A massive con job !

Magic is the art of deceit !    The magician uses his or her skills to make you believe that an illusion is real.   The magician's art can also make solid objects seem to disappear, take a different shape - or simply vaporise into thin air.

Strangely, politicians seem to have similar skills - and it seems that the public is being prepared for a spectacular magic act.

There have been suggestions that the supply of natural gas to the east coast of Australia is running low.  It is claimed that the gas field in Bass strait is dwindling and that the vast reserves in the Cooper basin are not as great as previously estimated.   It is suggested that - in two or three years time - the supply of natural gas will fall short of demand.

Part of the magicians art is to prepare the audience.  If sleight of hand is to be employed, it is necessary to get the attention of the audience fixed  away from where this will take place.  Could it be that this scare campaign is designed to make us gladly accept a promised reprieve from the horror of unused gas heaters, cold showers and unlit gas stoves ?

And what form could that reprieve take ?     Surely not supplementing that clean piped gas that now runs our gas services - with coal seam gas that will be drawn from the gas wells that will soon dot every square mile of the countryside ?

Cynics will smell a massive con job.    There are problems with coal seam gas and public opinion is firmly against it.   The evidence is  mounting that gas wells poison agricultural land and redirect natural aquifers.  In some instances, wells are so tainted that drinking water is impossible to use and leaking gas poses an explosion threat.

On the other hand, there are great profits to be made from " fracking " the sub layer and extracting gas, and wherever their is profit - there is collusion to disguise the ill effects.

Australia has some of the biggest natural gas reserves in the world.   We are a major supplier of gas to China and India and a massive distribution hub is being built in Western Australia to export this commodity to the world, but expect to be told that we can not tap this supply to service the east coast of this continent.

Russia has built gas pipelines for thousands of miles to get it's gas into most countries in Europe, but it seems that vested interests here have turned their backs on this natural bounty, and instead want to make obscene amounts of money by extracting gas locally, despite the risk this will pose to our agricultural land and way of life.

The magicians have started preparing their spiel.   Wait for the smoke and mirrors to complete the illusion !