Sydney Morning Herald: Real Returns from Gorgon Project Likely to be Half Official Projections

The maiden cargo of natural gas from the gigantic Gorgon project off the coast of Western Australia set sail for Japan last week. After all the delays and the enormous costs blowouts it was quite a milestone.

Even though this is one of the world's premier resources projects and a marvel of engineering, its contribution to the Australian economy has been overblown, much in the way Indian conglomerate Adani has exaggerated the benefits of its Carmichael coal project, or the Gladstone LNG triumvirate has positioned itself as the nation's next export saviour.

The national dialogue, in short, has been distorted by self-interest, often to deflect criticism that multinationals operating in Australia do not pay their fair share of income tax and royalties. MORE