Richard Denniss - More Fool Me

Name: Richard Denniss - More Fool Me
Start: 2026-08-24T18:00:00+10:00
End: 2026-08-24T18:00:00+10:00
Location: Upstairs at Gleebooks

About

6pm for 6.30pm Monday 24 August

The global gas industry has pulled off the greatest con in Australia’s history, and we’re living with the consequences. Australia is one of the richest countries in the world, but we have been made to feel so poor that we no longer even expect the high quality, freely available public schools and hospitals we used to have. But while we are told we can’t afford to have good services, Australian governments give away billions of dollars worth of gas, for free, to multinational companies every year.

When the price of oil surges, Saudis feel rich. When the price of gas surges, Qataris and Norwegians feel rich. But in Australia when the price of gas surges around the world we are told we must tighten our belts to cope with surging electricity prices.

Successive governments have given away our gas to foreign companies for free and excused them from paying tax – and then asked us to say thank you when companies choose to do business in Australia.

In this essay Richard Denniss pulls back the curtain to show how the gas companies performed a long con in Australia and spells out the simple steps we need to take to fix it.

Dr Richard Denniss is an economist, Executive Director of The Australia Institute, author and public policy commentator, and has spent the last twenty years moving between policy-focused roles in academia, federal politics and think-tanks. He is a regular contributor to The Monthly and the author of several books.

Charlie Lanchester is Chief Investment Officer, Hearts & Minds Investments. Charlie has 29 years of industry experience working as a fund manager, including 14 years at Perpetual Investments. Charlie is also a Director of SurfAid, a not-for-profit charity committed to improving the health, wellbeing and resilience of families living in isolated regions connected to us through surfing. SurfAid operates in the remote areas of Indonesia, the Solomon Islands and Baja Sur, Mexico.