Attached is a submission to the Senate Committee on Environment and Communications References’ Inquiry into Oil and Gas Exploration and Production in the Beetaloo Basin (Senate Inquiry).
This joint submission is made by the Environment Centre of the Northern Territory (ECNT), and Dr Timothy Neale of Deakin University.
ECNT is the peak community sector environment organisation in the Northern Territory, raising awareness amongst community, government, business and industry about environmental issues and assisting people to reduce their environmental impact and supporting community members to participate in decision making processes and action. ECNT has a close relationship with the subject matter of the Inquiry, primarily via its close engagement with the Scientific Inquiry into Hydraulic Fracturing in the Northern Territory chaired by Justice Rachel Pepper (Pepper Inquiry) and history of making policy and law reform submissions on the implementation of the Pepper Inquiry recommendations, and submissions (including objections) in relation to individual onshore gas exploration proposals. ECNT conducts this work as a peak body in the Northern Territory, in the public interest.
Dr Timothy Neale is a Senior Research Fellow, ARC Discovery Early Career Research Fellow, and convenor of Deakin University’s Science and Society Network. Together with Dr Kirsty Howey (Co-Director of ECNT, and Associate Research Fellow at Deakin University), he has recently conducted a research project entitled “Environmental risk in the Northern Territory: challenges and opportunity for regulation”, which explores the social, political and technical challenges for robust regulation of the onshore hydraulic fracturing industry in the Northern Territory.
Download and read the full submission plus attachments.