Maybe it's a powerful pair of noise cancelling headphones?
Or is it just straightforward denial of a very real climate of concern for an unnecessary, carbon polluting project off the east coast of Australia?
Whatever it is, Advent Energy executive director David Breeze's assertions ("Claims of broad public opposition to PEP-11 not backed by facts", NH 29/10) beggars belief.
Concern and outrage at the PEP-11 proposal couldn't be more palpable.
There have been countless surveys and petitions over the past decade showing emphatic opposition from thousands of coastal people in NSW.
In 2018, a petition by Save our Coast received 81,000 signatures opposing PEP-11.
In 2020, more than 10,000 community members signed a legal letter opposing the application permit.
In a Surfers for Climate survey conducted last year, 98 per cent of respondents, a third of whom were not members of the group, said they did not support exploration for new offshore oil and gas in NSW waters.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society has an active petition that has almost 7000 signatures, and Independent MP Sophie Scamps has one signed by more than 5000 people.
If this was not enough evidence, in 2021 the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources provided the-then prime minister with an analysis of the risks associated with the PEP-11 project and the options available to the government.
The advice noted that: "Significant public opposition to the existence of the PEP-11 permit continues", and listed several examples of community opposition.
That opposition has been acknowledged and articulated by politicians of all persuasions up and down the coast of NSW.
City of Newcastle and Central Coast Council have both passed motions opposing offshore exploration off the coast of NSW.
In 2021, NSW Member for Terrigal, Adam Crouch, and NSW Member for Manly, James Griffin, said in a media statement: "We are standing shoulder to shoulder with our community in saying there is no place for the drilling of oil and gas off the coastline between Manly and Terrigal. Let's be clear, the time has come to cancel this exploration licence".
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is on the record in November 2021, saying "... we will stop PEP-11 going ahead, full stop. Exclamation mark. No question. Not equivocal. No ifs, no buts."
This is important.
Let's not breeze past the fact that the majority of these politicians were elected with a mandate to stop the project - their opposition reflects the views of their constituents - meaning we can add a few more six figure numbers to the tally of community opposition that haven't been captured in the surveys or petitions I mentioned earlier.
As the Newcastle Herald's Matthew Kelly noted on October 18 ("A resolution is all PEP-11 saga lacks now"): "One consistency, at least, is the sustained public opposition to the project proceeding".
Surfers for Climate agree this saga needs to come to an end.
The NSW Parliament, in a powerful show of cross-party support, passed legislation earlier this year to end exploration for new offshore oil and gas in NSW waters.
The federal Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic, announced in September his preliminary view that ". . . the applications should be refused".
We agree it should be refused because, let's be clear, the only thing that's 'made up' in this debate about PEP-11 is that there is somehow a need for new gas exploration in order to avoid a gas shortage in Australia.
It is very well documented that close to 80 per cent of our gas is exported and gas companies profit well from this deal.
If there's a shortage, it's only because we keep shipping it away so others can make money.
Surfers for Climate asks that this preliminary view from Mr Husic be made final.
Let's draw a line in the sand on PEP-11 once and for all and let's focus on what really matters, like riding pristine waves along a fossil-fuel free east coast for generations to come.
