Survey finds many are ignorant about CSG
More than one third of Australians have never heard of coal seam gas, despite the controversy surrounding the issue.
A national survey of 1400 people by The Australia Institute has found while many people did not know what coal seam gas was, the effect of CSG on agricultural land was a major concern, with 96 per cent opposed to CSG extraction if it reduces the productivity of the land. And interestingly, 56 per cent were opposed to CSG extraction even if the farmer whose land was affected was in favour of the project going ahead. A significant majority – 89 per cent of respondents – think farmers should have to right to say no to CSG on their own land.
Matt Grudnoff, a senior economist at The Australia Institute and author of the report said when asked if they knew the difference between CSG and liquefied natural gas (LNG), 81 per cent of respondents said they didn’t know the difference.
"What we were trying to do was work out how much people knew about CSG and what kinds of advantages people saw around the coal seam gas industry and what kinds of disadvantages they saw," he said
"When people talk about advantages they talked about how it would create jobs, how it would create economic growth- it was all about economic advantage. But then when we talked about disadvantage, all the disadvantage was about the environment- so contamination of water, damage to farming land, the health effects on people."
He said the survey showed the gas industry was failing to gain a social licence for its projects and needed to do more to allay people's fears.
Matt Grudnoff, a senior economist at The Australia Institute
producer: Keiren McLeonard