Environmental activists gathered outside of Santos’ Sydney office on Thursday afternoon to protest the oil and gas company in their latest attempts to overturn Native Title rights, and destroy the Pilliga forest through planned fracking measures.
Hosted by the University of Sydney Environmental Collective and School Students for Climate, the protest responded to Santos’ continued attempts to overturn Gomeroi Native Title to enact gas-fired dispossession. Activists demanded a transition to completely renewable energy by 2030 that would be owned and operated by the public.
Santos has pushed for the opening of 850 gas wells in the Pilliga Forest in North-West NSW for the last 10 years. This action would see a massive destruction of sacred Gomeroi land and has already cost upwards of $1.5 billion while under the investment stage.
The Gomeroi people voted 162 to 2 against Santos’ proposed Narrabri gas project at a meeting in Tamworth in March this year.
Gas to be replaced with green energy by 2050
Lock the Gate Alliance NSW Counsellor Nic Clyde decried the decision by Santos to drive a destructive gas project amidst the climate crisis and argued that they had no “social licence to build this project.”
He called upon the government to commit to a transition to 100% usage of public renewables over gas, stating that there was already a mainstream opposition to ditch fossil fuel gas usage.
Clyde referenced a statement made by The Australian Energy Regulator which said that there is an overarching mandate to reduce carbon emissions by 2050 which requires natural gas as a fossil fuel to be replaced by low emissions technologies. He also used the gas substitution roadmap released by the Victorian government as another example which pointed to a mainstream opposition to “ditch fossil fuel gas.”
Speakers condemn oil corporations actions
Anastasia, a legal worker for Blockade Australia, condemned the operations of the colonial state, declaring that the “mechanisms of the Native Title Tribunal are being used by Santos to try and deny Gomeroi sovereignty on their lands.”
She spoke about the escalation of state violence against street protesters where NSW police are “emboldened shamefully by bipartisan anti-protest laws” charging protesters for offences that hold a two-year sentence for walking on the road and “imprison people for three weeks without charge for the thought crime of planning to protest.”
School Strike For Climate representative and Wiradjuri native Ethan declared that the project was a “blatant attack on First Nations people that the Federal and NSW government are upholding.” He spoke about the need to protect the hundreds of important sites including the Pilliga which is a sacred meeting place for the Gomeroi people.
Pilligia National Park. Photo: NSW National Parks.
ANU Education Officer Beatrice Tucker described native title as the Australian state’s “insidious deception that appears to give First Nations’ land rights”. She added that it was an “insult” for First Nations people to have exclusive access to land if they could prove there was a connection that was maintained under generational dispossession and state violence.
USyd Environmental Officer Ishbel Dunsmore criticised the new anti-protest laws which came into effect on April 1 and sought to criminalise “behaviour that caused damage and destruction to major roads and facilities”, asserting a need to push back against “unjust laws and state repression because it is the only way to secure our right to protest.”
Punishment for breaking these laws include fines up to $22 000 and/or maximum jail time for two years.
Shelter NSW Project Officer James Sherriff emphasised the need to organise worker-led strike actions that were militant and able to “shut down the economy and stop Santos from operating.” He spoke on the cost-of-living crisis where people were being “priced out of the economy”, unable to afford a basket of groceries amidst exponential inflation rates and broadened the scope of ‘just transitions’ towards public welfare to ensure that people would be able to transition safely into green jobs and new industries.
The protest concluded with chants including “Climate justice, workers’ rights. One struggle, one fight,” and “Stop Santos. That’s our mission. Fund green jobs and a just transition.”
