Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A new age is dawning in Gladstone with the first shipments of coal seam gases, called CSG, to the Asian markets sometime in December. It is a date that we are all looking forward to. It is the culmination of a lot of work put in in the Deputy Speaker's area, in Chinchilla and Roma and that area. I am pleased to report that 500 kilometres of pipelines into Gladstone—there are three main pipelines coming into the Gladstone Harbour—are all completed. Of course, there will be a network of pipelines out in the west and into the north of Gladstone, especially with Shell Arrow doing exploration work—and it would appear that they have a lot of gas in the Moranbah northern area of the Bowen Basin. QCLNG will be the first cab off the rank when it comes to the first shipment, but this will be quickly followed by the other two gas companies, APLNG and GLNG. They will be going in the first quarter of 2015.

It has been a wonderful project, really, with a lot of jobs on offer not only in Gladstone but out in the western towns of Chinchilla, Roma et cetera. These have been very highly paid jobs. There were issues. We had a few issues with farmers' rights and also the Gladstone Harbour, but I am pleased to say here today that all those issues have been resolved and 99 per cent of the people—whether it be farmers, property owners where the pipelines came through or the small business which benefit from it—are all very happy. The Australian economy will be very happy once the shipments go out by Christmas time, and we will start seeing some return for the money.

What I mean by 'return for the money' is that there are $65 billion worth of gas plants on Curtis Island. There are three plants; they all went over $20 billion. It has come out of the ground—$65 billion. It is really a fantastic effort by all those concerned. Bechtel were the contractor for the three plants in Gladstone. It was Bechtel's biggest project in the world, and they are the biggest contractors in the world. Their biggest project was Gladstone, which I am very proud of. Quite often the Bechtel board go to where their biggest project is. We have had the Bechtel board in Gladstone on at least three occasions. It has been a fantastic achievement for all concerned. I must report that the Gladstone harbour has probably never been better. It is really thriving. The dolphins and the fish are all coming back and everything is fine.