You’re not alone if your alarm bells start to go off when the Australian oil industry starts making outrageous claims like:

Further progress in a number of key areas could see Australia’s oil and gas industry potentially drive Australia’s economic recovery.

We provide nine per cent of global supply and if we get the policy settings right we have the potential to grow to 20 per cent.

About 180 million tonnes of global greenhouse gas emissions would be avoided each year.

Governments have the opportunity to put in place a policy framework that will trigger the step-change increase in oil and gas exploration and development activity, a 50 per cent reduction in approval times for projects as a “reasonable objective”.


Yes, Eric Streightberg stops short of promising that further investment into Australia’s oil industry will cure cancer.

Perhaps he should have, I mean if you believe the nonsense above then what’s he got to lose?

The biggest benefit the industry promises however is the annual government revenue to the tune of ten billion dollars. Sure they make it sound all nice by saying 50,000 jobs will be created and “major projects could generate future national income gains in the billions of dollars each year” but lets cut the crap.

What the Australian oil industry isn’t telling you is that every time you fill up your car the government makes wads of money, it’s a more lucrative income generator for them then you paying your taxes, the pokies, cigarettes and even alcohol.

Couple this with some wishy washy projects (read: building permits to build more service stations), the promise of more jobs (read: 50,000 service attendants to staff aforementioned newly built service stations) and yes, the potential is there to generate additional billions in revenue each year.

So what’s the catch?

Well for starters our economy would further be at the mercy of the almighty oil industry and we all know how fickle they can be. Currently the oil industry has been blessed with the craziness going on in Iran, however even without scapegoats the price of oil always seems on the rise for some stupid reason.

I haven’t kept regular tabs in a while, but from memory petrol always rises around here on a Thursday. I mean seriously, what the hell makes Thursday so special? The only significant thing I can think of that happens on a Thursday is that movies are released in cinemas. Surely that’s not the answer.

‘ wut iz this shit? They cancelled the television series to make way for this stupid terminator movie and it’s stupid plot?’

‘yes oh wise sultan’

‘this displeases me greatly. See to it crude jumps $50 a barrel next Thursday. That’ll teach those eediots in hollywood.’

…well you give me a better reason.

Sadly it seems that with or without government support the oil industry is only going to get bigger here in Australia. The Victorian government recently announced it was going to go ahead and facilitate the building of an additional 280,000 homes.

These homes which will be built on the outskirts of nowheresville will be serviced by six train stations in the western suburbs. Too bad if you choose the north or south west areas.

Not to fear though, those areas will be serviced by brand spanking new freeways to add to Melbourne’s already at nightmare levels peak hour traffic.

More roads for more cars for more people trying to get into the CBD, and who also now live further away then ever equals gargantuan profits for the Australian oil industry and a boatload of government tax revenue.

Anyone want to guess who’s behind these latest development proposals?

Six new train stations only in the western suburbs to accommodate 280,000 homes… really? They might as well start printing suburban public transport timetables on the back of stamps or something, it’s not like they need much more room to advertise the one bus that may or may not run monthly.

Australia is already well on it’s way to breaking our Kyoto commitment,

Australia is allowed to increase its emissions by 8 per cent of 1990 levels by 2012.

But Federal Government data shows emissions just keep going up, and they could exceed the Kyoto cap as early as this year.


Even if our emission levels were manageable they certainly won’t be for long if we continue to build non serviced housing estates out in the boondocks.

Forget investment and the government intervention, it seems the Australian oil industry is going to strengthen it’s grip on Australian testicles one way or another and sadly it seems like there’s stuff all anyone can do about it. The government is in cahoots with the oil companies who are in cahoots with the suppliers, regulators and resellers.

Yay for oil!

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