A lively picket was held outside Arrow Energy’s main Brisbane office on Albert Street on March 23.
Called by Socialist Alliance candidate for South Brisbane, Liam Flenady, the picket protested the recent revelations that BNG, a subsidiary of Arrow Energy, has a permit for coal seam gas (CSG) exploration in the western suburbs of Brisbane, including the suburbs Pullenvale, Karara Downs and Moggill.
Despite Arrow Energy claiming that the company will not pursue exploration in the area, the protesters highlighted the fact that drilling in urban and suburban areas has already begun in Sydney, and that assurances from corporations cannot be trusted.
The protesters called for the exploration permits to be revoked.
Flenady said that the picket was not just about CSG exploration in Brisbane. “If you look at the full picture of the CSG industry in Queensland and its effects on the environment, the community and the economy, it becomes immediately apparent that to go through with it is an absurd decision.
“The community is against it, but the owners of gigantic multinational mining corporations like Shell and PetroChina (owners of Arrow Energy) stand to make billions of dollars from it.”
Flenady called for an immediate moratorium on the CSG industry and a royal commission into its full social, environmental, and economic effects.