Gas company funding of suicide prevention counselling in Queensland’s gasfields has sparked fresh controversy after a government department distributed a brochure for the service to friends of a farmer who took his life after a long battle with the industry.

Family friends of the late George Bender, whose suicide in October brought national attention to rural community tensions with gas companies, were furious to receive the Queensland Gas Company-branded leaflet at a meeting with the state’s chief health officer, Jeanette Young, last month in Chinchilla.

Staff from the department of communities gave out the leaflet, in which the charity Lifeline and QGC in prominent lettering “proudly introduce the Western Downs counseling project”, at a meeting Young held with locals impacted by the coal seam gas industry.

Uniting Church minister Graham Slaughter said the distribution of the leaflet was “inappropriate and insensitive in the context in which it was used”.

“I believe it was inappropriate because it was left with people who were very close with George Bender, who are affected by the Linc Energy business, and who are also affected by coal seam gas,” he told Guardian Australia.

Slaughter said he found the partnership between QGC and Lifeline Darling Downs “disturbing” and was concerned it could undermine the credibility of the otherwise well-regarded charity.

“If this was Lifeline on the Gold Coast handing something out, perhaps people wouldn’t think twice. But to do it here, that’s like waving a red rag at a bull as far as I was concerned.”

The Department of Communities issued a statement apologising “for any offence or distress caused to local people”.

“It will not be distributing this brochure in future,” a spokeswoman said.

She said departmental staff had handed it out during Young’s visit “as it was the only one they had with information about this local counselling service”.

The chief executive of Lifeline Darling Downs, Derek Tuffield, said the service had in fact ended in March, when QGC’s funding of $1.3m under its “social investment partnership” program from 2011 had run out.

“It’s a shame someone had an old brochure and circulated it because the service doesn’t function at the moment,” he said.

However, Tuffield said he would give “serious consideration” to accepting more QGC funding “because my role is to respond to community needs”.

“But in saying that, the sensitivity now around the anger [towards the industry], that would certainly have to be factored into how that was done,” he said.

“I’m very aware of the anger in the community that sits around this since George’s very tragic suicide.

“It’s a very sensitive topic at the moment but at the time we struck the sponsorship up in 2011, coal seam gas was in its infancy.”

Tuffield said no state or federal funding had been available when Lifeline’s partnership with QGC began, at a time when the impact of industry expansion in the area was “starting to show about domestic violence, about excess alcohol, about excess gambling, about financial pressure, about increased rent for houses and so on”.

Gas company sponsorship has been a contentious issue in Queensland, where police were last year forced to defend the use of the Santos logo on vehicles that appeared on the Darling Downs.

Anti-CSG activists complained that this raised conflict of interest questions when police attended protest sites.



Gas company sponsorship extending to the media industry also led to an incongruous scenario at this year’s Walkley awards for journalism.

Linc Energy, which has declared more than $260,000 in donations to the Walkley board through the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) since 2010, has been prohibited from carrying out mining in an area of the Darling Downs by the Queensland government while being prosecuted over the contamination of hundreds of square kilometres of farmland around its experimental plant in the area. This includes George Bender’s property.



ABC reporters Mark Willacy and Mark Solomons won the Walkley for radio news and current affairs for their coverage of the Linc issue – at an event of which Linc was a major sponsor.

Willacy told Guardian Australia: “I think there’s a positive reflection on the union in that it obviously didn’t influence at all the awarding of that particular Walkley.”



“In fact, it maybe highlights that the union’s Walkleys board is independent in its functions, as it should be. And it’s up to the union who they accept as sponsors.”

The chief execuitve of the MEAA, Paul Murphy, said he could not comment on sponsorship arrangements for the Walkleys, as they were run by a board independent from the union.

Tuffield said he accepted that potential damage to the credibility of Lifeline’s counselling program through association with a gas company was “was obviously part of the risk initially for us”.



“I’d hate to think it damages us in any way because it was done obviously with the best intentions for clients,” he said.

“I have 300-odd families that we responded to with ongoing counselling quite often to support them getting through a whole range of issues, and a number of those issues had nothing to do with CSG, more with relationships and domestic violence and financial stress.

“Do I turn my back on that and say it’s not my problem when I’ve got this offer of funding?”

“For non profits at the moment, if you’re not partnering with corporates or other agencies, you’re not going to survive into the future because state and federal funding is reducing year by year.”

Tuffield said Lifeline currently had a counsellor based in the gasfields town of Dalby funded by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

• For information and support in Australia, call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Mensline on 1300 789 978 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.