"The decision of the Western Australian Government to open part of the State to fracking is well balanced," Australian Industry Group Western Australia State Manager Kristian Stratton said today.
"WA will benefit from the move to partially lift the fracking moratorium while imposing strong conditions to ensure safe development. The two constants in the long-running debate over fracking in Australia are that the community is always concerned about risk; and independent reviews always find that the risks of fracking are manageable with good engineering and effective regulation.
"The WA Government is to be commended for striking a balance that will enable well-run gas development to proceed while protecting basic community interests in clean water and productive farmland," Mr Stratton said.
Ai Group Chief Executive Innes Willox added: "WA, along with the Northern Territory, can now provide a model of regulation and responsible development from which New South Wales and Victoria should learn. Blanket bans are a blunt and costly tool.
"Some of the concern about fracking relates not to local impact but to greenhouse gas emissions in production or use of gas. Emissions will need to come down efficiently across the economy if Australia is to achieve its full Paris commitments. Australia needs efficient, effective, durable and scalable national emissions policies. In their absence, moratoria become a costly proxy. We can and should do better," Mr Willox said.
