Appointing the former INPEX general manager as the NT interim Territory Coordinator is a terrible move
Gas giant INPEX is notorious for not paying tax and now the NT govt is giving a former exec power to exempt gas projects from environmental regulations
June 2024
Australia’s great gas giveaway
Gas is a finite resource – so why is Australia essentially giving it away?
Zero royalties charged on $111 billion in WA gas sales
Australia Institute research has found that 73% of gas exported from WA attracts zero royalty payments, effectively giving a public resource to multinational gas corporations for free.
May 2024
“Extraordinary” No royalties paid on 56% of gas exported from Australia | Video
Gas companies are meant to pay royalties for the right to extract and sell Australian gas. But no royalties are paid on 56% of gas exported from Australia. Report author Mark Ogge joined ABC News to discuss. A new report from the Australia Institute, Australia’s Great Gas Giveaway, shows that over the last four years,
WA Gas Royalties Set to Plummet: Budget Analysis
Australia Institute analysis of the 2024 WA Budget shows the meagre contribution of gas royalties to state government revenue will plumet to just 0.6% over the next 4 years.
New federal approval for giant WA gas project will release 3 billion tonnes of emissions
The Australian Government has approved key infrastructure for Chevron’s Gorgon LNG Stage 2 expansion that will produce 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions over the next 50 years.
New Analysis: WA drivers pay more rego than gas companies pay in royalties
New Australia Institute research released today shows that royalty payments by the gas industry are negligible and expected to contribute just 1.3% to this week’s WA budget.
April 2024
WA’s gas shortage is a joke – at the public’s expense
Can you imagine Qatar or Saudi Arabia panicking about a gas or oil shortage?
Billboard highlights 90% of WA’s gas is exported and mostly royalty free
The Australia Institute has placed a prominent billboard reading “90% of WA’s gas is exported, mostly royalty free” in view of WA’s Parliament, Woodside’s offices and tens of thousands of motorists daily.
The Knitting Nannas redefining the face of activism
As the government shelves important reform to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, the Knitting Nannas are getting out into their communities and demanding an end to fossil fuel projects.
90% of WA’s gas exported by foreign owned companies who get most of the gas for free
The Australia Institute has placed a full-page advertisement in The West Australian revealing stark findings about the gas industry in Western Australia.
February 2024
Western Australia’s phony gas shortage
Western Australia produces much more gas than the state needs and any fears of a shortage is driven by the industry to increase prices
The Great Gas Rort: Fixing the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax
Every year, the Commonwealth collects more revenue from HECS than it gets from the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax. The PRRT is so weak that gas companies love it! Mark Ogge explains the Government’s proposed changes, and how we can fix it to tax our gas companies fairly. This was recorded on Tuesday 6th February 2024
January 2024
Australian governments suck up to Japanese fossil fuel companies. Again.
The Australian and Northern Territory Governments continue to do all they can to help foreign gas companies including giving them gas for free, despite them paying next to no tax.
August 2023
Proposed LNG plant emissions equivalent to 12 coal-fired power stations
New research from the Australia Institute has found that the lifecycle emissions resulting from Tamboran Resources’ proposed Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) processing and export facility in the Northern Territory (NT) would be equivalent to 12 coal-fired power stations every year when operating at full capacity
March 2023
Emissions from the 116 proposed coal and gas projects would swamp the reductions from the safeguard mechanism
New fossil fuel projects would create 24 times more pollution than what the safeguard mechanism would (theoretically) remove
Ignore the fears from the gas industry, Australia has more than enough gas
Once again the gas industry is crying wolf and telling us we need more gas to prevent shortages. But if you read beyond the scare quotes today’s report from Australia’s Energy Market Operator report shows we already have more than enough gas.
