‘Do no harm’: NT doctors and parents take climate protest to Canberra

Parents and doctors from the Northern Territory have travelled to Canberra to demand the federal government stop fracking in the Beetaloo Basin and withdraw its $1.5 billion subsidy for the Middle Arm project on Darwin Harbour. 

Holding signs that read “do no harm”, “our children need a safe climate” and “no taxpayers $$ for coal and gas”, more than 100 people joined the protest outside Parliament House on Tuesday. 

Indigenous traditional owners also joined the protest, decrying the government’s support for Santos’ Barossa gas project off the coast of the Tiwi Islands. 

“First Nations communities and campaigners in the Northern Territory are fighting on all fronts,” one speaker told the crowd. 

NT paediatrician Dr Louise Woodward said the delegation of parents and health professionals — backed by the Australian Medical Association — were raising the alarm about the impacts of gas developments on the climate. 

“Northern Australia is on the frontline of the climate crisis, it’s getting hotter in the Top End, we have more heat stress days every year and many of our families do not have appropriate housing or money to pay for power to escape the heat,” she said. 

“Our hospitals and clinics do not have the resources to manage the needs of our communities as it is — what is going to happen as the climate crisis progresses?

“There is certainly no safe way to frack the Beetaloo Basin or process gas at Middle Arm so close to the population of Darwin.”

Earlier in the year, almost 50 NT paediatricians signed a joint letter urging the NT government to withdraw Beetaloo Basin fracking support. 

Now more than 2,300 health specialists have signed a petition that will be delivered to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. 

Dr Catherine Pendrey, a representative from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said the 40,000 members were calling for the extraction and processing of gas to be stopped because of the potential health impacts. 

The rally comes days after NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles — in an address to the National Press Club — accused “Teals and trolls” of “spreading their nonsense” about plans to develop the north and trying to shut down projects.

Speaking on ABC Radio Darwin on Tuesday, Ms Fyles defended the comments, saying that despite rigorous studies into the developments over many years, she’d been personally attacked in a “troll-based” manner. 

“I was trying to highlight: Don’t think of the territory as a backward place,” she said.

“We have an independent environmental protection agency, we’ve got robust, strong laws … we’ve done so much as a jurisdiction and that’s because we care about the environment.”

Rally backed by ‘teals’, independents

Monique Ryan — a doctor and a ‘teal’ independent from Victoria — said she became involved in the NT movement after she’d heard Ms Fyles had repeatedly refused to meet with doctors concerned about the gas projects.

“These are doctors who understand the significance and severity of potential impacts of what the NT and Albanese government are proposing for the territory,” she said on Tuesday.

“The direct and indirect health impacts of fracking the Beetaloo Basin and the Middle Arm development will affect all Australians.

Independent Senator David Pocock, who has repeatedly condemned the potential impacts of these projects, urged protesters from Canberra to “put the pressure” on politicians who are voting to subsidise and expand the fossil fuel industry. 

“We’re in a situation where Labor came into government promising all sorts of things on climate change and yet they are … continuing to put our money into the gas industry,” he said. 

“We have to send a message to the government, this is not good enough.” 

Speaking in Question Time on Tuesday, Mr Albanese defended his government’s involvement in the Middle Arm project. 

Responding to claims that health professionals had warned of the dire health consequences should the Middle Arm project and Beetaloo fracking go ahead, Mr Albanese said: “With respect, it’s just not right.”

“One of the projects is potentially, yes, associated with fossil fuels, but five of the six proponents are hydrogen, critical minerals, green amonia and solar companies,” he said.

“Our investment is equity in public, common use, marine infrastructure at Middle Arm to develop clean energy industries to get to net zero. “

At a press conference inside Parliament House, Independent senator Lidia Thorpe read a statement from Larrakia Elder Eric Fejo.

“When we are talking about the health impacts of Middle Arm, we cannot exclude the voices of traditional owners, the first people of the lands this project effects, and the impacts it has on their health,” she said.