The House of Representatives' environment committee yesterday recommended that the Register of Environmental Organisations be abolished and that the Australian Taxation Office take over the endorsement of green groups for tax deductible status.
It also recommended the ATO pursue legislative and administrative changes so that green groups are forced to spend at least 25% of income from donations on environmental remediation work.
Sanctions should also be introduced for charities that "encourage, support, promote or endorse illegal or unlawful activity undertaken by employees, members or volunteers of the organisation, or by others without formal connections to the organisation", the report recommended.
The report noted that a number of ¬industry associations and companies, as well as the police forces of NSW and Victoria, submitted evidence of protest activity by registered environmental organisations that had "involved serious risks to the safety of employees, volunteers and other members of the community".
"This baseless inquiry, forced through by big mining companies using their influence over politicians, is a shameful attempt to write laws to silence Australians who care about the environment," Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO David Ritter said.
"Thousands of people support environmental groups because they want to protect our natural heritage. By targeting us, the ¬government is trying to intimidate ordinary Australians."
APPEA applauds
Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association CEO Dr Malcolm Roberts said the measures were "long overdue".
"The current provisions are designed to recognise and support the excellent work that is undertaken by the vast majority of environmental groups," he said.
"But it is clear that a minority of groups have the primary objective of preventing resource development and have been engaging in or encouraging protest activities that are unlawful or illegal to achieve that end.
"Making such groups more accountable is long overdue.
"Recommending that the ATO should become more directly involved in administering the regime is a sensible way forward.
"The involvement of the ATO is central to maintaining confidence in the use of taxpayer funds, and as such, it is clearly well placed to be a lead agency in the process.
"APPEA endorses the principle that groups primarily engaged in frustrating the lawful development of publicly owned resources should not qualify as charities for the purposes of obtaining the taxpayer granted privilege of tax deductibility status."
The Queensland Resources Council also lapped up the report, saying the current governance system needs an overhaul.
CEO Michael Roche, who appeared as a witness at one of the Australia-wide hearings last year, said it was time the light was shone onto the "questionable activities" of some green activist groups.
"The myriad of evidence uncovered as a result of the inquiry reveals that some green activists - not all - may have been breaching the rules of the tax system," Roche said.
QRC's submission to the inquiry identified alleged breaches of the Tax Act under the rules governing the Register of Environmental Organisations, on which almost all of the green activist groups are registered.
"The recommendations from the inquiry include, abolishing the Register of Environmental Organisations, and making all organisations that claim deductible gift recipient Status, come under the Charities Act - a move the QRC strongly endorses," Roche said.
"Such changes would ensure any groups using taxpayer funds would have to operate under the Charities Act, which the QRC believes has much stricter governance and rules compared to the existing Register of Environmental Organisations.'
He also welcomed the recommendation that each environmental deductible gift recipient organisation must spend at least 25% of its income on actual environmental remediation work.
"For too long some activist groups have been unfettered in diverting taxpayer subsidised donations to campaigns against sectors such as resources and to litigation to disrupt and delay resource projects," Roche said.
"A perfect example is the Australian Conservation Foundation case against the Adani Carmichael coal mine that commenced this week in the Federal Court."
Arrests
David Paull, 51, who lives near Santos' Narrabri CSG field in New South Wales and is reportedly an expert on the ecology in the Pilliga Forest, was arrested yesterday after locking himself into a cement-lined car and blockading the Santos Operations Centre near Narrabri, along with Lismore local Naomi Tarrant.
Paull told Energy News this morning that he wanted to get arrested to highlight the cause of potential environmental damage from CSG activities.
However, while activist group Lock the Gate supported the Pilliga Push group that orchestrated yesterday's protest, Paull said they did not encourage him into civil disobedience.
"We did anticipate being arrested, we realised that doing something like that would result in our arrest," he said.
"We wanted to make a statement for Santos' AGM and intended to stay in that position by the end of the AGM, but by then the police had already arrested us. It was also a protest against the laws the government is enacting.
"As an ecologist I know the irreplaceable biodiversity values of the Pilliga better than most. The Pilliga is one of 15 federally listed biodiversity hotspots and a CSG field here would directly threaten the survival of at least 10 threatened or endangered species."
Asked whether he wanted to get arrested to amplify his plight in the public consciousness, he said: "Of course. That's the strategy because media don't really pick up on all these things unless people are arrested. A lot of the protests going on are unreported."
Tarrant said she was risking arrest to show support for the people of north-western NSW.
"There are thousands of people from across our state who support the traditional custodians, farmers and residents of this region in their battle to keep it ‘gasfield free'," she said.
"No one wants to see these unique lands damaged beyond repair, as has happened in Queensland.
"In 2014 international investment analysts Credit Suisse awarded a 50% risk rating to the Narrabri gas project and stated its greatest risk was coordinated mass opposition from across NSW.
"It's incredible to see this risk played out with locals working with other communities from across NSW to peacefully oppose and significantly delay all CSG works in the North West region."
Narrabri resident and Gomeroi woman Deborah Briggs told Santos' AGM in Adelaide that the company had "come in and invaded our lands, our futures ... We are going to fight you tooth and nail for the Pilliga Forest".
Santos chairman Peter Coates said he was proud of Santos' environmental track record and unaware of any damage to sacred sites in Narrabri.
"We are not going to be bullied out of the Pilliga," he said at the AGM.
