Federal Labor is set to vote against a motion by the Greens to disallow a $21 million grant to Empire Energy for its fracking project in the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin.
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It comes as an interim report for a Senate Inquiry into fracking in the Beetaloo Basin is set to be tabled in Parliament this afternoon. .
The motion to block the grant, recently awarded by resources minister Keith Pitt, is set to fail after Labor confirmed it would vote against it with the coalition in a Labor Caucus meeting today.
Ms Waters slammed the move by Labor, saying they "had the chance to do things differently, and they folded."
"Let's be very clear what's happened here: in the middle of a climate crisis the Morrison government has gifted $21 million in public money to a major donor's company to frack the Northern Territory. And Labor today has said, 'Yes, we think that's fine," she said.
"Unlike Sports Rorts and Pork and Ride, the Senate could stop this rort from the start. The disallowance would have terminated a $50 million slush fund for Liberal party mates to cook the planet, put groundwater at risk, and ignore the wishes of First Nations communities."
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According to The Guardian, a number of people within the caucus opposed the move, including NT Senator Malarndirri McCarthy. Her office has been contacted for comment.
The first hearing of the Senate Inquiry heard from a number of Northern Territory stakeholders who submitted that the NT is under pressure from the federal government to allow fracking to take place.
NT Environment Centre Co-Director Kirsty Howey told the inquiry the NT Government, because of its vulnerable economic position, is under pressure from the Federal Government to approve projects from oil and gas companies.
"The Northern Territory Government is in an extremely challenging position fiscally and is more dependent on other jurisdictions on federal funding," she said.
"This creates a significant power imbalance between the Federal and NT Governments. It is within this context that the Federal Government's funding injections to industry and the Northern Territory Government must be examined."
