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Gas is no benchwarmer

Professional sports teams don't bench star players, so why sideline our natural resources? With Australia's vast natural gas reserves, the government should leverage this industry rather than demonise it.

By news@gippsland - 19th August 2024 - Back to News

Professional sporting clubs don't put their star players on the bench, so why does the government want to sideline our natural resources? Australia has world-class stores of natural gas and yet - we aren't pressing that advantage. As it stands, our natural gas industry raises about $17 billion in government revenue each year. It could be a lot more, but the government wants to demonise the industry rather than monetise it.

Australia's gas reserves rival Russia's, yet the government focuses on unreliable solar and wind, which require subsidies. If these were our true advantage, they'd be self-sustaining

Leveraging natural resources

Instead, the government wants to make YOU pay! Did you know that last year, Australians had the largest increase on personal income tax in the world? Meanwhile in Texas, they barely pay tax because natural resources pay taxes for them! The Texan oil and gas industry raised $26.3bn in local and state taxes last year. That's 47 million dollars every day which funds public spending.

Why should Australians foot the bill when we have all this natural gas? Our gas reserves are comparable with Russia! We have so much gas it's virtually basically bubbling to the surface! But it gets worse! The government thinks our natural advantage is in the sun and wind. But you can't rely on solar and wind for baseload power and we're not even competitive in manufacturing the components either!

If these really were our 'natural advantage', they wouldn't need to be subsidised! It's the last quarter of the Grand Final right now. We can choose to put our best team on, or we can keep them warming the bench on the sideline. It's time that the Australian government put our Natural Resources into play.

Pictures from Australian Government - Geoscience Australia website.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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