Minerals boss blames environmental activist ‘vandalism’ for holding Australia back from energy sovereignty

Minerals Council of Australia chief Tania Constable has blamed environmental activist “vandalism” for holding Australia back from energy sovereignty and said the Iran war-induced crisis should be a “wake up call”.

The head of the nation’s peak mining body has called for urgent investment and expedited approvals for major oil and gas projects across Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.

She said the current fuel crisis had proved Australia needs to muscle up against global shocks so it isn’t left vulnerable to volatile international markets — which includes revving up domestic projects and standing up to climate activists.

Ms Constable rattled off WA’s Dorado field in the Bedout Sub-basin, NT’s Beetaloo Basin, and various Queensland gas fields to secure medium-term energy resilience, while eye-marking the Great Australian Bight as a critical long-term resource opportunity.

“For the very long term, the Great Australian Bight is a great opportunity,” she told The Nightly.

“Geoscience Australia believes that what we have there is the equivalent of what is available in the Gulf of Mexico in terms of oil and gas.

“Ten years ago, it was stopped because we had environmental activists put such a campaign together that it made it impossible for exploration to occur.

“This is a wake up call right now to stop that sort of vandalism occurring on Australian resources that this country needs.

“We also need to make sure that we are planning for the future, that we have enough supply into the future and getting more projects on the ground.

“We need investment occurring to get those fields up, and they will provide that longer term supply resilience that is needed.”

It comes after two Greenspeace activists were arrested after disrupting major gas conference in Sydney, where they held banners saying “Tax Gas Profits” and another with “Gas Execs Profit. We Pay The Price” on it .

Greenpeace Australia Pacific campaigner Solaye Snider insisted the protest was peaceful and labelled sector giants as “profit hungry” firms who see “horrific global wars as an opportunity to price gouge and profiteer, while everyday people pay the price”.

New Nationals leader Matt Canavan said the “hypocrisy” of the activist was they used “products made from oil and gas” like superglue, core flutes, and felt pens in their campaign.

“I hope they didn’t drive there. And even if they didn’t drive there, they probably wore Lycra on their bikes to get there. That’s also made from oil and gas,” he said.

Mr Canavan said views of the sector “are changing fast” and slammed “ foreign funded activist groups” for trying to push Australia into “energy poverty”.

“I think views are changing fast on the need for investment in oil and gas,” he told The Nightly.

“Perhaps we have been able to con ourselves into thinking that we could survive without dirty, messy industries like oil, gas and coal but we’re getting a lesson from the school of hard knocks now.

“I welcome the change of opinion, but I’d also say that those groups that actively opposed the development of our oil and gas sector need to be held accountable.

“And time and time again, we’ve been frustrated by foreign funded activist groups who have kind of got what they wanted, and what they wanted was energy poverty for Australians. Welcome to that world.”

Climate Council’s Greg Bourne, however, said remaining tethered to coal and gas was putting Australians at “risk of energy price pain” and warned the nation not to be “left behind in the global shift to clean energy”.

“Australia is paying a high price for our reliance on volatile fossil fuel markets,” he said.

The Climate Council and Australian Conservation Foundation also released new modelling on Tuesday which showed new coal and gas projects are an escalating risk to the Safeguard Mechanism.