Trade unions oppose the Santos Pilliga Narrabri Gas Project
A new report outlining trade union involvement in the Gomeroi people’s decades-long struggle to defend the Pilliga was launched at NSW Parliament House on 18 November. The IEU was represented by secretary Carol Matthews, deputy secretary David Towson, member of IEU executive Denise McHugh and IEU member Kylie Martinez.
Opposition to Santos’ Narrabri Gas Project, led by Gomeroi traditional owners, is founded in the risks to water, cultural heritage, biodiversity, community health, and long-lasting ecosystem damage. The project also threatens to increase climate pollution and create further division within regional communities. The risks are heightened given Santos’ proven track record as a bad environmental and corporate actor. Incidents include covering up major methane leaks, “impossible to fix” offshore gas leaks, and a 25,000-litre oil spill off the Pilbara coast linked to dolphin deaths. According to 2023–24 company tax data, Santos paid zero tax on more than $8 billion in gas revenue, despite claiming it made just $21 million in profit.
We STAND with Gomeroi
Trade Unions oppose the Santos Pilliga Narrabri Gas Project
Report by the Unions NSW Pilliga Campaign Committee, November 2025
The union movement in NSW has stood shoulder to shoulder with Gomeroi people through their three-year court battle with Santos. Regardless of any court ruling, unions recognise Gomeroi as the true owners of the Pilliga forest and will fight to uphold their self-determination.
Gomeroi resistance and union solidarity
Gomeroi people have resisted coal seam gas development in the Pilliga for more than twenty years, beginning with Eastern Star Gas and now Santos. At a Native Title meeting in March 2022, Gomeroi people voted overwhelmingly to oppose any agreement for CSG. Despite this clear “no”, and despite widespread public opposition, the Native Title Tribunal has twice ruled in favour of Santos. Unions across NSW have condemned these decisions as a failure of justice and a breach of First Nations rights. Unions NSW, the peak body, resolved to “support the Gomeroi people with all means available to us.”
Throughout Australia’s history, the trade union movement has stood alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in struggles for justice, land rights and equality. Regardless of the Tribunal’s rulings, unions continue to recognise the Gomeroi as the rightful custodians of the Pilliga and remain committed to upholding their self-determination.
First Nations educators weigh in
For First Nations educators, this issue is deeply personal. At the report launch, IEU member and Wiradjuri woman Kylie Martinez, said “As an Aboriginal education officer and the leader of First Nations education across both primary and secondary schools, my work is not a title. It is a responsibility. I walk alongside our Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander students, supporting their learning, advocating for their wellbeing, and connecting our schools back to community through truth, culture and respect.”
Kylie then posed a question that every educator should hear: “How am I supposed to teach my students to care for Country while they watch corporations carve through the heart of it?”
The IEU will continue to stand with the union movement in NSW to oppose the Santos Pilliga Narrabri Gas Project and to support the Gomeroi people in their ongoing fight to protect Country.
For more info:
- The Santos worker who blew the whistle about dead dolphins and an oil spill, ABC News, 4 November 2023
- Multinationals continue to rip Australia off on company tax, Crikey, 2 October 2025
- Darwin methane leak ‘covered up’ by gas companies and regulators, ABC News, 1 September 2025
- Santos wells have been leaking gas into the ocean off WA for a decade, WA Today, 13 June 2023
- Environmentalists say NSW govt ignored Pilliga CSG spills for years, ABC News, 13 June 2013