Controversial carbon capture and storage project opposed by Gina Rinehart causes high-level Coalition split

Nationals Leader David Littleproud with then-resources minister Keith Pitt in 2020. (Supplied: LETA)

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley has hit back at a colleague’s claim that she made the wrong call about a controversial carbon project in government, exposing a split at the highest levels of the Coalition.

Farmers, environmentalists and Australia’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, have united in opposition against the planned carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the Great Artesian Basin, Australia’s largest groundwater resource.

The three-year trial in Queensland’s Darling Downs would involve capturing and liquefying CO2 from Glencore’s Millmerran coal-fired power station and pumping it deep into the aquifer.

Littleproud says Ley made wrong call

Queensland’s powerful farm lobby, AgForce, believes it poses an unacceptable risk and has launched legal action which it hopes will force the Commonwealth to assess, and ultimately reject, the project under federal environment laws.

In 2022, the then-Morrison government told Glencore the project did not require scrutiny or approval under the laws, leaving environmental assessments to Queensland.

When asked this week if that was the right decision, Nationals leader David Littleproud said “no”.

“It was a desktop review done by the environment minister at the time, Sussan Ley, and she didn’t get it right.

“It wasn’t on her radar to the extent that it should’ve been”.

Responding to the accusation, Ms Ley labelled Mr Littleproud’s comments “a misconstruction of what actually occurred when we were in government”.

“The suggestion that I personally took a decision to let the project proceed is wrong,” she told the ABC.

“The departmental decision didn’t advance the project, it didn’t green-light the project.

“It was a technical, legal decision that effectively said the Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act, as written, could not be used.”

Submissions to a Senate inquiry reveal Glencore referred its project to the federal environment department in January 2022 and three weeks later, received advice that it would not require assessment under the EPBC Act.

Before finalising its advice, the department sought feedback from four ministers including Barnaby Joyce, then-Nationals leader and regional development minister, and Keith Pitt, a Nationals MP and then-resources and water minister.

Joyce’s office did not respond while Pitt’s office endorsed the department’s decision.

Ms Ley, without naming the ministers, makes reference to this consultation in her statement, suggesting her Nationals’ colleagues were fully aware of the decision at the time.

“No objections were raised and in one case, a minister’s agency wrote back in agreement,” she said.

“This is not a reflection of any personal views held about this project, it is a reflection on the legal soundness of the decision.”

Morrison government gave Glencore funding

Without carbon capture and storage, the International Energy Agency has said it will be virtually impossible for countries like Australia to reach net zero by 2050, because the technology enables heavy industry to offset their emissions.

According to Glencore’s website, the Morrison government awarded the company “up to $35 million” for the trial project in 2022.

Mr Littleproud himself posted on social media that he was “proud” to be investing in the project “to demonstrate the viability of carbon capture and storage”.

But opposition to the project has sharply escalated. The Rinehart-owned Hancock Agriculture, which operates 12 properties across the basin, has declared the project’s risk unacceptable.

Even Queensland’s Labor Premier Steven Miles — who faces an election in October — said this week the project was unlikely to be given state environmental approval.

That decision is expected in late May, before AgForce’s legal challenge is due to be heard in August.

In response to Mr Miles’ comments, a Glencore spokesperson said the company feared it had “been set up by this government to fail even though we are following the CCS approvals process set up by the QLD government”.

“We believe carbon capture and storage can safely coexist with other activities in the Great Artesian Basin — just like coal seam gas, oil and gas do today,” they said in a statement.

Glencore has long maintained the project was based on “robust scientific fieldwork and data” and the CO2 was “food grade” and would “not risk agricultural or town drinking water”.

Watt sought advice on federal intervention

Despite the assurances, there’s a great deal of unease about the project within the Albanese government, too.

After meeting concerned cattle farmers in November, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt’s office wrote to Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek asking: “What scope there may be federally to reconsider this project?”

Senator Watt — speaking in Rockhampton this week — said Glencore’s project was the number one issue being raised with him.

“There is, from what I can see, universal opposition from individual farmers right through to farm peak bodies to this project going ahead,” he told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

“Any decision about approving these types of projects is to be based on good science, and it has got to give consideration to the impact on prime agricultural land and our agricultural production.”

Both sides of politics support the use of CCS but MPs have privately said they believe the Glencore project is proposed in the wrong location.

Covering more than 1.7 million square kilometres, the Great Artesian Basin spans more than a fifth of the continent, is worth about $13 billion to the national economy and is a vital resource for communities and businesses.

But as it stands, Australia has just one large-scale CCS project in operation, Chevron’s Gorgon Project off the coast of Western Australia. Another 17 are in various stages of development.

Low Emission Technology Australia (LETA) — set up by the black coal industry to develop emissions-abating technologies — said Glencore’s CCS project was one of the most “advanced and important” projects it’s funding.

“A successful pilot could bring forward other CCS projects that could support a reduction in emissions across Australia’s fleet of coal-fired power stations and lead the way in supporting other hard-to-abate sectors to reduce their emissions,” LETA said in a statement.