Australian Financial Review: New taskforce to break CSG logjam

A special federal government taskforce has been working on how to break through the logjams holding up coal seam gas development in NSW since late last year without being formally announced.

Fund manager and Hunter Valley farmer David Paradice and former Coal Association chief executive Nikki Williams are part of the taskforce, which has begun work on forging a way through the conflicting interests holding up coal seam gas development in the largest state.

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has tapped the pair, as well as Margaret MacDonald-Hill, chairwoman of the AGL Hunter & Camden Community Consultative Committees and well-known NSW mining figure, and fifth-generation Camden dairy farmer Edgar Downes.

It’s the minister’s latest bid to forge a path through fierce community opposition to coal seam gas mining in NSW. The state imports 95 per cent of its gas and could face shortages when liquefied natural gas exports from Gladstone, Queensland, ramp up. MORE