Gasfields Commission Queensland, which works to improve relations between gas companies and farmers, also declared plane flights and private dinners

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Gas companies and lobbyists treated senior figures from the Queensland industry regulator to tickets to the Australian ballet, corporate boxes at football games and cocktail parties as part of thousands of dollars in hospitality.



Staff from the Gasfields Commission Queensland, which was set up in 2013 to improve relations between gas companies and rural landholders that remain fractious, have also declared field trips, plane flights and private dinners paid for by the industry, documents show.

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Treatment of farmers by gas companies looking to access their land, which remains a divisive matter in the Australian state most affected by coal seam gas developments, has emerged as a national political issue in the wake of the suicide by activist farmer George Bender.

The commission, a statutory body set up by Campbell Newman’s former government, is responsible for “facilitating better relationships between landholders, regional communities and the onshore gas industry”, according to its website.

However, it has no legal power to rule on disputes between farmers and gas companies.

The commission’s gift register details contact between companies and senior staff including corporate boxes for the Bledisloe Cup rugby, the State of Origin rugby league and Brisbane Lions AFL games.

In May, Queensland Gas Company (QGC) paid $249 for commissioner Ian Hayllor to attend an Australian ballet performance of Coppélia, as well as his overnight accommodation.

The commission’s register states: “Attending this event allowed commissioner Hayllor to discuss commission progress, and to build and strengthen relationships with QGC executives and other key industry stakeholders who were in attendance at the event.”

Hayllor and the commission chair, John Cotter, who is paid $334,000 a year, both attended the Arrow Energy corporate box at a Broncos and Sydney Roosters game on Saturday 10 April, with tickets worth $300 each.

The register provides the same explanation as to why the pair attended the football, as when Hayllor attended the ballet.

In two years, staff at the $2.5m a year commission have declared corporate hospitality and gifts from the gas industry worth a total of $14,260.

The commission’s general manager, Ben Deverson, attended a $230 per head Melbourne cup function last November at Brisbane’s Doomben Racecourse with gas industry recruitment company Hays. This was to “network and discuss the commission’s activities with consultants from Hays, onshore gas industry representatives and other Hays clients”.

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Deverson also received a $50 wallet from QGC in June. The register states that accepting this gift “builds goodwill”.

A “Mr Ingram” passed on QGC’s “thanks and acknowledgement in achieving their significant milestone of delivering first LNG from coal seams in Queensland”, it said, without giving any more details about the person.

“QGC expressed their appreciation to the commission for their hard work in promoting and managing sustainable coexistence during the journey.”

In March 2014, QGC paid $700 for commissioner Rick Wilkinson to fly to Chinchilla for one of the commission’s own “community engagement” activities.

“This benefit enabled the commission to transport a Commissioner (Commissioner Wilkinson) in a more cost/time effective manner,” the register says.

Wilkinsonholds the role of chief technical officer at gas and oil lobby group, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (Appea).

The Gasfield commission’s functions include “reviewing the effectiveness of government entities in implementing regulatory frameworks that relate to the onshore gas industry”.

It is also responsible for “making recommendations to the relevant minister that regulatory frameworks and legislation relating to the onshore gas industry be reviewed or amended”.

Anti-coal activist John Gordon from Stop Brisbane Coal Trains accused the commission of being “no more than a coal seam gas lobby group masquerading as an arm of the Queensland government”.

“It has presided over what could only be described as the most reckless and indiscriminate rollout of a dangerous and illegitimate industry in the history of Australia, that of unconventional [onshore] gas,” he said.

Comment has been sought from the commission.

It is understood the federal Coalition is developing a political consensus that mining companies should allow farmers to “lock the gate”. However, the relevant laws remain in the hands of state and territory governments.



Asked if there were any plans to amend laws to enable landholders refuse gas company access, a spokeswoman for the Queensland resources minister, Anthony Lynham, said the “coexistence” of miners and farmers for “more than a century [has been] underpinned by laws that balance their interests and the community’s”.

“These laws require resource companies to negotiate access in good faith with landholders and when negotiations stall, parties have access to mediation and the independent land court,” she said.

However, the spokeswoman said the government planned to strengthen protections for landholders by forcing companies for the first time to measure their impacts on local water sources.

“The proposed changes will extend, across the full mining sector, requiring resource companies to assess and manage groundwater impacts, and particularly, by statute, to ‘make good’ any impact on groundwater resources, including springs and water supply bores,” she said.