Like other countries with both federal and state/provincial/territorial governments (the United States, Germany, etc.), the regulation of any one industry or issue is decentralized. This is true for Australia’s regulation of its natural gas industry. Although the commonwealth government includes a Ministry of Resources and Energy, the state and territorial governments retain a remarkable amount of control over energy projects. For example, a company wishing to prospect for natural gas in the coal bed methane areas in Queensland would deal primarily with the Queensland government, and not the commonwealth government.
Indeed, almost all of the contracts related to natural gas exploration and production are at the local level, and not the national level. That is not to say that the national government is to be ignored, but rather that the independent energy company must pass through at least two levels of bureaucracy in Australia, whereas in more authoritarian, centralized States, there is only one level of bureaucracy. |
