In January 2022, the Australia Institute reported that:

… the liquefied natural gas (LNG) is big business in Western Australia. In 2019–20, 47 million tonnes were sold generating sales revenue of $27 billion for multinational corporations like Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and Woodside.

… However, returns to WA and Australia as a whole are minimal. Two thirds of the gas exported from WA is effectively given away with almost no return at all to Australian citizens (who own the resource).

… The LNG industry employs very few people in Western Australia, less than one per cent of the state’s workforce.

In response, Ms Claire Wilkinson, director of the WA division of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, was quoted in The Guardian as saying: ‘Western Australians know that natural gas creates local jobs and is essential to our community, no matter what this east coast outfit [the Australia Institute] suggests.’