DOMESTIC GAS AVAILABILITY IN AUSTRALIA AND TAXATION

Energy prices and energy security have been in the news for many months now.  While this issue is very complex, the debate about causes and solutions has been marred by erroneous claims and blame-shifting by politicians.  This has done little to enlighten the electorate or solve the problems the nation faces. 

 

The security/price problem exists because successive governments from both major parties have failed to understand the impact of the technological change and to plan properly for the future.

Added to this is the failure, particularly by the Federal Government, to understand community opposition to coal seam gas (CSG) mining and fracking and the threats this industry poses to agriculture, clean water, the natural environment and  human health.  Communities in the NSW Northern Rivers and elsewhere have learnt from overseas and Queensland just how invasive and damaging this industry is. 

The Federal Government’s concern about domestic gas availability and price have led to it planning to restrict exports when there is a local shortage.  It has also called on states such as NSW and Victoria to open up their states to CSG and unconventional gas mining.

Unsurprisingly the export restriction plan has annoyed the extremely profitable companies exporting huge quantities of Australian gas.  One of their spokespersons, former federal politician Ian Macfarlane, now Queensland Resources Council CEO, supports the government’s call to remove bans on CSG and unconventional gas mining in NSW and Victoria.  That gas could then be used domestically without affecting the industry’s exports.  Furthermore Macfarlane suggested states not lifting bans should be penalised by getting a smaller GST share.

Lock the Gate’s National Coordinator, Carmel Flint, said this was an extraordinary attempt by the mining and resource sector to undermine the “democratic distribution of our taxes”.  She also pointed out that sixty percent of large energy and resource companies pay no corporate tax in Australia and that it was disgraceful that they should attempt to influence how taxes were spent in order to promote their industry.

 

Whatever the Federal Government and the big mining companies want, opposition to CSG and unconventional gas mining won’t go away.

            - Leonie Blain

  This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on July 24, 2017.  

MINING LOBBYIST CLAIMS ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARE ECONOMIC VANDALS

The mining industry and environment movement have long been at loggerheads, but conflict has escalated in recent times with the rapid world-wide expansion of the unconventional gas industry.

The growing animosity reached a new high, when Stephen Galilee (NSW Minerals Council's head) published an extraordinary personal attack on two young female conservationists, accusing them of “economic vandalism” and calling for them to be jailed for their actions in opposing coal and gas mining (The Australian , 14^th April).

The claim of vandalism by a mining industry lobbyist against conservationists is a “bit rich”, given incidents such as the recent coal mine fire at Morwell in Victoria where a failure to undertake required rehabilitation and removal of fire-fighting equipment saw the fire burning out of control for weeks, spewing toxic smoke over the township, forcing inhabitants to flee their homes to escape the health risks. The real social and economic costs of that incident are unlikely to ever be determined.

The Maules Creek coal mine, protests against which triggered Mr Galilee's article, is owned by Whitehaven Coal, itself the recipient of multiple fines for environmental vandalism, as has Santos, the owner of the Pilliga coal-seam gas operation, with the latest $1500 fine, imposed for polluting an aquifer, not even covering the investigation costs. Again the potential long-term economic costs of those pollution events will probably never be known.

Mr Galilee's vicious attack focusses on two courageous conservationists, Georgina Woods and Carmel Flint, describing them as “professional activists” because they have represented other environmental organisations in the past. However, while occasionally being paid for their work, their remuneration would pale into insignificance beside that received by Galilee, who apparently fails to see that he too is a professional activist, lobbying on behalf of the mining industry, with a long history working as adviser to various government ministers on mining matters.

The only difference, other than their salaries, is that Mr Galilee lobbies on behalf of the mining industry and its share-holders, while the girls lobby on behalf of all humanity, and those that have no voice, our wildlife.

- John Edwards

This article was published in The Daily Examiner (under a different title) in the "Voices for the Earth" column on 28th April.

Carmel Flint's work for the environment was recognised by the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition (CVCC) in 2010 when she received the CVCC's ReWeavers' Award.  Since then Carmel has continued her work for the environment, notably campaigning for improvements in environmental flows in the Murray-Darling Basin and also in campaigning against coal seam gas mining, particularly in the Pilliga.