We shouldn't foot the bill for fracking pipelines

Right now, the Albanese Government is under pressure to deliver taxpayer-funded handouts to help frack the Top End.

The gas lobby wants us to foot the bill for a $4 billion pipeline to connect the Beetaloo Basin in the NT to export ports in Gladstone.

Beetaloo gas would take at least five years to reach the east coast market, based on the Australian Pipeline Association’s own estimated delivery timeframe, so NT fracking is clearly for export, not for us.

We shouldn’t have to pay for a 1580km pipeline so frackers can export gas to Asia, especially given that the Albanese Government refuses to implement a gas tax.

We can’t let this happen.

With gas pipeline giant APA group set to shortly refer plans for the fracking export pipeline to Environment Minister Murray Watt, it’s time to tell the Federal Government to say NO to the gas lobby’s export pipeline!

Dear Prime Minister and Minister Watt,

The APA group will shortly refer plans for a massive 1580km fracked gas export pipeline to Environment Minister Murray Watt.

The Albanese Government must rule out subsidies to make taxpayers pay for this fracking pipeline.

In the recent Nightcliff by-election, Labor pledged to oppose handouts to support a fracked gas pipeline in the NT.

But in response to a Question on Notice from Budget Estimates in May 2026, Minister Time Ayres said that “the Australian Government has no plans to provide public funding or financial support for the construction of pipeline infrastructure to deliver gas out of the Beetaloo Basin.”

This is not good enough.

Renowned for the vast floodplain system of the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre Basin, Channel Country is one of the world's last free-flowing desert river systems and hosts incredible biodiversity and sites of cultural significance.

Fracking pipelines in the NT are a risky, expensive gamble - they cost billions.

The Australian Pipeline Association has openly admitted that “Beetaloo is principally going to be an LNG export play.”

AEMO has found that the cost of producing gas from the Beetaloo is 176% higher than existing Queensland sources.

If Top End fracking is detonated, it could single-handedly undo all efforts to cut Australia’s climate emissions.

The Albanese Government must choose where they stand: with gas companies or Territorians  who want our water and climate protected?

fracking pipeline billion