MEDIA RELEASE: Middle Arm cost blow out and an eye-watering fossil fuel subsidy

2023-12-15


Middle Arm cost blow out and an eye-watering fossil fuel subsidy

Internal NT government documents, released under FOI, reveal that the federal government is considering funding a carbon capture and storage facility to enable the Middle Arm project to go ahead. The cost of this is more than double the previously committed figure- from $1.5 billion to more than $3.5 billion. The NT Greens call on the NT Labor Government to come clean to Territorians about the reality of this project.

There is a devastating irony in the fact that our Pacific neighbours are fighting for their futures and calling for an end to fossil fuels and fossil fuel subsidies at COP28 all while our government is prepared to throw a $3.5bn subsidy at the Middle Arm Gas and Petrochemical Hub.

It is all the more alarming that residents of the NT have had to work tooth and nail to get any transparency or clarity around this enormous project in their own backyard. NT Labor is absolutely fixated on obscuring the truth and greenwashing this project.

 

Quotes attributable to Jonathan Parry:

  • “These FOI documents demonstrate what the community has long known, and what the NT Labor Government refuses to admit: the Middle Arm Gas and Petrochemical Hub benefits no one except big corporations.”
  • “Take a moment to imagine what $3.5 billion could do for the Northern Territory. And our government is prepared to roll out the red carpet for the gas industry with a blank cheque.”

Media contact: Jonathan Parry, NT Greens Convenor | 0400 730 455 |  office@nt.greens.org.au