The whole point is, you cant set the rules of the game, then shift the goal posts midstream, which is exactly what the government is now trying to do. Future multi billion dollar investments in Australia will be effected by not only this policy, but the mining tax as companies will be very wary of what incompitent governments are capable of in this country, especially when they have their backs to the wall, as is the case now.

First ir was the mining tax, then the gas retention backflip, then the bankers tax grab.

The reality is in the past decade we have gone from money in the bank to zero debt, to a position where a 'trillion dollars' of debt is in the sights, so one has to wonder where the next proposed money grab is going to come from, from governments who are blind sided as to where the real problems are. Immigration, welfare etc.

Don't Worry. I worked last year with a geological engineer who had recently left Halliburton. He had been in the fracking industry for some 15 years with that company.

His predictions were that within 50 years - at the current rate of fracking well drilling, the Earth's water underground aquifers/supplies would be undrinkable. That within 150 years the Earth will be uninhabitable if we keep going at current rates and current technologies.

Something to look forward to ?

Ar Albie Manton in Darwin, the old never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Are you aware that the CSG deposits sit below the second body of water, not the first where our underground water comes from.

G’day Butch, below info on CSG “fracking” & The Great Artesian Basin.

http://www.appea.com.au/tech-drill/a-deep-look-at-oil-and-gas-wells/

http://www.aplng.com.au/topics/coal-seam-gas.html

http://www.naturalcsg.com.au/industry-operations/drilling-well-construction/

Info on the GAB.

http://www.gabpg.org.au/great-artesian-basin

http://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/4466/source-of-water-for-the-great-artesian-basin-in-australia

And the obligatory Wiki reference at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Artesian_Basin

Seems the ‘frackers’ are down around the same depths as the Basin, but as the bloke I worked with indicated, the issue of ‘bleeding’ through various strata is not often considered. As the porosity, and other characteristics of rocks under pressure changes in any given scenario. That it has even a remote possibility of polluting a water source should be of concern.