Introduction by Croakey: Australian governments have been urged to act urgently to reduce the risks that fossil gas poses to public health, by accelerating the transition away its use.
In a new report, Doctors for the Environment Australia also calls on governments to ensure all Australians – including low-income households, renters and other priority groups – can access healthier, affordable and more energy-efficient electric appliances for cooking and heating.
Noting that 4.5 million households, or just under half of the nation’s total, are still connected to the fossil gas network, the report calls for targeted grants, incentives and other support to help households and businesses replace gas appliances and disconnect from gas.
The report, Gas and its overlooked health risks, was launched in Parliament House this week and examines the direct health impacts of gas at home, work, and in other settings, as well as on the climate crisis.
“Ongoing exposure to the production and use of gas carries a range of health impacts that are generally not well recognised,” it says.
The report also says that as a major exporter, Australia is contributing to the shortening of the lives of tens of thousands of people each year globally from air pollution caused by the burning of our gas.
It calls for governments to require comprehensive health impact assessments for all new and expanded coal, oil and gas projects.
For many years now, experts have been sounding the alarm about the health impacts of fracking in the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory (see some related coverage from Croakey in 2021, 2023, and 2025).
Yet when Beetaloo gas began powering the NT earlier this month, just days after a United Nations report warned the world will breach the 1.5 degrees C target for limiting global warming, much of the related media reporting focused on related economic and political issues. For example, health concerns didn’t rate an explicit mention in this 800-word ABC article.
The analysis below, by University of Melbourne’s Dr Lily O’Neill, highlights the health risks for people in the NT from gas-fired climate change. “Climate forecasts suggest many parts of the NT will become unliveable within decades, due to the lethal heat caused by climate change,” she writes.
This article first appeared in The Conversation.
Lily O’Neill writes:
Gas is now flowing from the Beetaloo Basin, a vast fossil fuel project roughly 500 kilometres southeast of Darwin in the Northern Territory.
The basin is one of Australia’s largest onshore gas reserves, which the NT Government estimates is capable of producing 430 trillion cubic feet of gas.
The Beetaloo is producing its first round of gas amid fanfare about the amount of royalties it could bring the NT. Proponents say the basin could generate more than A$17 billion and support 13,000 jobs over the next two decades.
Already, there is talk of the economic opportunities that come with cheap energy, including powering energy-hungry data centres with shale gas.
For those who have long hyped the Beetaloo’s economic potential, this is welcome news. For scientists, environmental groups and communities around Australia and the world bearing the brunt of global warming, it represents a “climate bomb”.
The Beetaloo Basin is a vast, sparsely populated stretch of rolling plains that covers 28,000 square kilometres between Katherine and Tennant Creek.
In terms of gas reserves, the Beetaloo is bigger than Western Australia’s North West Shelf project, the nation’s largest fossil fuel development, which accounts for more than 40 percent of Australia’s oil and gas production.
First Nations rights
The Beetaloo Basin is covered with pastoral leases and different forms of Aboriginal tenure. Some of this tenure is the NT’s Aboriginal Land Rights Act land, which provides fairly strong rights for Traditional Owners. But most of the Aboriginal title in the basin is federal native title tenure that does not allow Traditional Owners to veto resource extraction.
Over several years, the developers of the Beetaloo – who now include Beetaloo Energy, Tamboran Resources and Santos – reached agreements with the Traditional Owners to frack their Country.
But whether these agreements mean Traditional Owners actually consented to this fracking is hotly contested, given the Native Title Act is notorious for forcing Aboriginal groups into agreement.
The Federal and Territory Governments have forked out significant money for the Beetaloo project.
At least $220 million has come from the Commonwealth. Meanwhile, the NT Government has underwritten a $75 million loan to Tamboran Resources, a gas company found by a 2021 Senate inquiry to have then “paid no tax” in Australia.
Other gas companies have also benefited from government largesse, including Beetaloo Energy Australia, which received $15 million in taxpayer funds in 2024 alone.
The NT Government has backed the Beetaloo for a range of reasons, including its potential to bring much-needed investment and jobs to the region.
However, it is extremely unlikely the project will deliver on these promises. A federal report, released only under freedom of information laws, found the benefits for Traditional Owners are “uncertain and variable”.
Drawbacks
The climate crisis means the Beetaloo Basin project has two critical drawbacks.
1. A ‘stranded asset’
In this context, a “stranded asset” is a fossil fuel project – such as a coal mine or gas pipeline – that quickly loses its value because of the global transition away from fossil fuels.
Research suggests demand for liquefied natural gas will decline as early as the mid-2030s. This, combined with dubious employment benefits, means the government is highly unlikely to get a good return on its Beetaloo investments.
2. An unliveable region
Recent research shows fracking in the Beetaloo would produce the equivalent of up to 49 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year – about 11 percent of Australia’s total emissions in 2021.
What’s more, Beetaloo gas projects are only required to offset five percent of their emissions with carbon credits. That’s nowhere near enough to compensate for the environmental damage they will cause.
Climate forecasts suggest many parts of the NT will become unliveable within decades, due to the lethal heat caused by climate change.
The NT News headline, “NT will be cooking with Beetaloo gas”, sums this dilemma perfectly, if accidentally. The irony of this headline won’t be lost on anyone who is familiar with the science.
No amount of jobs or money can compensate for this devastating future. By turning on the Beetaloo tap, we risk watching the climate crisis worsen before our very eyes.
Author details
Dr Lily O’Neill is a Senior Research Fellow for Melbourne Climate Futures (MCF) at the University of Melbourne. She is a legal researcher examining the energy transition, climate repair, environmental regulation, native title and agreement making. Her particular focus for MCF is how these issues impact and benefit First Nations people in research projects that are First Nations community identified.
She is a former legal practitioner at a major Australian law firm, a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, World Commission on Environmental Law, and on the committee of local environmental group Sustainable Upper Ovens, and a volunteer Director at Protect Our Winters Australia. She has previously consulted for the Commonwealth Government on the Beetaloo Basin. She lives regionally on the country of the Taungurung people in north-east Victoria.
Watch DEA report launch
Speaking are Dr Kate Wylie, DEA’s executive director and a GP based in Adelaide, followed by Dr Anthony Hull, an anaesthetist and DEA NSW Co-chair, and then a medical student, Dani Mohnot. The launch was hosted by Special Envoy for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Kate Thwaites. Video courtesy of DEA.
See Croakey’s archive of articles on fossil fuels
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