by Chandi Bates
SOCIAL
Origin to fast track fracking plans at the riskiest time of the year
Origin’s announcement that they will fast track fracking during the wet season shows a complete disregard for NT communities, their access to drinking water and their health.
The Kyalla Well is on a floodplain which can go underwater during heavy rainfall in a volatile wet season, yet Origin has no plans for waste water management or keeping drinking water safe.
Native Title Holder Darren Farrell said:
“Water is sacred. The most important thing is water and our land. We need it not just for us but also for the future. We need it to be healthy all the time. With fracking we are concerned about what will happen to the land. We just want it to be safe and to be the way it is.
“We don’t trust Origin at all, they don’t know our land. We seen what they did in Queensland and overseas, fracking destroying land and water for communities, it needs to be banned.
“Leave the land how it is, we won’t let Origin trespass on our land.”
GetUp’s First Nations Campaign Director Larissa Baldwin said:
“Fracking during wet season isn’t just environmentally irresponsible - it’s downright dangerous. It will put NT communities’ access to drinking water at risk. It will threaten their health and destroy their country.
“This announcement shows Origin wants to steamroll remote Aboriginal communities living under the shadow of their fracking permits. These communities will be inundated by fracking operations whether they like it or not.
“The fact is Origin does not have proper informed consent from Native Title holders and are accelerating their already dangerous plans at a volatile time.
“Fracking in the Northern Territory is too dangerous, too risky and it is Territorians who will bare the impacts and be left to clean up the mess.
“The majority of the Northern Territory is in drought, the climate crisis is here, and the voices of Terrotorians matter. It’s time the Gunner government and fracking corporations started listening.”
Larissa Baldwin. Image: supplied
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