Lock the Gate Alliance
$40,000 | July 2020
What do Lock the Gate Alliance do?
Lock the Gate Alliance is a unique coalition of farmers, conservationists and Indigenous Traditional Owners working together to protect land, water and communities from dangerous coal and unconventional gas mining.
Together, we have built a powerful de-centralised grassroots movement of communities impacted by mining. We now represent over 250 local groups, 460 mining/gasfield free communities and more than 120,000 members and supporters.
Our movement has worked tirelessly to constrain risky coal and gas projects, to hold mining companies to account, and to prevent or limit the damage to natural resources, climate and communities.
Why is this work important?
Gas has found its way onto the front page of many newspapers as the touted solution to coronavirus-induced recession. This blatant political imperative has galvanised opposition to gas from coast to coast. The battle is now on to stop our governments committing public money to fossil fuel projects in the coming year. Lock the Gate is playing a key role in coordinating the networks needed to ward off gas expansion, from local grassroots project battles to economics arguments to political and media outreach.
How is Groundswell supporting this work?
This core funding supported the work of Lock The Gate to unite city and country people to ward off the coal and gas industry’s push to expand post-Covid, and to push for the enormous economic opportunities of a renewables-led recovery.
Across the nation we have a range of priorities that will reach important milestones this year:
The creation of the new leadership group in the Hunter Valley is working to secure NSW government support for an active program to support coal mining communities to transition away from reliance on coal.
The Narrabri Gas Project and Vickery coal mine (both in North West NSW) will have assessment processes culminate in the next 6 months. We have a huge role in managing the community response and maximising the pressure to ensure the decision is to reject these proposals. If we can get a good outcome, this could be a tipping point for decisions on new coal and gas projects in NSW.
We are collaborating with gas and fracking impacted communities and renewable energy experts to build project plans for community owned solar projects.
The Queensland Plan to Grow campaign will build momentum towards stronger legislative protections for agricultural, environmental and culturally important lands.
The NT team will continue to solidify and enliven public opposition to fracking and break down the economic case for fracked gas. This should result in positive policy changes as parties jostle for leadership at the upcoming Territory elections.
In WA, we will see a growing campaign across the food bowl regions to put in no go areas for fracking gasfieds, while in the Kimberley we will build on the public pressure for expanded heritage protections and no go areas for fracking.
The Origin corporate campaign will reach a point where the backlash from household, local government and business customers will be so great that Origin will reconsider its role in fracking the NT.
Nationally our leadership to prevent new gas expansion will help lead to campaign exposure across
Australian communities, business and politics, paving the way for investment to avoid major new gas developments altogether.
Grant update
At the time the grant was awarded, Lock the Gate were in the midst of the campaign opposing Santos gas fields in Narrabri, which would not only blow our carbon budget, but also destroy important remnant habitat post 2019-20 megafires. Update on campaign as follows:
Narrabri gas field protest raised 11,000 individual submissions for the IPC and 450 verbal presentations, the overwhelming majority of which were objections.
Unfortunately, the Independent Planning Commission granted the Narrabri gas project conditional approval in September 2020, yet with 134 conditions Lock the Gate have a lot of leverage and time to continue to prevent this project from ever reaching Final Investment Decision.
The conditional approval came after 10 arduous years of valiant community opposition. Lock the Gate are in the strongest position possible going forward in terms of a broad and united network - Gomeroi Traditional Owners, the NSW Farmers Association and the Country Women's Association have all publicly condemned the decision, along with many other stakeholder groups.
