Member for Terrigal, Adam Crouch has welcomed an announcement made by the Leader of the Opposition, Mark Speakman, that the NSW Coalition will introduce legislation to go one step further than opposing PEP-11, by banning offshore mining and exploration.
Crouch said the move was necessary to fulfill not only the election commitment made by the Coalition in February 2023, but also to protect our vibrant and biodiverse coastal communities from the harmful effects of offshore mining.
“Coastal communities across NSW, including the Central Coast, have been clear in their opposition to offshore mining and exploration in our waters,” he said.
“That is why I am glad that the Coalition will be introducing the Minerals Legislation Amendment (Offshore Drilling and Associated Infrastructure Prohibition) Bill 2023.
“The Coalition already has a strong track record on environmental protection in our region.
“Under the previous Coalition Government, the PEP-11 exploration license was rejected in 2021 and our position to rule out offshore exploration and mining was made clear by then Deputy Premier Paul Toole in 2022.”
Crouch said he would be calling on Central Coast Labor MPs to support the Bill to protect local waters from the impacts of offshore mining.
The Coalition is also renewing calls for the Federal Labor Government to prevent offshore mining in neighbouring Commonwealth waters.
The bill will be introduced by Member for Pittwater Rory Amon, who says it makes it abundantly clear that anyone looking to drill for gas in NSW waters won’t have the opportunity.
To help tackle beach erosion, the proposed legislation will continue to allow mineral exploration or mining in NSW waters for beach nourishment where a clear public benefit can be demonstrated.
Source:
Member for Terrigal Adam Crouch
Like the hundreds of wind turbines our politicians so enthusiastically embrace,PEP11 proposal is outside State waters. Unlike the hundreds of wind turbines, the PEP11 proposal would result in just a handful of gas rigs over the horizon not visible from shore.
This argument against Pep11 is simply rediculous by these politicians, what are they naive and insane and blind to the life blood needs of there NSW state.
We are currently running out of natural gas on the East Coast of Australia that isn’t contracted already, we have to discover new supply and Pep11 is a god sent for NSW, it could give our state sovereign Natural Gas Energy supply for the rest of this century on a successful exploration campaign in Pep11 and at the doorstep of Australia’s biggest consumer of the product.
This is also just one of the many facts that makes the zone environmentally friendly in that if the gas can be discovered close to the supply line it’s a huge bonus in costs and the environment in general.
Pep11 also has a massive CCS potential in its very nature of extracting the traditional Natural Gas energy and replacing the void it creates with Carbon Capture and storage of all our by products of being a modern human society.
Simply it is madness that the NSW State government wouldn’t embrace exploration of Natural Gas in its state and especially a state that is the biggest coal exporter in the world, Natural Gas is the only transitional fuel we have on demand for electrical generation and industry has in a transitional world to renewables over the rest of this century, and for a government not to embrace Pep11 potential to the state as a whole is a state in demise, and one of a state sticking its head in the sand on a enormous problem building in Energy supply through lack of vision of what it actually takes to power its State in reality.