Opinion
Grab the popcorn, the left are about to start fighting again. Once again, the in-fighting is brought on as a consequence of unions actually remembering to back the interests of workers rather than inner-city, laptop-class leftists.
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.
This is shaping up to be the best stoush since Bob Brown’s “Stop Adani convoy” got chased out of every Queensland town from Ipswich to Clermont.
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.
This is the big disconnect in left-wing politics: on the one hand, middle-class activists and left-wing union bosses playing at politics; on the other, people who actually work for a living. Despite their pretensions of being “for the workers”, left-wing politics are almost always diametrically opposed to the interests of working people.
Nowhere more obviously than in the resources industry.
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.”
A system which is ludicrously broken.
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.
This is where we find ourselves: having to prostrate ourselves at the feet of the ungabunga magic gods, just to try and keep the lights on.
Especially when the ungabunga gods getim heap plenty angry with the holy idols of the green-left.
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.
The Australian
Which would be grimly satisfying and, maybe, an object lesson to the Climate Cult, when all the charging stations for their EVs run dead.
But who am I kidding? Cultists never change their minds.