Thursday 24 October: Traditional Owners, leading doctors and scientists have joined over 17,000 people, environment and human rights organisations, to sign a letter calling on APA Group to end its plans to build a pipeline enabling dangerous gas fracking in the Northern Territory.
The new letter has also been signed by more than 20 First Nations, environment and civil society organisations and is being delivered to APA CEO Adam Watson and board of directors at the company’s annual general meeting in Sydney.
Delivery of the petition follows a fire sale last week by major shareholder UniSuper of half a billion dollars worth of APA shares after more than 1,000 scientists and academics called on the university sector super fund to end its backing for gas fracking.
Rachel Deans, Oil and Gas campaigner, Market Forces said:
“APA needs to listen to the thousands of people across Australia who are calling on the company not to build pipelines that would enable dangerous gas fracking.”
“These proposed pipelines would unlock emissions from the Beetaloo Basin that are unsafe and incompatible with APA’s own climate goals.”
Market Forces and SIX – Sustainable Investment Exchange – have lodged the first ever shareholder resolution with a gas infrastructure company in Australia calling on APA to disclose how it plans to manage emissions from new pipelines, including those enabling facking of the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory and in line with the company’s climate commitments.
128 shareholders have joined with Market Forces calling on investors to vote in favour of the resolution holding APA to account on its commitment to net zero emissions at its annual general meeting today.
Samuel Janama Sandy, Chair of Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation, which represents native title holders from the Beetaloo Basin region and has co-signed the letter asking APA to rule out Beetaloo gas pipeline construction, said:
“We don’t want APA laying out pipelines. If they do, they’re helping gas companies frack and destroy our land and water.”
“The country has an ecosystem and pipelines built by APA will cause damage.
“Gas pipelines are a ticking time bomb. We’re worried about a big explosion and fires spreading. We’ve seen that in Queensland already. Our country is highly flammable, with grasses, trees and strong winds that fan fires.
“Climate change is already here in the Territory. Solar, not gas, is needed, so we can power our communities with the sun.”
Lesley Hughes, climate scientist, Emerita Professor of Biology, said:
“The Beetaloo development is a gigantic carbon bomb that will significantly exacerbate the climate emergency. Our environment, economy, health and our children’s futures just can’t afford it.”
Melissa Haswell, Professor of Practice and Environmental Wellbeing, and co-author of ‘The risks of oil and gas development for human wellbeing.’
“We know from extensive research that unconventional gas developments create many, many risks to health, the environment especially water and to people, from the unborn to the elderly.”
“The consequences of gas developments include more birth defects and complications, smaller babies, more childhood leukaemia, and more asthma, heart disease and more mental health challenges.
“This infrastructure can cause stress and impact across Aboriginal people’s Country and the workplaces of farmers. Free, prior and informed consent is essential.”
Kate Wylie, Adelaide-based General Practitioner and Executive Director, Doctors for the Environment said:
“Gas fracking is hazardous to human health. It poisons water, and increases the risk of birth defects in communities living near fracking wells, like the people of the Beetaloo Basin.”
“Petrochemical processing increases the risk of leukaemia, kidney disease, cardiac and respiratory diseases for nearby populations, making the Middle Arm project a health risk for the people of Palmerston and Darwin.
“The evidence is there and well known by the gas industry, and any expansion of this harmful product is unethical in the extreme. We have quit asbestos, DDT and other health hazards due to their harms to humans and the environment. Now it’s time to quit gas to protect our health from this extreme health hazard.”
Louise Woodward, Darwin-based Paediatrician said:
“Fracking the Beetaloo basin risks contamination of vital water supplies and the direct health impacts for communities living near fracking wells are well documented.”
“Fracking is not safe for people, the environment, or the climate.
“It is completely unethical to impose this dirty and harmful project on the people of the Northern Territory and completely unconscionable to enable projects which exacerbate greenhouse gas emissions in the middle of a climate crisis.”
Adam Verwey, CEO, SIX – Sustainable Investment Exchange – ethical investing and shareholder advocacy platform co-filed the resolution said:
“In the last week we’ve seen APA Group’s largest shareholder halve its investment in the company, and without a demonstrated commitment to the company’s own climate plans we risk seeing more significant investors turn away from the company.”
“Institutional investors, like super funds, with a fiduciary duty to their own clients, and needing to ensure their assets match their own climate commitments, could find APA Group to be incompatible with the expectations of their members and their own climate goals.”