David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

We've recently seen almost 2,300 medical professionals write an open letter to the Prime Minister of Australia raising concerns about a project that is receiving $1.5 billion of taxpayer money. These are people who work on the front line in communities across the country, seeing people who need care and support and who at times are in life and death situations. They live by the principle of doing no harm, and what they are asking the government to do is to think about that and to commit to doing no harm when it comes to public funding for Middle Arm.

These doctors and a number of scientists who have spent years—some have spent decades—looking at the health impacts on communities living next to precincts such as Middle Arm tell us that the health risks are significant. People living near oil and gas operations experience higher hospitalisation rates for heart disease and respiratory disease; higher hospitalisation rates for neurological disorders and existing asthma conditions; increases in some childhood cancers, particularly leukaemia; increases in immune deficiency disorders; and reduced life expectancy.

A new petrochemical hub will put further strain on the already struggling Northern Territory health system. We've heard that directly from people working in the hospitals in Darwin, from paediatricians who are struggling to keep up with demand. Territorians experience the highest rates of chronic diseases in the country. This is a huge burden on the health system, and $1.5 billion of public money will enable projects that we know will make that burden worse. It seems negligent to add health impacts of petrochemical production to our health system that is already under acute, enduring stress. And it gets worse when we talk about Middle Arm. We'll hear from the government that this is not just gas, but we know that it does unlock the Beetaloo. It unlocks Barossa. They are two enormous gas deposits.

The impacts of Middle Arm on our climate are huge. We know the centrepiece of the Middle Arm precinct is a 6.6-million-tonnes-per-annum LNG export facility operated by Tamboran, the same company that plans to frack the Beetaloo basin. We know that it will unlock huge quantities of gas for export. This is being enabled by taxpayer funding.

This sort of spending is against the backdrop of almost 2,300 doctors raising their concerns and scientists who have studied this saying that this will lead to increased leukaemia rates in children—up to 30 per cent. The health impact assessment of people living in the Beetaloo basin says it'll likely have all of these adverse effects, but the populations are low, so we may never know. This is what this government's committed to, and the Senate should have the opportunity to look into this further, to provide more scrutiny and to examine the claims that have been made for and against this proposed development. There is no good excuse for the government to continue to vote against an inquiry, to continue to vote against more Senate scrutiny of $1.5 billion that will have real health and climate impacts.