All of this took place in the earlier part of 2013... looking back on this now it is easy to see the holes in the process mechanism. So I went back and checked to see if it was still available and it was. So here is the link and the transcript of that show to read.
http://www.abc.net.au/insidebusiness/content/2011/s3731460.htm
Alan Kohler presenter reports for 4 corners and back in the beginning of April 2013 things started hotting up for QGC in Queensland. He kicked off the program with this opening statement:
The other big issue that's blown up again is environmental risk posed by the rapidly expanding coal seam gas industry in Queensland and New South Wales.
Four Corners lit the fuse with the aid of a whistleblower from inside the Queensland public service.(from Four Corners)
MATTHEW CARNEY, REPORTER:
Why has the coal seam gas industry been allowed to proceed at such a rapid pace? Tonight, Four Corners can reveal why.
Simone Marsh played a critical role in the approval process of Australia's largest coal seam gas developments, Santos' $18 billion project and QGC's $20 billion project in Southern Queensland. She was a key insider and she is telling her story for the first time.
SIMONE MARSH, SENIOR ENVIRONMENTAL SPECIALIST:
I think the truth is that it's not an ecologically sustainable activity. Obviously they didn't want to say that. They wanted approval to come in and conduct that activity. They didn't want anyone to understand what the long-term, um, impacts were going to be and the long-term costs associated with this activity.
ALAN KOHLER:
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| Simone (image from LTG facebook page |
Here is a bit of what he had to say.
(Excerpt from ABC Radio National broadcast)
DAVID KNOX, CEO, SANTOS:
That's what I am really concerned about, it just there is some falsehoods and dishonest claims being made.
There was a very extensive set of groundwater studies done. They were done by an independent party. It was quality work. They were done throughout the process.
We do not in any way affect the groundwater in any substantive way. And that's what the studies show.
ALAN KOHLER:
So are we getting worried about the gas producers?
RICHARD CAMPBELL, PENINSULA CAPITAL MANAGEMENT:
I'm worried. I'm worried. Because they've sold the gas forward, they are building the plants, they've assumed that they are going to get all the gas to feed these plants and the ...
Undoubtedly they've done these studies, they've done studies. But whether they've done them in the specific cases where there are problems ...
I mean, if you stand back a bit and think of central west Queensland, it looks flat and it looks benign, you know, there's no problems. But when you, if you've delved into the coal industry, you find there are all sorts of difficulties if you try and get a decent coal seam. There is always a split, a fault. And I am just a bit concerned ...
ALAN KOHLER:
You have been a big investor in gas companies, so are you getting unnerved by this?
RICHARD CAMPBELL:
Yes.
(Laughter)
ALAN KOHLER:
What about you?
DEAN PAATSCH, DIRECTOR, OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT:
Well I think the political management of the political risk is something that is real. Small chance of something happening, catastrophic consequences if it does, and that's a risk.
So it is all about the risk management.
It shouldn't be about the PR. I think there is a big chance of the Balkanisation of rural electorates, where farmers are very sensitive. Their livelihood depends on the continued flow of quality water and politics can change.
ALAN KOHLER:
It can be powerful when farmers line up with greenies, can't it?
DEAN PAATSCH:
Well these investments will play out over the life of multiple Parliaments, and so we need to get the science right but we also need to get the communication right as well.
ALAN KOHLER:
What's the corporate world saying about this Stephen?
STEPHEN BARTHOLOMEUSZ, BUSINESS SPECTATOR:
I think if you look at the numbers, Alan, somewhere between $70 billion and $80 billion will be spent on the plants in Gladstone. They've got 20 year sales contracts for the gas, they've got external investors, customer investments already in there.
They're going to be producing the first LNG out of Curtis Island I think in 2015, with most of it flying by 2016. So it's already much has been done up there, so much money has been sunk in the ground and so much money has been committed that it's almost - you can't reverse it, you can't stop it.
The environmental process, I mean, that Santos one took over three years. They've 1200-odd environmental conditions. You would hope a bureaucracy spending more than three years and imposing that number of conditions would get most things right.
But the guys are right. This is potentially quite tricky, dangerous stuff.
Then the Gladstone Observer reported on :
Lock the Gate Alliance spokesman Drew Hutton said the program had
revealed "not only a hasty and incompetent process in the approval of
thousands of coal seam gas wells in Queensland in 2010, but also a
potentially illegal one".
The key breach occurred with the failure by coal seam gas companies to
provide the Queensland Government with sufficient information to enable a
valid environmental authority to be provided, he said.
Mr Hutton and Ms Marsh have taken complaints about the process to the state's Crime and Misconduct Commission.
"Any public servant who has signed an environmental authority for any
of these projects has breached several sections of the Environmental
Protection Act and, therefore, is likely to have committed official
misconduct," Mr Hutton said.
"This situation came about because of improper political pressure that
was placed on the public servants, as Simone Marsh has described."
Mr Hutton thanked Queensland Premier Campbell Newman for joining his
and Ms Marsh's complaint to the CMC, and believed the CMC should hold a
full, open, public inquiry.
"This is the biggest public policy failure I have seen in my 40 years
of public life, and deserves the sort of public inquiry that ICAC is
currently conducting into mining activities in New South Wales," Mr
Hutton said.
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