Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government has set up a special taskforce to attempt to break the logjam on coal seam gas (CSG) development in the country’s most populous state, New South Wales.
Under Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane the taskforce has been working on how to break through the logjams holding up CSG development in NSW since late last year without being formally announced.
The Australian Financial Review (AFR) newspaper reports fund manager and Hunter Valley farmer David Paradice and former Coal Association chief executive Nikki Williams are part of the taskforce which has begun work on forging a way through the conflicting interests holding up CSG development in the largest state.
The newspaper reports Mr Macfarlane has tapped the pair, as well as Margaret MacDonald-Hill, chairwoman of the AGL Hunter and Camden Community Consultative Committees and well-known NSW mining figure, and fifth-generation Camden dairy farmer Edgar Downes.
It’s the minister’s latest bid to forge a path through fierce community opposition to CSG mining in NSW.
The state imports 95 per cent of its gas and could face shortages when liquefied natural gas exports from Gladstone, Queensland, ramp up.
Manufacturers complain they cannot get offers of gas at affordable prices or for more than a year or two, and that jobs and investments could be lost if the situation isn’t resolved.
The AFR reports large manufacturers such as Orica and Incitec Pivot, as well as retailer Origin Energy, have secured supplies in recent months.
The Australian Financial Review understands the four members of the taskforce have met informally a few times since November to review the publicly available reports and scientific material on the gas industry.
Their main task will be to consult with the community and other stakeholders in gas-rich farming areas to try to determine what the genuine concerns are about the impact of gas development on water tables, farmers and other landholders, as opposed to those of politically motivated campaigns that get the headlines.
The broad remit is to try to short-circuit the acrimonious debate over CSG in NSW by offering pragmatic advice on what can and can’t be done to allow coal seam gas development to proceed.
The AFR reports they can not start work in earnest until Mr Macfarlane has finalised the make-up of the taskforce and formally announced it.
He proposed the taskforce in September after a NSW Energy Security Summit convened by the state Liberal-National government which failed to make progress on the issue.
The NSW government has unveiled restrictions on gas development near population centres and prime agricultural land that the gas industry said were tougher than the rules in Kazakhstan and South Sudan.
The NSW taskforce will take into account the intensive nature of the state’s farming, which differs from Queensland’s large broad acre farms in areas like the Hunter, and the proximity of gas deposits to large population centres, in coming up with their recommendations.
