Minns government’s only meeting before reopening gas exploration was with fossil fuel lobby

The peak body for the oil and gas industry was the only stakeholder the New South Wales government met with before a decision to reopen gas exploration approvals for the first time in more than a decade, documents released under freedom of information laws suggest.

In April, the NSW minister for natural resources, Courtney Houssos, announced the government would open applications for gas exploration in two areas in the far west, the Bancannia and Pondie Range troughs, for the first time since a 2014 freeze on new licences in the state.

In its 2021 gas industry statement, the former Coalition government ruled out new gas exploration in the far west after public consultation, saying it would only support limited extensions beyond Santos’ Narrabri gas project in north-west NSW. But the Daily Telegraph reported last year that the Labor premier, Chris Minns, was being briefed on potential new gasfields.

Environmental organisations were surprised by April’s announcement. Lock the Gate made a request under NSW freedom of information laws for Houssos’s office to provide records of all meetings and correspondence with third parties and external stakeholders in relation to the decision.

The request only produced records of a meeting between the government and the peak body for the oil and gas industry, Australian Energy Producers (AEP), in February. In the days before the announcement, the minister’s office corresponded with the AEP, Australian Workers’ Union and Business NSW about providing statements in support of the decision in the government’s media release.

Houssos wrote to other stakeholders including Lock the Gate and NSW Farmers on the morning of the announcement. NSW Farmers put out a statement calling for the government to “answer urgent questions about how it will protect groundwater, farm biosecurity, and landholders as it promotes new gas exploration”.

Lock the Gate told Guardian Australia the documents provided following the freedom of information request showed “the gas industry lobby has obtained preferential access to development of the NSW government’s gas exploration policy”.

Karra Kinchela, a Gomeroi woman and Lock the Gate’s spokesperson, said the “backflip decision” by the NSW government in April had “completely blindsided communities, including the Barkandji Native Title group”.

“We now know that the gas lobby was inside the tent from the beginning,” Kinchela said.

In 2015, the Barkandji Native Title group was successful in a native title claim over a 128,000 sq km area in far western NSW, including parts of the Bancannia and Pondie Range troughs.

The NSW government did not engage with Guardian Australia’s question about whether it met with other stakeholders about the decision to open approvals for gas exploration licences in April.

In its gas industry statement, released last week, it ruled out releasing new areas for exploration but reaffirmed the commitment to approvals in the far west and for Narrabri, and said it would honour existing licences.

A spokesperson for Houssos told Guardian Australia the government had “engaged in genuine consultation with a range of stakeholders as we prepared our NSW gas statement”.

“This included meetings with more than a dozen stakeholders, including energy producers, environmental advocacy groups, unions, landholders, First Nations groups, and business representatives.

“We have been clear that gas will continue to play an important role in electricity generation, firming the grid during infrequent periods when solar and wind output is low.”

After the release of the gas statement on Wednesday, the NSW Greens MLC Sue Higginson said that gas was “not a transition fuel, it’s just another fossil fuel”.

“New extraction locks in emissions and infrastructure for decades at precisely the point when NSW needs to be accelerating away from fossil fuels.”

The window for applications for exploration licenses in the Bancannia and Pondie Range troughs, which are decided by the minister, closed in July. The government has received one application, which is currently going through the assessment process.

AEP did not respond to Guardian Australia’s request for comment.