Anti-gas industry protest group Lock the Gate calls on party to return the ‘tainted donations’ it received from energy company

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Liberal party of Australia accepted a $25,000 contribution from a gas company months after it was charged over what has since emerged as potentially one of the country’s biggest environmental pollution cases.



Linc Energy gave $25,000 to the federal arm of the Liberal party some time between July 2014 and June 2015, according to Australian Electoral Commission records released on Monday.

The company, which had shifted its base from Australia to Singapore in 2013, was first charged in April 2014 over alleged serious environmental harm caused by gas leaks from Linc’s underground coal gasification plant near Chinchilla.

The prosecution continues, with Linc since hit with further criminal charges of wilfully causing serious environmental harm through toxic damage to air, groundwater and soil over up to 320 square kilometres of farmland.

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Linc faces fines of up to $32.5m if found guilty.

Anti-gas industry protest group Lock The Gate called on the Liberal party to return the “tainted donations” it received from Linc after it was charged.

Comment was sought from the Liberal party.

The environment department has alleged in court documents that Linc attempted to hide the plant’s problems from government officials in 2012, after persistent leaks of toxic gas into the air and groundwater over the preceding three years.

The department alleged four government workers were treated in hospital for suspected gas poisoning from the Hopeland site.

George Bender – the activist whose suicide last year after a decade-long battle with gas companies brought the issue of farmer land rights to national attention – was among the landholders near Chinchilla warned by the government not to dig below two metres because of the risk of gas explosions.

Despite the Linc case and the earlier prosecution of Cougar Energy, which was fined $75,000 for releasing a carcinogenic chemical into groundwater near Kingaroy, the underground coal gasification (UCG) industry continues to seek a foothold in Queensland.



Carbon Energy has revealed in a statement to the Australian stock exchange it was seeking approval from the Queensland government to prepare an environmental impact statement for another UCG project near Chinchilla.

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Lock The Gate called on governments to ban what it said was a “dangerous, polluting industry”.

Michael Roche, the chief executive of the Queensland Resources Council, said gasification of coal had “enormous potential as a source of clean synthetic fuels”.

“It is difficult to see why Lock the Gate would want to pre-empt the results of a live court case relating to a specific company by banning a whole category of energy production,” Roche said.

In the four years leading up to its prosecution, Linc gave $352,799 to political parties.

Of this, $203,000 went to the federal Liberal party, $124,999 to the Queensland Liberal National party and $24,000 to the Queensland Labor party.

Since 2010, it has also given $264,000 worth of sponsorship to the Walkley foundation, which runs Australian journalism’s highest awards. One Walkley was won last year by ABC reporters covering the Linc case.