17 Nov 2015
The Australia Institute is once again dressing up ideology as analysis with the release of a so-called discussion paper questioning the economic benefits of developing the Northern Territory’s natural gas resources.
APPEA Chief Executive Malcolm Roberts said the paper misrepresented the industry’s positive impact in Queensland where more than $60 billion has been invested developing a new domestic gas and export industry based on coal seam gas.
“The Australia Institute needs to remove its ideological, anti-development blinkers and accept the reality that natural gas is good for Australia,” Dr Roberts said.
“Queensland shows that the safe and sustainable development of onshore gas resources, in particular, can deliver enormous benefits to local, regional and state economies.
“This was clearly demonstrated again yesterday with QGC revealing that its investment of a further $1.7 billion to develop its tenements in Queensland’s Surat Basin would create up to 1600 new construction jobs and business opportunities over the next two years.”
Dr Roberts said a recent report released by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science’s Chief Economist had also highlighted the economic importance of Queensland’s CSG industry.
The report – Review of the socioeconomic impacts of coal seam gas in Queensland – states that the “headline economic impacts of CSG development in Queensland to date are found to be net positive, and are attributable to increases in employment, income, output, consumption and government revenue”.
Dr Roberts said: “A recent report by Deloitte Access Economics has also found that developing the Territory’s substantial shale gas resource has the potential to create up to 6300 new long-term jobs and generate up to $460 million a year in additional revenue for the NT Government.”
The report by the Office of the Chief Economist can be found at www.industry.gov.au
The DAE report can be found at this link.
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