July 2022
Ignoring warnings of Europe’s extreme heatwave locks Australia into a worst-case scenario
The unprecedented heatwave and fires engulfing Europe might seem a long way away, but they are a frightening portent of what’s in store for Australia. Britain has just experienced its highest temperature ever, extreme conditions and fires are sweeping Spain, Portugal, France and Greece. This is just the latest in a string of extreme events
June 2022
A Gas-Led Catastrophe
Last week, the Australian Energy Market Operator (or AEMO) suspended the National electricity spot market after it became ‘impossible to operate’ amid projected energy shortfalls. On today’s episode, we’re unpacking how we got here, and how to fix it. This was recorded on 21st June 2022 and things may have changed since recording. The Australia
March 2022
Who pays for the cost of climate change?
Climate change is making natural disasters like fires, floods, heatwaves and drought more frequent and more extreme. In today’s episode we discuss a levy on fossil fuels to help pay for the damage.
November 2021
Glasgow Part 2 and Australia’s fossil fuel fraud
For the first time ever at a UN Climate Conference, fossil fuels are being tackled head-on at Glasgow COP26. But Australia has plans to massively expand gas and coal projects. If Australia succeeds, the climate loses.
September 2021
Fracked: Gas in the Northern Territory
Extracting gas from the Northern Territory through hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) is one of the largest potential sources of carbon pollution in the world. In this episode we explore the climate cost of a potential policy backflip on opening up the NT to fracking, as well as the community opposition and the economics of it all.
December 2020
Gas-fired recovery a massive employment dud
by Richie Merzian & Mark Ogge[Originally published in the Newcastle Herald, 18 November 2020] A gas-fired recovery from the economic damage caused by Covid-19 will not help the Hunter region. In fact, a gas-fired recovery will struggle to employ anyone, except the gas executives that proposed the idea. The bottom line is, creating jobs in
The myth of Australia’s gas supply shortage
The ‘gas-fired recovery’ is supposed to help Australia’s manufacturing industry by freeing up new supply. But the Australia Institute’s research shows the days of cheap gas are over. www.tai.org.au Host: Ebony Bennett, deputy director of the Australia Institute // @ebony_bennettGuests: Mark Ogge, Principal Advisor // @MarkOgge Producer: Jennifer Macey Theme music is by Jonathan McFeat
August 2020
Backfire part 1: why a “gas fired recovery” would increase emissions and energy costs and squander Australia’s COVID-19 recovery spending
In this first of a two-part episode on gas, we explore why subsidising the gas industry is a poor option for economic recovery and explore the issues related to Santos’ Narrabri gas project in NSW with Mark Ogge, Principal Advisor at the Australia Institute.www.tai.org.auHost: Ebony Bennett, deputy director of the Australia Institute // @ebony_bennettGuests:Mark Ogge
November 2019
The “quiet Australians” are standing up to big coal and a state government that is failing to take action on the climate emergency
by Mark Ogge[Originally published on The Fifth Estate, 12 November 2019] It is a terrible irony that the coal being mined in New South Wales is helping fuel the state’s unprecedented increase in extreme heat, fires and drought. Every year, coal produced in NSW results in about 500 million tonnes of greenhouse gases being pumped
January 2018
Gas And Coal Watch
“Burning something to boil water to create steam is a really old-fashioned technology…” The Australia Institute has spent the hot summer days monitoring when gas and coal power plants trip, taking sometimes hundreds of megawatts of power from the grid at unpredictable times. In contrast, solar power is taking pressure of the grid by delaying
October 2017
We have enough cheap, easy-to-extract gas to last 100 years. There’s just one problem
Australia has plenty of cheap gas. The problem is private companies are selling it all overseas, writes principal adviser at The Australia Institute Mark Ogge. [This article was first published by Crikey – here] Hard to believe, isn’t it? But it’s true: in the last decade, tens of thousands of square kilometers of Queensland farmland has
August 2014
Mining Economics Workshop – Powerpoint
If you’d like to give a presentation on the economics of mining, get in touch with us and we can give you the background information you need.
Mining Economics Workshop – Coal Fact Sheet
Coal mines on NSW farmland and forests are approved largely on the basis of the claims they make about jobs and economic benefits. Coal mines certainly employ some peopleand generate economic activity, but often not to extent claimed by industry advocates. This fact sheet will assist with arguing against the industry’s shonky economics.
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