In writing about the controversy over a number of Green peak bodies’ intention to test the limits of development approval for mining and coal seam gas projects the other day, I suggested that what we were seeing was the politics of the future. The first act in that drama is being played out now. While media narratives counterpose ‘jobs’ and ‘the economy’ to concerns about climate change, land use and sustainability, the true contest is deeper. It’s an existential one about the very purpose of an economy – is it to serve the people or will the people serve the dollar?
Does it profit us to ride the back of the mining boom when our world, and our liveworlds are perceived to be at risk?
Writing in The Australian today, Paul Kelly argues that Labor has always had a problem with the mining industry. In that, he’s right, but it’s significant that he does not really examine the presuppositions of the case he lauds made by former Treasury economist Ed Shann and others. The dominant narrative now in the halls of power is that it doesn’t matter if manufacturing, tourism, and other industries suffer through the distortion of investment driven by the mining boom.
Coal Seam Gas Behind the Seams
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