The global gas industry has pulled off the greatest con in Australia's history, and we're living with the consequences. Australia is one of the richest countries in the world, but we have been made to feel so poor that we no longer even expect the high quality, freely available public schools and hospitals we used to have. But while we are told we can't afford to have good services, Australian governments give away billions of dollars worth of gas, for free, to multinational companies every year.
When the price of oil surges, Saudis feel rich. When the price of gas surges, Qataris and Norwegians feel rich. But in Australia when the price of gas surges around the world we are told we must tighten our belts to cope with surging electricity prices.
Successive governments have given away our gas to foreign companies for free and excused them from paying tax - and then asked us to say thank you when companies choose to do business in Australia. In this essay Richard Denniss pulls back the curtain to show how the gas companies performed a long con in Australia and spells out the simple steps we need to take to fix it.