Tax and gas the future, says Crean

Simon Crean speaking in Lismore on Tuesday.

The federal Minister for Regional Development Simon Crean believes coal seam gas should be part of Australia's clean energy future.

"I think it is (a part of the future). Coal seam gas has a lower carbon footprint than coal," he said.

But he expressed concerns over the extraction processes and said the federal government had a role to play in regulating the industry through the Environmental Protection Act.

The Minister was in Lismore on Tuesday morning to address a crowd of industry and community leaders and to spruik the benefits of the government's 70 carbon tax package.

The focus of Mr Crean's speech was the need for Australia to transform a "low carbon economy" and to talk up opportunities that would emerge for regional Australia and the need to diversify the economic base of regions.

"A community that relies on one industry is always in trouble," he said.

Mr Crean made numerous comparisons to the economic reforms of the Hawke/Keating government in the early 1980's such as deregulating the financial sector and floating the dollar, as well as introducing compulsory superannuation and Medicare.

"They were unpopular decisions at the time, but nobody would consider reversing those reforms today," he said.

Mr Crean said the Hawke/Keating reforms had transformed the economy and set Australia up for future prosperity and were "the envy of the rest of the world in term of social policy".

"We saw the opportunities, not the threats and we are positioned as we are today because of it," he said.

In relation to reducing carbon emissions, he said both major parties were committed to a goal of reducing emissions by 5% by 2020 (although the Coalition's target is slightly more ambitious in that it is 5% below 1990 levels, whereas Labor's goal is 5% below 2000 levels), and the difference between the two parties is how they plan to achieve the goal.

Not surprisingly Mr Crean was scathing of Tony Abbot's "direct action" approach, saying it would involve planting trees in an area four times the size of Tasmania.

"A carbon price will change people's behaviour and reward good behaviour," he said.

Mr Crean said Australia's challenge was to "build skills while managing a boom economy", acknowledging that there was a "patchwork economy" with mining experiencing record profits while other sectors struggled.

Mr Crean talked about many of the funding initiatives announced in the carbon tax package such as the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation (or Green Bank), that would fund clean energy projects. He also made particular reference to the carbon farming initiatives whereby landowners could earn income by creating carbon sinks on heir land and trading the credits.

He also took several questions from audience members including Gary Burridge, general manager of the Northern Co-operative Meat Company in Casino who said there was so little detail released in the package that they were left in limbo.

Mr Burridge said they didn't know whether food producers would be included, or who the 500 companies were that would actually pay the carbon tax.