Gas Drilling to Be Banned Along Entire NSW Coastline If Government Wins Election

An Austrian hotel owner lights a gas stove to cook for customers in Puch bei Hallein on January 6, 2008. Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images

The New South Wales (NSW) government will override a court order to open up gas drilling along the state’s coastline if it wins the upcoming March election.

Energy Minister and Treasurer Matt Kean described the move as standing “up for the environment.”

The announcement comes after the Federal Court of Australia quashed a decision by former Prime Minister Scott Morrison to block the extension of the PEP-11 permit, which would reopen the door for gas drilling along a stretch of NSW coastline between Wollongong, Sydney, and Newcastle—major population centres.

The court’s ruling returns the decision-making power—of whether the 8,200 square kilometre area can be drilled—back to the NSW and federal government and the holder of PEP-11, Asset Energy.

“This is an area with huge economic reliance on tourism and environment, and the communities are very opposed to it, so it was rejected by state government,” said Zali Steggall, “teal” independent in the Northern Beaches region of Sydney, in an interview with Sky News Australia.

Current state Energy Minister Matt Kean said the Liberal-National government would “stand up for the environment and our communities that care deeply about our pristine coastline.”

“Today we call on the Albanese government to back our plan and ban the drilling for offshore gas in Commonwealth waters as well,” he said in a press conference on Feb. 15. “They are the ones who have reopened this issue.”

Kean’s colleague, James Griffin, the environment minister, backed the call.

“The next steps are simple; the Albanese government needs to step up and ban offshore drilling and mining in Commonwealth waters.”

While the proposal will be welcomed by many on the political spectrum and those living along the affluent coastal areas between Wollongong to Newcastle, the move has been criticised.

“It’s hard to believe the Liberals have come to this. [Liberal Party founder] Sir Robert Menzies, a nation builder, would be rolling in his grave. One can only wonder what Mr. [John] Howard thinks,” said Lyle Shelton, upper house candidate for the NSW Parliament.

Shelton said banning offshore gas exploration when energy prices were soaring would only ratchet up the “inflationary and cost of living screws on people in Western Sydney.”

“A gas rig over the horizon pumping cheap, reliable and abundant energy is a much more attractive proposition than an ocean full of windmills which don’t work on still days and slice up sea birds on windy days,” he told The Epoch Times in an email.