No one has mentioned that Woodside has not scrapped mining for gas, it is now to build an offshore processing plant instead of the land based site and use a whole new technology. That means the local environment is saved by scrapping the onshore development.

Josephus have you ever been in the area? If so how on earth could you say anything had been saved? There is so much of that garbage coast that a few hundreds of square kilometers would be no loss to anybody.

What it means is that a few ratbag greenies, & some rapacious aboriginals have cost the country heaps. Off shore processing will mean no jobs, no infrastructure & no availability of gas for local use.

The Kimberley is as big as Victoria - surely there is space in that quarter of a million sq. km. to build such a plant ?

Slightly off-topic, but relevant to writing off sections of our economy and society, Wayne Swan said on the weekend,

" .... sustained disadvantage all too easily follows a student after school, which is illustrated by the fact that only 17 per cent of new higher education students in 2011 were from the lowest socioeconomic quartile – and only 1.1 per cent were Indigenous.

"Now of course, not everyone wants a higher education experience, and this isn't the only measure of success, but nobody should be denied the opportunity on the basis of their social or economic background."

Apart from the dishonesty of that figure for Indigenous uni students - 1.1% of ALL students, yes, but 1.6 % of Australian students - I was struck by that 'not everyone wants a higher education experience, etc... "

especially as it may apply to Indigenous students - on the face of it, yes, it may be correct, but in my experience, precisely that rationale has been used to discourage Indigenous people from attempting higher education.

It usually translates to mean, "I think that hardly any Indigenous students really can benefit from higher education, they should know their place which is TAFE, unskilled work and lifelong welfare."

Not that that racist philosophy is working - Indigenous enrolments have been hitting new records every year since 2005 and are now about 60 % above 2005 levels, and climbing. The equivalent of about 35-40 % of a young Indigenous adult-age-group is commencing study for the first time each year now.

In fact, the relative proportion of commencements is useful as a rough measure of the aspirations of the growing Indigenous middle-class. A higher proportion of Indigenous women commence uni study than non-Indigenous Australian men.

The horse has bolted, the gates are wide open. Indigenous people are achieving in spite of so many of their 'leaders'.

Joe

rehctub..............time to revert rehctub gnals to cause some confusion

Lexi,

While most of what you say is correct, that was not the point that Butch or GY were making. The comment by Juliar that "mining is only one of the many diverse sectors we have" is the problem.

The last 12 months have seen a noticeable drop off in mining investment, whilst the rest of the economy has been shedding investment since 2008.

That graph that was linked is frightening if mining cuts back.
In effect we would not have anything, just taking others washing.

The jobs will go because the floating CNG plants will have Phillipino
or Indian crews, they certainly won't have Australian crews because
the ships will be registered elsewhere.