Teal takes on Liberals over gas project in blue-ribbon NSW seatSamantha HutchinsonNational reporterDec 12, 2022 – 7.04pmSaveShareA controversial offshore gas project killed off by Scott Morrison in the lead-up to the federal election will reappear as a battleground issue in the NSW state election, as teal independents targeting Liberals seats put climate and environmental protection at the centre of their platforms.The PEP-11 offshore gas project, which progressive Liberals including Dave Sharma and Jason Falinski denounced heading into the federal election, remains a hot-button issue in the state’s coastal seats, according to the Climate 200-backed independent candidate Jacqui Scruby.Pittwater independent candidate Jacqui Scruby at Avalon Beach. Natalie BoogThe environmental lawyer, who ran Sophie Scamps’ successful tilt for the federal seat of Mackellar in May, has set her sights on tapping into the same community concern for the environment in her campaign for the state seat of Pittwater. This includes vociferous opposition to Asset Energy’s offshore gas project known as PEP-11, which stretches 4649 square kilometres from Sydney to Newcastle.“It will definitely be an issue at the state election,” Ms Scruby told The Australian Financial Review of Asset Energy’s PEP-11 project, which will be reviewed in the federal court in March.“It’s still front and centre in people’s minds here, and there are a lot of people in the community who are across the reality that [the project] is not dead in the water … But it needs to be dead in the water, with a rock tied to it with a rope, and sent to the bottom of the ocean.”AdvertisementLocated on Sydney’s northern beaches, Pittwater is currently occupied by retiring Infrastructure Minister Rob Stokes and overlays much of the same territory the Liberals lost to Ms Scamps in May.Critically, the electorate has been directly exposed to debate on the high-profile PEP-11 permit, which covers offshore ground within 50 kilometres of Sydney and Central Coast beaches. The permit held by Asset Energy was killed off in December 2021 by then-prime minister Mr Morrison in what has been regarded as a political play to safeguard coastal Liberal seats under threat from the teals, including Mackellar and Wentworth. The Liberals went on to lose the seats to Ms Scamps and Allegra Spender.Many of the concerns over NSW’s energy supply and environment issues that figured during the federal election were still strongly held in the community, Ms Scruby said.Not a case of NIMBYismConstituents wanted to shore up the state’s energy supply with renewables rather than more investment in fossil fuel extraction, and saw economic opportunities in an energy transition. There was also a widely held belief in the area that exploration and drilling within 30 kilometres of the coastline was unacceptable risk to water quality as well as wildlife, including migrating whales.“They know that the answer [to an energy crisis] isn’t drilling off the coastline for gas,” she said.Opposition to the project and offshore gas exploration was not a case of NIMBYism, she said. Community resistance to the project also came out of a desire to protect electorates north and south of Pittwater,Ms Scruby said that, if elected, she would push for legislation that ruled out offshore gas exploration off the state’s coastline. She also supports reserving more locally produced gas for domestic consumption.NSW could also leverage its position as the highest-producing state in negotiations with the federal government to mitigate against the prospect of a difference of opinion over projects between state and federal policymakers, she said.RELATED
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