16 Dec 2016
Lock the Gate has once again sought to mislead regional communities and the media by misrepresenting important research being conducted by the CSIRO into the CSG industry.
Its claim that the CSIRO has found that farmers are losing millions of dollars due to the CSG industry is false.
“CSIRO is explicit that the research is not a cost-benefit analysis,” APPEA Chief Executive Dr Malcolm Roberts said.
“It does not take into account compensation paid by industry to landholders nor additional benefits, such as water for irrigation and crops, improved roads and surrounding infrastructure.
“The research focuses solely on calculating costs over a timeframe of 20 years, within a study area of 11,500 hectares that contains 155 wells on several individual properties and includes a significant area of company-owned land hosting major infrastructure.
“Revenue losses in the study area of $2.17 million over 20 years ultimately amount to $9.44 per hectare per year.
“This is more than adequately covered by existing compensation arrangements.
“In the last five years alone, the CSG industry has provided almost $240 million in compensation to landholders in the Surat and Bowen Basins.
“Comments from Lock the Gate are predictable. They are also deliberately misleading.
“The researchers developed a computer model to calculate impacts on agriculture from the use of land for gas infrastructure.
“Unfortunately for activist groups the real world is more complicated than a computer model.
“The industry successfully co-exists with agriculture because we seek to first understand how each individual farm operates.
“Operations are then designed to minimise and avoid impacts wherever possible. Only then is a tailored compensation package arrived at.
“If farmers were losing out as activists suggest the industry wouldn’t be as successful as it is.” Download PDF
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