Hunter Gas Pipeline to receive little support from Upper Hunter by-election candidates

The Nationals hold the seat by just 5.12 per cent over Labor on a two-party preferred basis, and won only 33.99 per cent of the vote at the 2019 election.

Several parties and independents now fancy their chances of winning it, following the resignation of former Nationals MP Michael Johnsen.

Nationals candidate David Layzell, Labor's Jeff Drayton and the Greens' Sue Abbott have all visited Quirindi over the past fortnight.

One of the major issues they will need to address, if they hope to win over voters from the region, is the Hunter Gas Pipeline.

Destined to connect to Santos' Narrabri Gas Project, the pipeline is currently set to go through farmland on the Liverpool Plains, although landholders have been fighting back against the project.

In August last year, the Liverpool Plains Shire Council voted to advocate for the rerouting of the pipeline off of private land.

The Greens have put their foot down and said that, if elected, they would do everything in their power to scrap the project.

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"Gas is finished, it's completely finished and there's no price for it, they won't make any money out of it and they'll have to actually look to the government to get public funds and that's, in my opinion, criminal," Ms Abbott said.

The Nationals and Labor have avoided using such aggressive language, with Mr Drayton choosing his words very carefully given his party's strong support of gas.

He said a solution must be found to ensure the pipeline is completed, but does not infringe on the property of landholders who are opposed to it.

"If community consultation says 'no' then, like everything, we have to look at another avenue," he said.

"If the pipeline is important to us, and I understand it is, then we need to look at other avenues and how we get that gas down to where we need it.

"So it may not be the only way, it might be the most economical way and it may be the way they want to put it, but it might not be the only way."

Mr Layzell spoke with community members when he visited the region on Monday, April 19 and has since taken their concerns to Hunter Gas Pipeline Pty Ltd.

Like his political rival, he also raised concerns about the lack of serious community consultation so far.

"We need to look at the route, we need to make sure that farmers on the ground are happy with it and that consultation process is done in full," he said.

"At the moment I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done with that and it's not a lay down misere that a gas pipeline can just run through people's properties."

However, he said it was his intention to speak to all parties involved in the matter before taking a more assertive stance on the issue.

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