Exploration licences - Striking the right balance on oil and gas

EVEN in the best of times, the prospect of discovering a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow can excite and distract.

It may even cloud the judgement of normally rational and sober people. In desperate times, it can be far more divisive and fraught.

The debate about how we might utilise the 6.5 billion barrels of oil and 20 trillion cubic feet of gas the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources estimates lie off our western seaboard has been animated and sometimes worrying.