The council was established by the Council of Australian Governments in June and was ostensibly designed to provide a coherent Commonwealth/State Ministerial oversight of the development of a national energy strategy.
The announcement of the council and a national energy policy review was seen as a launching pad for a switch from coal to natural gas as Australia's major energy fuel. However, the planned first meeting was abandoned due to bickering between State and Federal Governments.
The new resources Minister, Mr Ian MacFarlane, said the first council meeting would be purely "procedural", with the aim being for parties to get to know one another better.
One lobby group with a keen interest in the talks would be Australia's pipeline industry, which is arguing for better tax treatment. Its main beef is the Tax Office's deferred plan to introduce a 50-year effective life for gas transmission pipelines for tax depreciation purposes.
