Regional people must partner in coal seam gas opportunities
07-November-2011
Written by Warren Truss,
Published in The Australian, 7 November 2011
Every good business knows that if their employees feel part of the team then they will work harder and deliver better results. Working together means a better outcome for workers and a better outcome for the business.
At the moment, many regional communities and farmers do not feel they are a respected part of the huge development of coal seam gas resources occurring on their land. Their roads are damaged by white Toyota wagons with red flags on what looks like a fishing pole strapped to the bullbar. Even the workforce is flown in and out to sleep in ‘dongas’ that really look like temporary barracks rather than a permanent new commitment to the community.
Landowners may receive compensation but almost never have a real stake or receive a real return from the development of an asset that can only be accessed from their land.
If the towns and the farmers have little to gain from coal seam gas development why would they bother to co-operate with the industry or defend it?
Some projects have been developed by groups with insufficient capacity to bring the project to fruition and sold on to a major company with a legacy of poor community relations and deeply aggrieved land owners.
Coal seam gas represents both a risk and an opportunity for regional Australia. The risk is the potential environmental damage that may occur. There are few alternative supplies of water in some of these towns so it is an absolute essential that no damage occurs to aquifers.
The opportunity is the size and scale of the energy under the ground. Australia’s coal seam gas reserves are estimated at over 40 billion barrels of oil in energy equivalent terms. In the Bowen and Surat basins in Queensland alone there are 5 billion barrels of commercially proven reserves.
To put these figures in perspective, the discovery of the East Texas Field in 1930 was, at the time, the largest oil field ever discovered at 6 billion barrels of oil. The discovery kicked off a Texan economic boom. Texas now has a vibrant broad based economy. The University of Texas is in the top 50 in the world, a higher ranking than any in Australia. Houston rose from the desert to become the 4th biggest city in the United States.
There is no reason we can’t build bigger cities west of the Great Dividing Range as well.
To do so we must properly manage the development of our coal seam gas resources. A properly managed coal seam gas industry represents an unprecedented opportunity for regional Australia. Poorly managed it could tick every box of a social and environmental disaster.
While the States have primary responsibility for the approval and oversight of the industry, the stakes are so high that it is time for the federal government to provide the national leadership that has been so far lacking on this issue.
That is why The Nationals have adopted five core principles that we think should guide the development of coal seam gas. We need a comprehensive approach, an approach that protects not only the environment but the economic development imperatives of regional Australia and the legitimate rights of landowners.
First, we should make it absolutely clear that no coal seam gas development can be allowed if it damages aquifers or water quality.
Second, coal seam gas development must not compromise prime agricultural land. We must protect our ability to deliver food security – not only for our nation, but for a hungrier world, for generations to come.
Third, coal seam gas development should not occur close to residential areas. Those who have a reasonable expectation of the quiet amenity of their home should be able to enjoy it.
Fourth, payments to landowners should not be limited to simply compensation, they deserve a proper return on the development of resources that occur on their land.
Fifth, the regions that deliver much of the wealth from coal seam gas deserve a fair share of the revenues to be reinvested in their communities.
Shortly, The Nationals will release a discussion paper on specific policy options to achieve these core principles.
Unless regional communities are engaged as respected partners, and have something to gain, they will not support coal seam gas extraction – let alone on their land.
As Ian Hayllor, a farmer in the Dalby area, put it a couple of months ago:
“I want to get to the point where I can actually drive past a gas well and smile and think, ‘Well that's not a bad asset.’ I want to have that same feeling with that gas well as I have with a 12 or 14 bail to hectare crop of cotton - that it's a good part of my business.”
We have a fair way to go to get to where Ian wants – but we can do it.
If we are successful we can deliver a lasting legacy of wealth to regional Australia and the nation beyond the 35-year life of a coal seam gas well.