Treasury: Stop $3.5 billion in public money for NT gas

1. Start off with an introduction
e.g. Dear Treasury, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister Catherine King

2. Make it personal
Introduce yourself. You could start with the climate impacts you're experiencing and seeing. Have you or your loved ones been impacted by extreme heat, fires or floods in recent months? Or past climate impacts?

The Middle Arm gas hub will open up the Beetaloo to fracking and release a climate bomb.

3. Make it clear you're backing in Traditional Owners
The Middle Arm gas hub is opposed by local Larrakia Traditional Owners who are deeply concerned about impacts on ancient sacred sites and Traditional Owners in the Beetaloo Basin have been defending Country, water and cultural heritage for a decade from fracking.

4. No public money for fossil fuels
$3.5 Billion for the Middle Arm gas hub is a handout to fossil fuel corporations to process and export fracked gas from the Beetaloo basin. This is an obscene use of public funds that must be stopped - along with the billions in legacy fossil fuel subsidies.

5. Recommend what the $3.5 billion should be used for instead
There are hundreds of better ways to spend $3.5 billion in public funds. Traditional Owners have been calling for funding for housing, schools and roads in the NT for decades. And communities across the country are facing climate impacts and the long road of recovery and rebuilding that needs to be funded.

TIPS FOR A POWERFUL SUBMISSION:

Change the subject line
To make your email stand out, come up with your own subject line, be sure to keep it polite and relevant.

Be polite and respectful
It's important to be polite and respectful in your email so that it's taken seriously and into consideration. The Albanese government has the opportunity to stand with Traditional Owners and communities, we want to push them to take action by providing the path forward.

For a government that was elected on a platform centred around strong climate action, their 2023 Federal Budget was a let down, with millions in new public funding for gas.²

There were some positive bits for climate and communities, such as the Household electrification package (a good start to help people save money by getting off expensive, polluting gas), and the National Net Zero Authority (an important win for Australia's energy workers, their families and communities, and for the climate).

But in general, this budget does not meet the ambition on which the Albanese Government was elected upon, nor which communities and the climate crisis calls for. Communities are still reeling off the back of disastrous floods, and we are heading into another likely bushfire season. When living on the frontlines of climate disasters like these, any budget that doesn't completely remove Morrison-era fossil fuel subsidies and invest in community solutions and resilience is a failed budget.

In addition to $1.9 billion in public funding for the Middle Arm gas hub that would fast-track fracking in the Beetaloo Basin, they've confirmed $214.9 million in Morrison-era handouts for gas industry roads.

The new documents reveal a further $2 billion in the pipeline for the next budget, bringing the total cost of the Middle Arm gas hub to a staggering $3.5 billion.³ But there's still time to stop this proposed funding from making it into the next budget.

It's up to us, the GetUp movement, to work with Traditional Owners and allies across the sector in stopping fossil fuels once and for all. And that means stopping Middle Arm. Will you email key decision-makers today?

The Middle Arm development is a gas industry plan for a massive port and industrial hub on Darwin Harbour.

The ABC obtained the NT Government's original business case for Middle Arm through freedom of information requests. It details how the new hub would pump out petrochemicals using fracked Beetaloo gas that steamrolls the consent of Traditional Owners.⁴

Frackers and gas lobbyists celebrated when nearly $2 billion in public funding was announced in the October budget.⁵

After GetUp members – together with Traditional Owners and local campaigners – snapped into action to challenge the subsidy, the Albanese Government greenwashed the project as "sustainable".⁶ And the NT government quietly scrubbed the word "petrochemicals" from the Middle Arm website.⁷

It's shrouded in controversy and secrecy, and has dire consequences for Traditional Owners, surrounding communities, and our climate.

Together we won a Senate inquiry into the Middle Arm gas hub, with hearings and recommendations due in the first half of 2024.

While Treasury is publicly calling for pre-budget submissions from individuals, businesses and community groups via email, the department says the preferred method is through the online portal.

Here's how to maximise your influence by making a submission via the online portal:

1. Take your email submission and create a document.
2. Go to the budget portal website and insert your details.
   NOTE: as this is an individual submission, please leave the 'name of organisation' section blank unless you're submitting on behalf of a separate community group.
3. If submitting just on public funding for the Middle Arm gas hub, select these portfolios: Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Arts – Infrastructure and Transport and Treasury - Treasury
4. Upload your submission document and click SUBMIT.

The document you upload does not have to be detailed but be sure to keep it polite and clear: no public funding for the Middle Arm gas hub which will fast-track Beetaloo Basin fracking.