The Australia Institute’s submission on the Newcastle T4 project focuses on the economic assessment and highlights a number of flaws in the economic modelling.  The assessment included the use of export growth rates up to 12 times greater than through the mining boom, estimates of coal exports out to 2083, and inflated estimates of coal

Investments in coal, oil, and gas increase financial risk without increasing returns, according to the new report Climate proofing your investments: Moving funds out of fossil fuels published by The Australia Institute. To meet the internationally-agreed two degree global warming limit, fossil fuel businesses must leave in the ground two-thirds of the reserves currently on their books.

The New Acland coal mine is applying to expand its operations in one of Australia’s most productive agricultural regions, the Darling Downs.  The mine has been controversial since it began, in its impact on the agricultural economy, and in clearing out the town of Acland where now only one resident remains.  The New Acland Mine

The North Galilee Basin Rail Project is a proposal to build and operate a standard gauge rail line from the northern Galilee Basin to the port of Abbot Point, some 300 kilometres away. The project would have the capacity to move 100 million tonnes per annum of thermal coal, largely sourced from mines proposed by

The Stratford Extension Project proposes to extend an existing coal mine in the Gloucester Valley, NSW. The Australia Institute made a submission on the economic assessment of the project to the NSW Planning and Assessment Commission in February 2014. Key points: ·       Economic assessment is based on extremely optimistic coal prices of AUD$178

In November 2013 The Australia Institute made a submission on the application to modify the consent conditions of Rio Tinto’s Warkworth mine, near Singleton in the Hunter Valley, NSW. This modification allows the mine to expand into areas that the Land and Environment Court had disallowed, as the economic benefits of doing so did not

For several decades, Tasmania’s economic performance has been significantly below the rest of Australia. In 2012-13, Tasmania’s gross state product (GSP) was the second lowest of all states and territories behind the Northern Territory, its per capita GSP and average weekly total earnings were the lowest in the country and the unemployment rate was the

The New Acland coal mine is a controversial project 157km west of Brisbane, Queensland. It is located next to the township of Acland and 10km from the larger centre of Oakey. The mine is controversial because of its location in an agricultural area and the impacts it has on the local community, farms and health. 

The Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Project is a proposal to mine up to 60 million tonnes per year of thermal coal from the Galilee Basin in Queensland, for export via associated rail and port infrastructure. As the project will have a major impact on the local and potentially global environment, an environmental impact statement,

Submission to the Senate Inquiry into Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill 2013. 

It’s becoming increasingly clear that Australia needs to change the way it uses energy and many of those changes will be taking place over the next decade.  Our current reliance on coal is unsustainable, while Australia’s considerable reserves of unconventional gas – tight, shale and coal seam gas (CSG) – are raising controversy after being

In November 2013 The Australia Institute made a submission on the application to modify the consent conditions of Rio Tinto’s Warkworth mine, near Singleton in the Hunter Valley, NSW. This modification allows the mine to expand into areas that the Land and Environment Court had disallowed, as the economic benefits of doing so did not

Coal seam gas (CSG) is a controversial way of extracting natural gas. While many Australians hold strong views against it, a surprising number are only vaguely aware of the issue. In addition to feeling generally uninformed, many people also express unease about CSG because of the controversy surrounding it. A survey conducted by The Australia

Mining has always been an important part of the Australian economy. What has changed is the unprecedented scale and pace of its expansion. This is already irrevocably altering the Australian landscape and affecting food production, water security and communities across the nation. The coal seam gas fields approved to date in Queensland will cover tens

Gladstone’s manufacturing industry is likely to pay up to $2.9 billion more for gas over the next 10 years than it otherwise would have, as a result of gas exports from Curtis Island.This is on top of the impacts of the resource boom already being felt by the region’s manufacturing industry, including the high Australian

For several decades, the alternative commercial and economic uses and management of Australia’s native forests have generated considerable debate. In the past five years, this debate has sharpened as the native forest sector has contracted in response to increased competition in international and domestic wood product markets. New carbon markets are also emerging that could

Gas prices in eastern Australia are going to rise substantially. These price rises are not driven by a lack of supply but rather by an increase in demand. Once the eastern Australian gas market is connected to the world gas market, domestic gas producers will be able to sell at the world netback price –

The federal government is pouring an extra half a billion dollars into taxpayer-funded subsidies to the mining industry, research by The Australia Institute has found. The Institute’s new paper Pouring more fuel on the fire reveals the booming sector has been propped up even further over the past year and now receives $4.5 billion from

Australia’s native forest sector has experienced a significant contraction over the past five years. This is reflected in log production from native forests: roundwood removals over the period 2009-2011 were 30 per cent below the average from the previous 18 years. Similarly, woodchip exports, a mainstay of the hardwood sector, fell by 33 per cent

Since the beginning of the mining boom Australia’s rural sector has lost $61.5 billion in export income. This includes $18.9 billion in 2011-12 alone. These losses have occurred because the mining boom has forced the Australian dollar to historic highs. The damage the mining boom is doing to other sectors has created what has been

On 22 November 2012, the timber industry and environmental non-government organisations released the Tasmanian Forest Agreement 2012 (TFA). The agreement includes a number of components, the most significant of which are the support for the creation of an additional 504,012 ha of forest reserves, a reduction in the high quality sawlog guarantee from 300,000 m3

The object of this report was to analyse the carbon credits that could be generated by stopping all harvesting in the public native forests covered by the Conservation Commission of Western Australia’s Draft Forest Management Plan 2014-2023 (FMP forests). These forests cover an area of ~850,000 ha and have produced 300,000-500,000 m3 yr-1 of logs

Summary Since the beginning of the mining boom Australia’s rural sector has lost $43.5 billion in export income. This includes $14.9 billion in 2010-11 alone. These losses have occurred because the mining boom has forced the Australian dollar to historic highs. The damage the mining boom is doing to other sectors has created what has

With increasing awareness of the dangers of climate change, the world is hunting for other forms of power generation that produce lower emissions of greenhouse gas. While gas is not a zero emissions energy source, it has come to be seen by some as a ‘bridging fuel’. In Australia an increasingly important source of gas

The Western Australian government together with Woodside proposes to build the Browse LNG precinct on James Price Point in the Kimberley region of Western Australia (WA). The evidence to support the state government’s claim that the precinct will deliver economic benefits is virtually non-existent. Indeed, a close reading of the scant evidence that is available

Arrow Energy plans to build a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant in Gladstone to export coal seam gas (CSG) from its reserves in the Surat and Bowen Basins. This construction project is proposed to occur at the same time as a large number of other projects in Gladstone such as the Yarwun Alumina Refinery Expansion,

The mining industry is receiving substantial assistance from Australian taxpayers worth more than $4 billion per year in subsidies and concessions from the Federal Government alone. Amazingly, this is at a time when the industry is earning record profits. Significantly, these subsidies and tax concessions do not even include the cost of providing the mining