beauty of Gloucester to the rest of Australia and even further. Then there are other fantastic organisations: Manning Clean Water Action Group, Knitting Nannas, Lock the Gate, the Gloucester Project, and my own colleagues—Greens Senator Larissa Waters and Greens New South Wales MP Jeremy Buckingham—have all played a significant role. Community direct action has been the key.

In saving the beautiful Gloucester Valley in New South Wales, Groundswell Gloucester, Lock the Gate—all of those people who have been on the front line there have made a huge contribution not just in saving Gloucester but also in actually putting it on the table that CSG has no place anywhere in Australia. The people of Gloucester and their supporters did not stand aside for mining companies to make a profit. They have protected their vibrant rural communities, and I am very proud that I was able to join them on their picket line. My next Gloucester visit was due on 13 February this year for another stage in the protest—a fantastic weekend of music, a whole lot of creative activities and also a walk through Gloucester to amplify our combined voices for no CSG. I imagine now that will be a most fantastic celebration, a celebration of all that is so wonderful about Gloucester.

As AGL licks its wounds, it has decided the right thing to do—obviously within its four walls, the board of that company would be doing some tough talking. But it has left. Our attention now needs to shift to Santos, the last CSG company operating in Australia. And they are operating not too far from here, in New South Wales. Santos plans to build gas fields across the Gunnedah Basin of north-west New South Wales. In this case, it would see 850 coal seam gas wells constructed through the Pilliga forest, the largest inland forest left in eastern Australia. Now that is simply unacceptable. It is scandalous; it is vandalism.

Senator Edwards interjecting—

Senator Bushby interjecting—

The writing is on the wall for this unscrupulous company. Its quest for coal seam gas in the Pilliga has been hit with over 20 pollution scares, including groundwater contamination, waste spills and leaks from evaporation ponds. It has got it so wrong it clearly, for those local environmental reasons alone, let alone the impact on runaway climate change—

Senator Edwards interjecting—

Senator Bushby interjecting—

this industry should close. Santos should follow AGL and just get out of this industry.