Good piece, Bruce. The other aspect of this debate that merits cklose public scrutiny is water: as the energy sector's water demands double and redouble, more and more farmers will lose their water - and this will have an impact which in some cases will last for thousands of years if aquifers are destroyed, disrupted or toxified. So we may be trading off centuries of our grandkids future prosperity for a few years of gas or coal. These issues are worthy of a great national debate, as Bruce suggests, but - as with climate change - Australians tend to think more about themselves and their own comforts than they do of their kids' future in the dangerous, resource-depleted world we are moving into.

NSW inc. is a PYRAMID or PONZI or Aeroplane scheme.

Its all about Sydney as the shining glorious pinnacle of that pyramid.

Everything 'dollars' in this state is now designed to TRICKLE UP to Macquarie Street and its vested partners.

Those at the base of the pyramid like country bumpkins can best facilitate the trickle up process by dying intestate thereby serving the PONZI cartels rather than costing us a packet in wasteful social and infrastructure services.

Further, to facilitate our TRICKLE UP strategy we are raising state taxes, voting for GST of 25% and applying a HECS style fee of $300,000 to new immigrants entering the glorious Sydney Basin.
As entry to Sydney is a rise in social status similar to that of a university degree immigrants should not be stingy about paying for the infrastructure burden they create in a HECS style payment schedule.

The Gods of the NSW right AND Left have spoken. Now citizens must do their bit to make the top of OUR pyramid heavy with wealth and the bottom buried and thus cost-neutral.

Zeich Heil!

Barry O'Greiner-Farrell
Supreme PONZI poobah
Sydney PYRAMID Company

I wanna make a POnzi scheme
Just like Barry OFarrell
I wanna BUild a Ponzi city like Sydney
Paid for by NSW
I wanna make butt-lickin' migrants castles
And treat all nsw citizens
To big fat TAX, fish&Chip shop air and diseas-ed desal water
Just like dirty rascals.
Da Dah Da dah dah dah!

Okay, I'll point out the problems. This article has been written by someone who knows so little about the subject, or hates it so much that wants to hit it with whatever stick he can find, that he repeats statistics that are obviously wrong.

For example: "Paul Cleary says that in Queensland three projects alone will consume 20,000 square kilometers of productive land. Again in Queensland 30 million tones of salt will be produced over three decades from CSG projects employing fracking."

20,000 square kilometres?? Pull the other one. What's probably happened is that the author has drawn a box around three projects on the map and assumed that everything inside the box will be affected. It will not. The author may also want to comment on the lengthy and tortuous approvals process now required for mining projects, including social impact statements now all but mandatory in Queensland at least, and how that affects the sector's interaction with the communities concerned.

Oh yes, and 30 million tonnes of salt from fracking? Really. Just how does that work? If it is somehow removing salt from the aquifers (brackish water in aquifers - I suppose so, but does anyone know if that happens?) then wouldn't that be a good thing?

Maybe aspects of the article could be recast to make sense.

Low flying aircraft are "offensive" now? Get. A. Grip. Dangerous? Millions of kilometres of such survey flights have been undertaken in Australia alone, in terrain much more challenging than that around Mudgee. A recent accent in Borneo is the exception that proves the rule. They are utterly routine. There is no evidence whatsoever of any resulting ill effects on livestock or anything else.