{"id":12017,"date":"2012-09-26T22:41:02","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T12:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=12017"},"modified":"2024-11-09T10:29:09","modified_gmt":"2024-11-09T00:29:09","slug":"government-lowered-the-bar-kccg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2012\/09\/26\/government-lowered-the-bar-kccg\/","title":{"rendered":"Government ‘Lowered The Bar’: KCCG"},"content":{"rendered":"
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KCCG spokesman John Dalton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

September 26, 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kingaroy Concerned Citizens Group spokesman John Dalton<\/strong> said this evening the Queensland Ombudsman’s report into the Cougar Energy UCG approval process “painted an interesting picture”.<\/p>\n

“We always suspected that due process wasn’t carried out and now we’re sure of it,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said the Ombudsman had “laid it bare” and “any government worth its salt will now make sure that this won’t happen again”.<\/p>\n

Mr Dalton said he was particularly concerned with apparent lack of expertise now present in the government departments described in the report.<\/p>\n

“They’re operating out of a real deficit model,” he said.<\/p>\n

He also believed the government had “lowered the bar” for the Cougar Energy project.<\/p>\n

“Because it was novel and new technology, the government lowered the bar rather than raised it,” he said.<\/p>\n

He was pleased that the Ombudsman had commented on the lack of community consultation: “You should never consider no complaints as community approval.”<\/p>\n

Mr Dalton said the Ombudsman’s report made it clear the project should never have occurred in the first place; the\u00a0earlier report by the Independent Scientific Panel had also stated the trial site was not optimal.<\/p>\n

“Because if this, there should be no chance of it ever starting up again,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Dalton said the KCCG believed the State Government should now force Cougar Energy to start decomissioning the plant.<\/p>\n

However he wasn’t confident the government knows what to tell Cougar: “They’ve got no expertise. The industry is wagging the dog in this case.”<\/p>\n

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