An environmental engineer has questioned Origin Energy’s assertion that gas bubbling in a Queensland river is a naturally occurring phenomenon.
A video by anti-coal seam gas group (CSG) Lock the Gates shows gas bubbling to the surface of the Condamine River near Chinchilla.
Origin Energy, which owns a number of test wells near the site, says it is a natural phenomenon caused by a shallow coal seam.
But CSG expert Dr Gavin Mudd from Monash University says “it beggars belief that there could be no contribution by industry”.
Dr Mudd says there is no evidence to support Origin’s claim and the case needs further investigation.
The Queensland Government says it is investigating the matter, and Dr Mudd says there is a lot of monitoring bore between the Condamine River and where the CSG projects are located.
He says he expects the gas leak is the result of CSG activity, but pinpointing the cause will be difficult.
“They need to go and test a lot of the groundwater bores in the region and make sure they test bores that are between the Condamine and where the coal seam gas activities are,” Mr Mudd said.
Dr Mudd says the CSG industry is poaching a lot of expertise from the Government.
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A CHALLENGE was thrown down to mining magnates yesterday by independent MP Rob Oakeshott: Send a plane to his NSW electorate and he will fill it with workers.
“I’d have 100 to 150 people ready straight away,” he said yesterday.
Mr Oakeshott and fellow NSW independent Tony Windsor said the mining industry had not done enough to actively recruit workers on the east coast, especially from regional areas with high unemployment.
Enterprise migration agreements recently approved by the federal government will allow big mining projects to bring in foreign workers to make up for labour shortfalls.
“It annoys me that it has entered mythology that the east won’t go over to the west to work,” he said.
He said his region had run four jobs expos in the past few years.
“I haven’t seen the WA mining industry at any of them,” he said.
Mr Windsor said miners had to improve their recruitment efforts.
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has bluntly warned the mining industry that mineral resources belong to all Australians and Labor is determined to spread the benefits of the boom to working people.
Rejecting industry criticism of the rising costs of mining in Australia, Ms Gillard said Australia’s economy was the envy of the world and there was no better place to invest.
”And here’s the rub. You don’t own the minerals. I don’t own the minerals. Governments only sell you the right to mine the resource, a resource we hold in trust for a sovereign people,” she told a mining industry dinner in Canberra last night.
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”There’s nowhere in the world you’d be better off investing. And there’s nowhere in the world where mining has a stronger future. And this is Australia, and it has a Labor government.”
The defiant speech came as the government began ramping up the campaign to promote its compensation measures before the July 1 start of the carbon tax – and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott conceded a Coalition government could struggle to implement its promise to repeal the tax.
Tax cuts, allowances and student bonuses rolled out in coming weeks will mean some families receive more than $2500.
In an earlier speech to the Minerals Council of Australia conference in Canberra, Mr Abbott renewed the Coalition’s pledge to dump both the $23 per tonne carbon tax and Labor’s 30 per cent tax on large iron ore and coalmining profits.
But he gave his strongest indication yet that Labor’s efforts to ”Abbott-proof” both taxes could make the promises difficult to achieve.
”There is no doubt that there are measures associated with both the mining tax and the carbon tax that will be difficult to undo,” Mr Abbott conceded.
This could include contracts already in place, loans made from the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which will fund green energy projects, and payments made to shut down heavily polluting coal-fired power stations.
Mr Abbott claimed ”fiscal discipline” would ensure a Coalition government delivered promised tax cuts and pension increases without a carbon tax.
Rio Tinto managing director David Peever told the Canberra conference that the mining industry was being challenged by cost pressures, volatile commodity prices and policy uncertainty. ”We are at the mercy of the global economy,” he said.
A report to the conference said rising business costs threatened to shelve some big projects, including the Olympic Dam expansion in South Australia.
But Ms Gillard told the industry leaders that while mining had a proud tradition in Australia and Australians respected the hard work and enterprise of miners, the rewards must be shared.
”I know you’re not all in love with the language of spreading the benefits of the boom,” she said
While miners worked hard, competed in a tough global environment and took big risks, they also earned big profits.
”Australians don’t begrudge hard work and we admire your success,” she said.
”But I know this too: they work pretty hard in car factories and at panel beaters and in police stations and hospitals too.”
Increased family payments instead of company tax cuts in the budget were part of the government’s commitment that all Australians benefit from mining wealth. ”They own it and they deserve their share,” she said.
IT IS a peculiar electoral arithmetic that has given NSW a government with a huge mandate and a clutch of fringe parties a blocking position in the State Parliament’s upper house. In the short term, there is nothing to be done but to deal with this reality. So the price of raising $3 billion for the state coffers is allowing gun fanciers to blast away at feral animals for their fun.
The Shooters and Fishers Party have traded their vote for the power sell-off, in return for recreational hunters being allowed to shoot pigs, deer and other feral animals in 79 of the state’s 879 national parks and reserves. Licensed shooters will have to apply for permission to shoot in these areas, which are not to be near metropolitan areas, certain types of wilderness or be world heritage sites. As such animals are already subject to culling by professional shooters in national parks, the hunters may actually augment the conservation effort – assuming they stick to the rules. The real outcome, of course, must be carefully monitored.
What is more significant is that the Premier, Barry O’Farrell, is ready to swallow some repeated promises to the public – never to allow shooting in national parks – in order to stick steadfastly by another: that he will privatise the state’s electricity generators. Given the state’s major infrastructure investment requirement, these ends justify these means. The state government’s has struggled to get traction with its micro-economic reforms. This deal with the Shooters is a welcome sign, albeit small, that Mr O’Farrell can stay the course.
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The $3 billion from the sale of Eraring Energy, Delta Electricity and Macquarie Generation is certainly handy. Combined with the long-term leasing of Port Botany for $2 billion and the sale of the Sydney desalination plant, it allows NSW to cut its debt in preparation for the financing of badly needed new infrastructure.
But we know it’s not nearly enough. Australia was ranked 34th in a recent World Economic Forum study on the quality of national infrastructure in 2010-11, two spots worse than Slovenia. Infrastructure within NSW is grossly inadequate for the region that expects to be the pacesetter for the nation.
Yesterday’s deal is billed as a power selloff but the truth is barely that. With the power retailers previously sold, this tranche affects only the electricity generators. The refusal of the government to contemplate the more significant privatisation of the electricity distribution network until a second term means more than $30 billion of taxpayers’ monies will stay tied up in the poles and wires. Its stubbornness on this point has soured relations with the business community at a time when the private sector stands at the ready to invest in these assets. The government’s stance also means that Infrastructure NSW will continue to lack the funds to invest in the rebuilding of the state.
Mr O’Farrell is yet to devise a full agenda for funding our infrastructure needs in the absence of his political will on powerlines. As Infrastructure NSW and Transport for NSW near completion of their long-term plans, time is nearing for the Premier to lock in his funding plan and use his mandate. Yet his privatisation commitments remain small, his reform of the efficiencies in state bureaucracies remains modest and his commitment to opening up public services such as transport to contestable management contracts appears stuck in the depot.
The NSW economy has long benefited from having a mix of public and private service providers, whether it be in energy, motorways, health, freight rail companies, bus companies or port operators. More than ever it is clear the government has no role in funding assets and services where the private sector does better. The sale of assets such as power generators and more like it are essential if we are serious about investing in the state and national economies of tomorrow.
