POTENTIAL environmental impacts are often at the root of the most vocal opposition to gas and mining development, but there is another issue that has the capacity to cripple communities in the middle of resources booms much quicker: greed.
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Economic gluttony comes in many forms but the one that should give Katherinites pause for thought as hydraulic fracturing looms on the horizon is the one that manifests itself as a tsunami of new businesses – operated by both local and what are essentially fly-in, fly-out operators – that pop up overnight.
I am not suggesting for a second that new enterprises are bad for a community, but there is simply too much empirical and anecdotal evidence to write off such comments as nothing more than anti-development scaremongering.
During his visit to Katherine as part of a fracking forum last week, the Australia Institute’s Mark Ogge warned that “crowding out” could occur in towns across the Territory if the development was viewed as the goose that laid the golden egg.
Historically, an exception amount of money has flowed into towns during the construction phase of projects in south-west Queensland, some of which has played a role in developing neglected infrastructure and breathing life into new businesses.
The problem is, there are enough sob stories around to add credence to the argument that communities like Katherine need to be extremely careful.
After growing up in Roma – the heart of Queensland’s resource-rich Surat Basin – I have witnessed first-hand how easy it is for communities to get sucked into approaching development as a get-rich-quick scheme.
Some tradespeople get three-figure salaries waved in front of them as contractors, quickly adjust to the big-spending lifestyle and then struggle to make ends meet when the jobs dry up.
Some businesses invest heavily to become a viable option for the gas and mining giants, and then capitulate financially when two or three other operations pop up and offer the same products and services for less.
The fallout for those who call the communities home can be catastrophic.
It is something Katherinites and those we have elected to represent us need to consider as we brace ourselves for the boom.