Residents across the South West joined Australia’s longest highway protest in a call to protect the region from gas field development.
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The widespread action groups joined the protest to hold WA Labor to account on their promise to ban fracking in the South West, Peel and Swan Valley, and moratorium for the rest of the state
Signs were displayed at stops in Busselton, Stratham, Gelorup, Bunbury, Eaton, Harvey, Brunswick and Capel where protesters were joined by the Country Women’s Association.
Toni Steinbrenner of the CWA said the response from people passing by in their vehicles was positive at their stop in Capel.
"We had lots of car and truck horns, thumbs up and waves which shows that awareness is high,” she said.
“The CWA is very committed to supporting the gas field free community campaign".
Lisa Simpson in Capel said she took part in the action to ensure that gas fields do not get a foothold due to public apathy.
“We cannot sit idle whilst these gas fields pend approval over our homes, we must act."
Gas Field Free South West Alliance spokesperson Carly Stone said that they were concerned about the loopholes in Labor's promised fracking ban in the region.
"Unconventional gas exploration and extraction will be allowed to continue under Labor's fracking ban when it eventuates, she said.
“We are seeing detailed scientific reports released as late as April 2017 saying that vertical fracking and a proliferation of gas wells is the best way to extract this unconventional gas from the Whicher Range just out of Busselton.”
The Minister for Mines and Petroleum Bill Johnston said WA Labor had already implemented their ban on fracking in the South West.
“We did this immediately on coming to government because we did not want to wait for parliament to act,” he said.
“The government is considering how to follow up on this, but we do not need legislation to ban fracking.”
Mr Johnson said there were range of companies that believe they could find and extract gas in a range of places in WA without using fracking.
“Just because a company looks for gas doesn’t mean they will find it,” he said.
“If they do find gas they will only be able to extract it if they can prove it can be done safely.
“WA is the most gas dependent state in Australia, having gas supply is critical to jobs, industry and our electricity system.”
