Community and Business Reference Group meet for the seventh time

The Onshore Shale Gas Community and Business Reference Group (Reference Group) held its seventh meeting in Darwin on 2 June 2020.

Established to provide a forum for government to seek advice and share information, the Reference Group received updates on:

• progress of the Framework for Strategic Regional Environmental Baseline Assessments (SREBA); including the outcomes of public consultation on the draft Framework which were completed in early 2020, and plans to form a regional reference group for the development of the SREBA in the Beetaloo Sub-Basin
• draft Offsets policy related to the Environment Protection Act 2019, which was released for public comment at the end of 2019
• status of Environmental Management Plans (EMPs) currently under assessment by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
• development of the Gas Service and Supply Plan, including actions to grow the service and supply industry, and grow Territory research and innovation and training. The Plan is available online.
• work underway for the Aboriginal Information Program to address recommendations 11.5 and 11.6

The Reference Group also discussed the ongoing mechanisms for oversight of Stage 3 of the Implementation Plan and noting the term of the CBRG was set to conclude on 30 June 2020, requested Government consider extending their term for a further 6 months till 31 December 2020.

The Reference Group noted that as at 30 April 2020, and as per the 6-monthly update, 60 of the 135 recommendations have been fully completed, 71 have commenced, and four are yet to commence.

For full details of the meeting and to read Communique 7 PDF (165.2 KB).