Court hears case to appeal commission decision on Narrabri gas project

By Melissa Coade

August 30, 2021

Santos' Bibblewindi Water Treatment Facility which is part of Santos's Narrabri Gas Project, Narrabri.
Santos’ Bibblewindi Water Treatment Facility which is part of Santos’s Narrabri Gas Project, Narrabri. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)

The NSW Land and Environment Court will hear an appeal against the Narrabri Gas Project starting from Monday.

The group appealing the Santos-owned gas project in northern NSW are a collection of farmers and community members known as the Mullaley Gas and Pipeline Accord (MGPA).

Last September the state’s Independent Planning Commission (IPC) approved the gas project near Narrabri, which involves hundreds of CSG wells over a 95,000 hectare expanse.

Brendan Dobie, EDO managing lawyer of Safe Climate (Corporate and Gas) said that the MGPA would argue the IPC’s approval of the gas site was not lawfully made. He added that the group will argue the approval did not consider what impact the project’s proposed gas transmission pipelines would have on the environment. 

“Our clients will ask the court to find that the IPC’s decision was invalid,” Dobie said. 

“This proposed project would contribute millions of tonnes (CO2 equivalent) of greenhouse gas emissions, and it is imperative that these impacts are properly assessed,” Dobie said.

“We argue the IPC also failed to consider the environmental impacts of a gas transmission pipeline that will be needed for the project to proceed.”

The class 4 Judicial Review proceedings to appeal the IPC’s decision was lodged last December, and will be heard over three days from 30 August–1 September this week. 


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