Shire says no to oil drilling in Bight

THE Surf Coast Shire has said “no” to oil drilling in the Great Australian Bight, becoming the first Australian municipality to formally oppose it.

At their December meeting, councillors resolved to express their opposition to the proposal, as well as to communicate the stance to energy company Equinor, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA), state and federal government ministers and members of parliament, and Victorian coastal councils.

Equinor holds two exploration permits in the bight and has not yet started drilling, but a leaked “oil pollution emergency plan” from the company obtained by Greenpeace shows oil could be released into the ocean for more than 100 days in the event of a spill.

Several South Australian councils have formalised opposition to oil and gas exploration in bight.

The Surf Coast shire’s resolution followed a petition with more than 500 signatures submitted to the council at its November meeting, and there was applause from the gallery as councillors Margot Smith, Martin Duke and Carol McGregor spoke in support of the motion.

“There are bound to be disaster events happen somewhere, and imagine if an incident was to happen here, and we’d had the opportunity to get up and have a say and we said ‘well, no, the science, we’re just not prepared to (oppose it)’,” Cr Smith said.

“We’re just not prepared to say it’s an acceptable risk, it’s not an acceptable risk for us, for our surfing community, for the tourism that relies upon this coastline, and it’s not an acceptable risk to take on behalf of future generations.”

The only councillor to oppose the motion was Cr Heather Wellington.

“I want to understand the risk, and if there is any material risk whatsoever to our coastline, I would oppose this – and I’ve got a high degree of suspicion that there is a material risk to our coastline,” she said.

“But at the moment, all we have in front of us is a leaked, unreferenced, unauthored, unvalidated draft report.”

Equinor’s draft environment plan for the drilling is expected to be open for public comment for four weeks early in 2019 before it is submitted to NOPSEMA for assessment, and Cr Wellington said that was the best time to determine the council’s position.

“I’m sympathetic to the statement (from the council) and I’m very concerned about the issue, and I think we’re just a step ahead of ourselves.”