NSW union leaders have expressed deep disappointment in the National Native Title Tribunal’s (NNTT) decision to allow NSW to lease land to Santos for the Narrabri Gas Project, against the wishes of the Gomeroi peoples. In a letter to the federal government, 11 union officials have called on the federal government to intervene to stop the project from moving forwards.
The Gomeroi people’s fight against fossil fuel development in the Pilliga Forest has been a long-standing struggle. While the Federal Court ruled last year that new fossil fuel developments on native title land must take into account the effects of climate change, the NNTT decided on the 19th May that the Narrabri Gas Project may go ahead.
Union officials have described Santos’ Narrabri Gas Project as “unnecessary yet destructive”. Addressed to the Federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland, the Minister for the Environment Murray Watt, and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs Malarndirri McCarthy, the unions have called on the government to use the “multiple policy and regulatory levers” available to them to halt the project.
The letter was penned by Thomas Mayo, the Assistant National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man, along with the NSW branches of the MUA, the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), Nurses & Midwives Association (NSWNMA), the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Union (ASMOF), the Teachers Federation, the Independent Education Union (IEU), the Australian Services Union (ASU), and the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU).
They have expressed solidarity with the Gomeroi people and the importance of the Pilliga Forest: “there is no amount of profit that could ever make the destruction of this last remnant of forest a legitimate decision for any Government to make”.
“We together represent many thousands of ordinary working people. Working people who care about the future of our country, but also about our shared past.”
“We implore you to use the power available to you to deliver justice to the Gomeroi, and to take this opportunity to stand on the right side of history.”
