World of onshore gas
ces. A blanket ban removes their ability to do that. It takes away their right to say yes or no. The decision is made for them. This fundamentally undermines a key principle of the ALRA.
Pastoralists on the other hand don’t have the same type of veto rights and their issues relate to land access. Pastoralists want the ability to refuse gas companies access to land. On the surface this seems reasonable. A successful cattle industry has been the constant of the NT for a century.
But the right of refusal poses a problem when roughly 25 per cent of cattle stations in the NT are foreign controlled. A 2015 investigation by ABC Rural’s Carl Curtain found that of the 223 pastoral leases, 47 have some form of foreign ownership. This at the time equated to 596,310 sq km of the Territory’s land mass. In 2017, the figure might be slightly higher given heightened inter- est in cattle. Giving pastoralists a right to refuse access means foreign entities will determine what and when Australian resources can be developed.
This creates a new raft of unintended issues.
The Beetaloo Basin experience delivered more than just a massive gas field.
It showed how pastoralists, traditional owners and gas companies can co-exist if they all work together and meet each others obligations – the social licence to operate.
There has to be a way forward.
The Territory can’t afford for there not to be.