Fracking ban gets new legal status

HYDRAULIC fracturing, known as fracking, will be banned in Victoria for good after the state government enshrined the ban in the state’s constitution.

The Constitution Amendment (Fracking Ban) Bill 2020 has passed through the Upper House.

Fracking was banned in 2017, and at the 2018 election the government promised to put that ban in the constitution to make it much harder for future governments to overturn.

Geelong-based MP Andy Meddick said the move would deliver an “extra layer of certainty” for landowners in rural and regional areas across the Surf Coast, Bellarine and Geelong region.

“I think that is the be-all and end-all — those landowners and farmers now know the surety of what is going to happen on their land,” Mr Meddick said.

“They can breathe easier now that there is legislative and constitutional protection.”

Mr Meddick said, while he understood concerns about setting a precedent in the constitution, the protection of the environment and landowners’ rights overrode such concerns.

In 2014, concerned landowners from across Geelong and the Surf Coast rallied behind an anti-fracking movement in a bid to stop the unconventional gas industry moving into the region and potentially ruining farmland and impacting produce.

A restart of the onshore conventional gas sector was on track for July 2021, the government said.

“Conventional gas extraction does not involve fracking. It is a tried-and-tested method to access gas deep underground,” it said.

Geoscience studies have located potentially significant onshore conventional gas resources in southwest Victoria and Gippsland.