“Brazen example of astroturfing:” ACCC asked to investigate pro-gas campaign group

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission have been asked to investigate fossil fuel lobby group Australians for Natural Gas for engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct.

In a complaint lodged with the ACCC on Monday the Environmental Defenders Office alleges on behalf of its client, climate change campaign group Climate Integrity, that Australians for Natural Gas made several claims that are likely to “mislead or deceive.”

These include statements from Australians for Natural Gas presenting itself as a grassroots group, claims about the benefits of gas to the Australian economy, and the potential benefits of replacing coal with gas in Asia to achieve emissions reduction.

In particular it says the involvement of Tamboran Resources managing director and CEO, Joel Riddle as director, company secretary and sole shareholder of Australians for Natural Gas, contradicts claims that it represents households and small business.

“Our client is concerned that [Australians for Natural Gas] has failed to disclose important information relating to the Grassroots Representation that the relevant user requires to determine the credibility of [Australians for Natural Gas]; namely that Mr Riddle may have a vested interest in gaining public support for the development of new gas reserves in Australia due to his position at Tamboran,” it said.

In another example, the complaint takes aim at claims about the potential for gas to replace coal in Asia.

“Our client notes that the Emissions Representation is based on an assumption that natural gas will replace coal in Asia,” the complaint says. “However, if natural gas does not displace coal, but instead displaces renewables in Asia, global emissions will increase.”

The claim that gas will displace coal in Asia has been made frequently by gas producers, but Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill conceded in early April during a sustainability briefing that there was no way to prove the claim.

“Trying to definitively prove that our cargo of LNG displaced coal that would have otherwise been burned is a very difficult strategy,” she said.

A 2019 CSIRO report commissioned, and later buried, by Woodside found that exporting gas to Asia worked to displace renewables, not coal.

Climate Integrity CEO Claire Snyder said Australians for Natural Gas was so “brazen” her organisation felt compelled to act.

“It has to be one of the most brazen examples of astroturfing I’ve seen especially during an election campaign. It’s a very thin veil,” Snyder said.

“You’ve got these pictures of workers and people in the community, the sun shining, that sort of thing when we know the directors of this group are an industry CEO, a lobbyist and a Liberal candidate in this election.

“If a CEO wants to advocate for their own commercial interest they need to do that in plain sight.”

Renew Economy first reported on the existence of the group in March, identifying its directors as Riddle, Lyndal Maloney, a lobbyist who co-founded the Australian franchise of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), and Nathaniel Smith, a former New South Wales state Liberal MP.

Additional reporting by the ABC found Freshwater Strategy, a Coalition internal polling outfit, was helping build support for the group ahead of the election.

After Smith was endorsed as a federal Coalition candidate in the NSW seat of Whitlam in early April, Renew Economy also reported on Nathaniel Smith’s personal support for US President Donald Trump.

Smith was parachuted into the seat to fill a vacancy after the previous Coalition candidate was dumped over his misogynist and far-right political views.

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