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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

When the Country Liberal Party took power in the Northern Territory, they scrapped a number of key portfolios.

Among them was climate change.

They also moved responsibility for the environment to lands and planning, signalling this government wants to prioritise the economy, in particular big development projects.

And now the NT Government wants to give itself powers to fast-track those big developments, potentially sidestepping environmental checks and balances.

Today, executive director of Environment Centre NT Kirsty Howey, on the NT Government’s leaked secret proposal, and whether it could open the floodgates for fracking.

It’s Friday, November 8.

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RUBY:

So, Kirsty, a few days ago, there was this leaked document that surfaced that announced that the new Northern Territory Government have an intention of creating a role. The Territory Coordinator. To begin with, can you tell me a bit about how this came to light?

KIRSTY:

Well, we were surprised when we were notified by one of the peak bodies in the Northern Territory that had been consulted about it, that this consultation paper was doing the rounds. We would have expected to be consulted about it as the peak environment body in the Northern Territory. But a decision was obviously made not to disclose it and as soon as we saw it we saw a huge number of red flags for the Northern Territory's environment, for projects and really for people's rights and democracy here in the Northern Territory as well.

RUBY:

Okay. So tell me about what's being proposed.

KIRSTY:

Well, what they've doing is effectively enabling the Chief Minister and an unelected, faceless bureaucrat called the Territory Coordinator to take over huge power in relation to decision making about projects in the Northern Territory. And we would see, for instance, these two individuals, given the ability to step in and undertake environmental assessments for destructive projects like cotton and fracking, which have been scrutinised heavily here in the Territory and nationally to speed up the assessment of those projects. But perhaps most concerningly, to exempt those projects altogether from environmental laws and not just environmental laws, pretty much all laws that might apply to those projects in the Territory with a few notable exceptions.

RUBY:

Okay. Can you break that down a little more for me? When we talk about projects being exempt from current Northern Territory laws? Are there guardrails there conditions that would need to be met before that would happen?

KIRSTY:

Well, one of the things we're concerned about is that we haven't seen the draft legislation yet. So we're operating on the basis of a consultation paper that's quite brief.

There's a statement in this consultation paper that there would be in the case of an exemption declaration which would override environmental laws, a gazette or a notification to Parliament with a notice period of just three days before such a declaration is made. That's a pretty laughable set of restrictions, precautions, guardrails around the exercise of those powers.

RUBY:

So the Northern Territory Government, they explicitly say that this is about facilitating development, large scale projects. So let's talk a bit about what those projects are. Perhaps we could start with the Beetaloo Basin?

KIRSTY:

Yes. So the Northern Territory is far away from most places of power in Australia and we're not thought about very much. But one project which has garnered a lot of national attention is fracking in the Beetaloo Basin.

Audio Excerpt - [Crowd protesting]c

Audio Excerpt - ABC News Reporter:

“The Northern Territory Government has decided to allow a full scale onshore gas industry to go ahead in the Beetaloo Basin.”

KIRSTY:

This has been a very contentious practice involving drilling for gas four kilometres below the surface of land in the Northern Territory and extracting gas through a process known as fracking, which can be toxic to waterways. And estimates are that this project, if it goes ahead, could generate 1.4 billion tonnes of carbon emissions, which would add to Australia's emissions by something like 20%. So this is a huge project. It's an environmentally destructive project, it's a climate wrecking project and the fear is that these laws have been specially designed to get fracking in the Beetaloo Basin, opposed by so many people here in the Territory and nationally through much more quickly and in fact exempt environmental protections from this very, very harmful industry.

RUBY:

And could you get into a little bit of the detail with me about what the environmental protections are that could be overridden in this scenario?

KIRSTY:

One really, really good example is protection of water resources and the Northern Territory has got a huge aquifer underlying about a third of it, which is an aquifer that will be drilled through fracking in the Beetaloo Basin goes ahead and 90% of people in the Northern Territory actually rely on this groundwater to live. That groundwater also discharges into really famous iconic rivers like the Roper River, Mataranka Hot Springs, an iconic tourism hotspot, the Daly River, famous for barramundi. So it's people who rely on this water resource. It's communities, it's the fishing industry, it's the tourism industry. It's absolutely downstream Aboriginal communities.

So a raft of things have been put in place to protect the aquifers, protect the rivers from fracking. That includes things like really rigorous transparency measures, the rights of the public to be able to comment on proposals. And these protections are in place for a reason. It's because if something goes wrong, the consequences could be devastating for so many communities in the Northern Territory, for our wildlife, for our precious nature, for our free flowing rivers and for industry.

And the fear is that you exempt those laws and it will result in environmental destruction.

RUBY:

After the break - how this plan could exempt more than just environmental laws.

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RUBY:

Kirsty, we've spoken a bit about the Beetaloo Basin. But are there other projects that you think could be, I suppose, greenlit without consideration for environmental laws?

KIRSTY:

Look, I think that, you know, I'm developing a list that is rapidly sort of now on onto a few pages. There are so many projects that could be impacted by this, and not just ones that are environmentally harmful. First of all, we do have the cotton industry which is bearing down on the Northern Territory. We were part of pretty explosive Four Corners series just before the Territory election, which showed gross mismanagement of our water resources, of decisions around land clearing and water for the cotton industry.

Audio Excerpt - News Reporter:

“Here in the Northern Territory, Cotton is being sold as the next boom crop. But how business is done up here has put the government in conflict with the environment. Scientists, communities and traditional owners.”

