Union bid to curb ‘clueless’ gas project opponents

Major unions are pressing the federal government to reduce the ability of “clueless activists” to frustrate and delay multibillion-dollar offshore gas projects, in an unlikely alliance with resources giants that seeks to tighten consultation rules exploited by project opponents.

Accusing gas development critics of “demonising gas as the new coal”, the right-wing Australian Workers Union and the left-wing maritime union have told a government review that deficiencies in the rules setting out who must be consulted prior to works on an offshore resource project need to be fixed.

AWU national secretary Paul Farrow said the “unity ticket” with employers might be seen as a surprising development but action was needed because the exploitation by activists of the existing rules was putting the job security of union members at risk.

In response to a number of successful legal cases brought by environmentalists that have delayed mega projects including Santos’s $5.3bn Barossa LNG development, Mr Farrow said current limits on the consultation process were “so vague that they have the potential to continue indefinitely”.

“Our members exploring for, extracting, processing, and transmitting gas play a hugely important role in Australia’s energy needs and yet they are being demonised by clueless activists who are only interested in making themselves feel somehow superior to the real world,” Mr Farrow told The Australian.

He said it was non-negotiable that companies engaged in extensive, proper and genuine consultation, especially with traditional owners, about new projects. “But when we know bad faith activists just want to pour sand in the gears we shouldn’t be leaving the bonnet open indefinitely,” he said. “Consult properly and thoroughly and then conclude finally: that should be the guiding principle under which our system operates.”

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The Australian revealed in January that the government had briefed industry members that the consultation rules would be tightened this year.

Industry and union figures said tightening the rules would address concerns about the regulatory landscape faced by gas developers since Santos was forced in 2022 to shelve drilling on its $5.3bn Barossa LNG project in the Timor Sea. A court halted drilling for more than a year after finding the gas giant had not consulted enough with Indigenous Australians.

However the Federal Court in January rejected a claim the gas giant’s proposed 262km pipeline would cause irreparable damage to Indigenous people and their sacred sites. The ruling came just weeks after the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority gave the gas giant the green light to resume drilling.

In its submission, the two unions, known as the Offshore Alliance, call for a number of changes to the consultation regime including the provision of clear definitions of key terms such as who is a “relevant person” that must be consulted, and what is a “reasonable period” to provide them to engage.

The unions want the government to abolish the requirement that new information provided by a stakeholder after a consultation has ceased must be considered, claiming this rule “essentially means that a consultation period can never end”

Mr Farrow said a proper consultation period that was genuine, well-resourced, and thorough would “take a lot of time, and that’s totally appropriate”.

“A core principle with all consultation processes, however, is that they must be finite,” he said.

“The limits of the consultation process are currently so vague that they have the potential to continue indefinitely.”

In their submission, the unions said litigation focused on consultation prerequisites was among a suite of tactics used by activists to delegitimise the sector. “This litigation has had a direct and negative impact on thousands of AWU and Offshore Alliance members who work in the sector, fuelling prolonged uncertainty and placing both short and long-term job opportunities at risk,” the submission says.

“Delays to construction of the Barossa pipeline are just the latest chapter, leaving hundreds of Offshore Alliance members in limbo as the matter played out in court.”

While disruption to offshore gas development was a major concern, the unions said there was potential for precedents established through the litigation to extend to proposed onshore gas and offshore wind developments.

“This would expose the energy transition – and tens of thousands of additional workers – to still greater uncertainty,” they said.

The unions said “litigation ostensibly concerned with defective consultation, but with the overarching objective of disrupting or derailing development entirely, amounts to bad faith action to exploit deficiency in the regime”.

“The impact of the resulting delays on AWU and Offshore Alliance members, and Australia’s energy and industrial outlook, is unacceptable and amendments must be made.”

Mr Farrow said the unity ticket by unions and employers “might be a surprise to some”.

“Our history speaks for itself,” he said. “We have had plenty of big fights with the players in these industries but when it comes to issues that affect the job security of our members, yes, we are aligned with some of their views.”