music to your ears?, page-14

Media release
29 May 2013
Onshore gas industry needs to pass the barbeque test
Queensland’s onshore gas industry needs to engage more meaningfully with everyday
consumers about where their energy comes from and it starts at the barbeque.
Speaking at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA)
national conference in Brisbane today, GasFields Commission Chairman John Cotter said
more needed to be done to better explain the energy story to the broader community.
“At present it would seem perceptions of the onshore gas industry don’t rate too favourably
in those informal conversations around the barbeque with family and friends,” he said.
“For example, the onshore gas industry provides more than 95 per cent of our domestic gas
needs here in South East Queensland alone, yet private polling still shows a large majority of
these consumers have little empathy, understanding or trust of the onshore gas industry.
“Industry needs to establish a credible and ongoing two-way conversation to help build
understanding, confidence and trust and to connect the dots for consumers about the
natural gas that fires up their barbeques, their homes and their industries.”
He said agriculture and the food industry faces the same barbeque test in continuing to
relate to consumers about where their food comes from and how it is produced.
But Mr Cotter said agriculture and the onshore gas industry also have their own relationship
challenges, describing the pace and scale of the current export-driven gas industry boom in
Queensland as the largest industrial development ever to hit the bush.
Mr Cotter said with agriculture taking up 83% of Queensland’s land area – the highest
percentage of any Australian State – and resource companies exploring and developing the
gas reserves underneath – coexistence has to be gotten right.
“The GasFields Commission was established as an independent statutory body to help
manage and improve sustainable coexistence among rural landholders, regional
communities and the onshore gas industry in Queensland,” he said.
“The Commission’s powers include obtaining and publishing factual information; reviewing
legislation and regulation; identifying and advising on coexistence issues; improving
relationships and resolving issues; promoting and facilitating scientific research.”
Mr Cotter told conference delegates he believed that successful and sustainable coexistence
for the onshore gas industry can best be achieved through mutual respect, trust and
communication with landholders, regional communities and the broader Australian public.
ENDS
http://www.gasfieldscommissionqld.org.au/resources/gasfields/media-releases/onshore-gas-industry-needs-to-pass-barbeque-test.pdf
http://www.gasfieldscommissionqld.org.au/whats-happening/groundwater-experts-hold-field-day-in-barcaldine-next-month.html