[Greens-Media] Pursuit of CSG for export leads to $21 billion hit to NSW economy - Jeremy Buckingham

[Jeremy Buckingham]

JEREMY BUCKINGHAM MLC
THE GREENS NSW

MEDIA RELEASE

21 July 2014

Pursuit of CSG for export leads to $21 billion hit to NSW economy

The Greens NSW spokesperson on mining Jeremy Buckingham today said blame for an up to $21 billion loss to the NSW economy due to a massive gas price hike lay firmly at the feet of multi-national gas companies pursuing coal seam gas for export as LNG.  

A NSW specific breakdown of analysis in the Deloitte Access Economics report release today, shows:
. a cumulative loss of  $32 billion over 2014-2021 in manufacturing, agriculture, construction and other industries;
. an associated increase of up to $11 billion in the gas and services industries;
. an overall hit of $21 billion to the NSW economy;
. 12,000-14,000 jobs losses in manufacturing nation-wide.

"The pursuit of coal seam gas for export is now being felt by our vital manufacturing industry and agriculture as it sends the price of gas skyrocketing.  Coal seam gas will be a major drag on the Australian economy," said Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham.

"Fast-tracking coal seam gas in NSW will make no difference to this major economic problem as it will have little effect on the international gas price nor alleviate the immediate crisis as it will not supply gas into the NSW market until 2018-2019 at the earliest.

"Governments need to pull off their free-market blinkers and look at the real impact export LNG will have on other sectors.  They need to regulate in the national interest, rather than standby and pretend nothing is wrong.

"It's clear that successive state and federal governments have backed the wrong horse, with the impact of export LNG being an overall negative for the economy.  This is a classic case of Dutch disease.

"It is unfair that businesses and workers in the manufacturing industry and agriculture should have to suffer so companies such as PetroChina, Petronas (Malaysia), Kogas (Korea), British Gas, Shell (Netherlands), Total (France), ConocoPhillips (USA), Sinopec (China), Santos, and Origin can make large profits through their export LNG consortiums," he said.

Contact: Max Phillips - 9230 2202 or 0419 444 916


Max Phillips
 
OFFICE OF JEREMY BUCKINGHAM MLC
Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: 02 9230 2202 | Fax: 02 9230 3341 | Mobile: 0419 444 916