Comms Declare makes Ad Standards complaint against gas giant Santos
Climate communications agency Comms Declare and grassroots campaigner Lock The Gate Alliance have taken gas giant Santos to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and Ad Standards over an ad in a newspaper near its proposed Narrabri Gas Project.
The Narrabri Gas Project – a proposed coal seam gas project across the Pilliga forest and prime farmland in Northern NSW – has been opposed by traditional owners and farmers for a number of years now. Santos is also planning a Hunter Gas Pipeline to transport gas from the proposed project to Newcastle.
The recent ad, which appeared in a local newspaper, the Quirindi Advocate, claims “the Santos Narrabri Gas Project is essential to deliver critical gas supply to the east coast market” and that it is “good for keeping the lights on”.
“Not content with trying to buy support by splashing cash on sports and sponsorships in the region, Santos is now pretending its fossil gas development is an essential public service,” Belinda Noble, founder of Comms Declare, explained.
“Its claim ignores the fact that in the past 12 months, NSW used gas for only 2% of its electricity generation, that we already use ten times more renewables for electricity than gas and that gas use is rapidly declining.”
It comes only weeks after Noble issued a warning against agencies getting involved in Shell Energy’s creative account pitch process.
The ad appeared two weeks after a Federal Court decision put the project in doubt, when it found the Native Title Tribunal hadn’t adequately considered the impacts of climate change on the Gomeroi traditional owners.
The complaint made by the agency and campaigner alleges the ad is misleading, because the development may not go ahead, and if it does, gas from the project would be unlikely to generate household electricity.
According to Stockhead, however, Santos’ appraisal wells from Narrabri that feed the Wilga Park power plant currently provide electricity to 32,000 households in northwest NSW.
Lock The Gate’s spokesperson and Mullaley landholder, Margaret Fleck, continued: “Landholders are under enough stress already, without being led up the garden path by propaganda. People need to make business decisions and personal decisions which must be based on fact, not false statements.
“High quality agricultural land like that in the Liverpool Plains must not be destroyed for the sake of a polluting gas pipeline that, contrary to Santos’ claims, won’t make a lick of difference to how the average NSW household is powered.”
“It’s long past time for Santos to walk away from the Narrabri Gas Project.”
Santos declined to comment.
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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topics
ACCC
ad standards
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
Belinda Noble
comms declare
Lock The Gate
Lock The Gate Alliance
margaret Fleck
Santos
Victoria has already banned gas in new builds.
Electricity from renewables is a much better supply of energy than gas.
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