Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to ask a question to the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Water, Minister Wong. CSIRO recently provided a fracking fact sheet in English, which was then translated in language into audio files and provided to First Nations communities. Providing this fact sheet was one of the recommendations of the Northern Territory fracking inquiry. This misleading fact sheet was produced by a CSIRO division that is partially funded by the gas industry, which includes Origin and Santos, and it stated that methane 'may' play a role in climate change, when we know that it definitely plays a role. In fact, methane is 80 times more potent than CO2, and at least 25 per cent of global warming is driven by methane from human actions.

My question is: why are fossil fuel companies allowed to fund, in any proportion, divisions of a government agency—our scientific peak body, which is expected to provide independent advice—especially regarding a controversial topic that these companies have a direct interest in?