‘Green’ Liberal Hunt declares opposition to LNG plant

Health Minister Greg Hunt has been accused of running a ‘Greens style’ re-election campaign.

Health Minister Greg Hunt. Picture: AAP

Health Minister Greg Hunt has been accused of running a “Greens-style” re-election campaign, after publicly declaring his opposition to AGL’s plan to build Australia’s first liquefied natural gas import plant in his outer Melbourne electorate of Flinders.

The senior cabinet minister said he “clearly, unequivocally and absolutely” opposed the $250 million Crib Point gas plant and had called on locals to sign his online petition to stop it.

A spokesman for Mr Hunt told The Australian this wasn’t a new position, insisting he had “consistently opposed” the re-industrialisation of Westernport, including Crib Point, throughout his career.

Mr Hunt’s anti-gas campaign is at odds with the government’s latest move to champion gas-fired power projects across the nation.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan and Energy Minister Angus Taylor have called on southern states to develop their own gas supplies to meet the demands of households and businesses.

Senator Canavan said the Australian Energy Market Operator’s latest gas report forecast that supplies were due to run out by 2023, so extra production was needed to meet domestic and business demand. “More gas from more gas suppliers is the best way to increase competition and lower gas prices in the longer term,” Senator Canavan said.

He said the government was not opposed to gas import terminals, but any proposal must get the support of the local community — and Crib Point had not.

A Liberal source said they suspected Mr Hunt was running a “Greens-style” campaign to pick up votes from the Left in order to retain his seat, which he holds on a margin of 7 per cent. Every candidate in Flinders is running on a platform to stop the floating gas plant and connecting 55km pipeline, including Liberal MP turned independent Julia Banks.

“His social media posts are looking more like the Greens and less like the Liberals every day,” the Liberal source said.

In a Facebook post, Mr Hunt, who as environment minister approved the Adani coalmine, said he had a “sacred trust” to protect his electorate. It was accompanied by two photographs of him putting ‘‘Save Westernport’’ and ‘‘NO AGL’’ stickers on the back windscreen of his Liberal campaign car.

Louise Page, president of Save Westernport, told The Australian she was surprised Mr Hunt was now speaking publicly about the environmental impact of the plant.

“Since the campaign against AGL’s floating import gas terminal began almost one year ago, we’ve had little or no response from both Liberal and Labor federal ministers, with the exception of Mr Hunt’s advice that constituents should ‘engage with AGL’,” Ms Page said.

In a meeting earlier this month Ms Page said Mr Hunt gave her the impression there was little he could do federally under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) to stop Crib Point. “He started by saying ‘This is not what you want to hear’ … in general terms he said that the EPBC is not the most effective avenue,” Mrs Page said.

Mr Hunt’s spokesman said the minister was of the view that the only likely legislative or policy ­avenue to stop Crib Point was via the Victorian state government and state laws.

“Not only have they caused the problem, but they have planning responsibility,” the spokesman said.

Tim Beshara, the federal policy director of the Wilderness Society, said he didn’t think Mr Hunt could intervene because the federal EPBC’s powers were signed over to the Victorian state government in 2014.

“Because Greg Hunt handed the environmental assessment process over to Victoria, the only avenue I can see for him to demonstrate to Flinders that he will stop the project is for him to get Melissa Price to rip up his bilateral agreement and call in the project to be entirely assessed by the federal government,” Mr Beshara said.