KIRSTY:

And our fear is that these laws, weak as they are, could be exempted. But also there are projects that are being fought by the community for many years that could be resuscitated by these laws. One really notable example is a proposal by Woolworths Dan Murphy's to establish a huge liquor store opposite an Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory, which was resisted by numerous Aboriginal organisations, health organisations, environmental organisations and these are the kinds of projects we could see waved through under these new laws. And people have been calling me and saying, Do you think this could exempt the criminal code? Do you think this could exempt workplace and safety laws? How could this impact workers rights? There's really very little to stop pernicious and dangerous decisions, in our view, being made that could be harmful for communities, harmful for the health, harmful for workers as well.

RUBY:

Given all of that, then, is it legal to create a body, a role that can, in effect, take actions outside current NT laws?

KIRSTY:

It would be a difficult task for the Northern Territory to do anything that would oust or displace federal laws. And there are a couple of laws that are mentioned in the consultation paper that would not be affected by this proposal. That includes federal environmental law, the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, the Native Title Act, to give a few examples. So constitutionally the Northern Territory can't exempt those laws. As to other questions about the validity of these laws, I think we're going to have to wait to see what the laws look like when the draft is released to the public, if indeed that ever happens. Hopefully we see an exposure draft before it gets into Parliament, which could be as soon as the end of this month.

And we'll certainly be looking really closely at whether these laws are constitutionally valid and whether there are other questions about their validity, because it's profoundly concerning that any government in Australia could pass laws like this that override very, very important protections and concentrate power in the executive.

RUBY:

Right. And at the moment, Kirsty, the only thing that's public is a briefing paper. So how likely is it to turn into drafted legislation and then end up before Parliament?

KIRSTY:

What we have in the Northern Territory and people may not be aware of this, is actually a really kind of constrained form of democracy where a territory, we're not a state. We have a unicameral parliament and at the moment the CLP newly elected has got a 17 seat majority. So that means there's very little in the way of guardrails to stop these laws from going through. They could be passed very, very quickly.

It could be introduced as early as the 26th of November, which is when the next sittings of Parliament are and could be passed under urgency. So we could see this signed, sealed and delivered before the end of the month. And at this stage no one has seen an exposure draft. The public has not been consulted about it and there's very little in the way of parliamentary scrutiny processes to slow this down.

And the last thing I've mentioned is, you know, this this government's only been in power for a couple of months. So elected at the end of August, and already they have suspended standing orders in relation to very controversial and punitive laws that lower the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10. So already after two months, they've got a track record of suspending parliamentary processes and getting laws through under urgency that have really wide ranging impacts.

RUBY:

What does it say to you about the priorities of this new government?

KIRSTY:

Well, it's certainly really worrying on the environmental front. Unfortunately, what we have here in the Territory is an endless push for large scale extractive development, whatever the cost. And that's disappointing when we are such a special place, even though we're far away from places like Sydney and Melbourne. And also we are looking at being uninhabitable due to climate change within a couple of generations, we're going to be hit the hardest by climate change out of anywhere in Australia. And to have laws being passed that could exempt protections for our climate protections, for our nature is profoundly worrying for just people's ability to exist here in the future.

RUBY:

Right. To what extent do you think that the isolation of the Northern Territory plays into this? Do you think there is less scrutiny because of a smaller population, because of how far away different parts of the territory are and therefore perhaps more potential for things that would not be attempted in other places to go through unchallenged or unnoticed in the North Territory.

KIRSTY:

Look, I think that that is absolutely leveraged by politicians here. There's a lot of stuff that you can get away with here because it's out of sight, out of mind from the rest of Australia.

Fracking in the Beetaloo Basin is a monstrous idea. We have had fracking banned in Victoria, huge community resistance to it in other parts of Australia, but you know, it's full steam ahead here in the Northern Territory. We've also got crazy projects planned like the proposed Midland Gas and Petrochemical Hub, which the taxpayer is funding in Australia to the tune of $1.5 billion and we'll see huge toxic petrochemical. All factories constructed in Darwin Harbour using fracked gas from the Beetaloo Basin and offshore gas fields. I just thought that would not happen any more in 2024, in Sydney or Melbourne. And you know, people here believe that they can get away with this stuff because we're so far away from the centres of power. But it's, it's very important that people in Australia understand just what is at risk here because it will impact all of us.

RUBY:

Kirsty. Thank you so much for your time.

KIRSTY:

Thank you so much, Ruby.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today,

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced the government will seek to ban Australians under the age of 16 from social media, with a proposal to be put before the states at a National Cabinet meeting on Friday.

The government hasn’t stated how it expects social media platforms to enforce the ban but says the onus will be on them to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access for young people, with penalties for online platforms that don’t comply.

And, the Israeli Defence Force has said residents from northern Gaza will not be allowed to return home, as ground forces get closer to the total evacuation of the area.

In a media briefing, a senior IDF officer said that because troops had been forced to enter some areas twice, they have no intention to allow evicted residents back.

7am is a daily show from Schwartz Media and The Saturday Paper. It’s made by Atticus Bastow, Cheyne Anderson, Chris Dengate, Daniel James, Erik Jensen, me - Ruby Jones, Sarah McVeigh, Travis Evans and Zoltan Fecso.

Thanks for listening. See you next week.

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