The LTGA produced an emotive three-minute video (which you can see below), which begins with LTGA president Drew Hutton saying: “This is not just about farms, not just about rural people, this is about all of Australia. What sort of Australia do we want?”
The video was released in conjunction with protestors visiting key federal MPs with their list of demands.
Among them are to “put in place an urgent moratorium on coal seam gas and other unconventional gas mining” and to “hold a Royal Commission to investigate the management of coal and gas resources by all Australian governments”
APPEA responded by attacking Hutton, quoting him as saying: “This is the battle for the end of the fossil fuel industry. This is the end game”, from an LTGA newsletter dated April 29, 2011.
APPEA has often said Hutton and the LTGA are more concerned with stopping an industry rather than having a robust discussion about the technical risks and regulation surrounding the CSG industry.
“Lock the Gate is well-credentialled in the art of misinforming people in public office and the community in general,” APPEA chief operating officer for the eastern region Rick Wilkinson said.
He pointed to submissions made by LTGA to senate enquiries in 2011 as evidence.
It submitted material which was taken word for word from a study into shale gas but replaced the term “shale gas” with “coal seam gas”
“The leader of the group, Drew Hutton, was severely embarrassed with his admission that claims they made to both a New South Wales and Senate Parliamentary inquiry were falsified,” Wilkinson said.
APPEA also highlighted the case of Hummingbird Mining.
As reported in EnergyNews in September 2011, a letter purporting to be from a mining company was sent out to landholders in NSW explaining that the non-existent company would be on their land soon to carry out exploratory work.
“Our engineers will bring all necessary equipment to perform their job,” the letter read.
“This includes portable buildings, power generating equipment, flood lighting and materials for access roads.
“Whilst it is anticipated there may be some inconvenience to yourself whilst we conduct this necessary pre-production work, we will endeavour to keep noise and traffic disturbance to a minimum.”
APPEA then alluded to recent incidents in the Northern Rivers region, mainly surrounding exploration company Metgasco.
In December last year it emerged that a bomb threat had been made to the offices of Metgasco in Casino.
A man reportedly called the company to say: “Tell [Metgasco managing director] Peter Henderson that there is a bomb in the office and we are going to blow all your heads off.”
At the time, APPEA called on Drew Hutton and the LTGA to take responsibility for the actions of the protestor, or at least condemn them.
Speaking to EnergyNews at the time, Hutton accused Metgasco of making up the claim.
“Have they actually provided any evidence of who’s made the threat and the group they belong to? Of course they haven’t, because there’s no such evidence,” he said.
“What I’m really concerned with is that we’ve made a steadfast adherence to non-violence absolutely plain from day one.
“We have always said we’re based on the principals of non-violence. We wouldn’t use the threat of violence. Our opposition is based on principles that go back to Gandhi and Martin Luther King.”
He said the accusations were an attempt to radicalise the group and its supporters.
“I think this is an attempt by the coal seam gas industry to marginalise their opposition by making claims that we are some sort of radical organisation and this is all they’ve got left,” Hutton said.
Metgasco confirmed to EnergyNews that it had referred the matter to police.
At the time of writing on Thursday afternoon, the LTGA’s YouTube video had 288 views.
