But he acknowledges there is a lot of anxiety about its social, environmental and health impacts.

In Lismore last week for the first in a series of public hearings into the CSG industry in NSW, Mr MacDonald said the mood the panel encountered was ‘overwhelmingly negative’.

“There’s no question about that - we heard from 20-odd people and only about two were sympathetic,” he said.

However, he believes arriving at a balanced outcome will require considering everybody’s interests and focusing on the facts and the science.

“We’ve got parliamentary hearings ahead of us with people from the likes of the CSIRO and the national water commission - some of those more technical people we haven’t heard from yet,” he said.

“We’ve had the first bit of the community reaction, which as I say is a lot of anxiety, but we haven’t had the evidence from the scientists.

He welcomed the formation of the Armidale Action on Coal Seam Gas group, but hoped they would canvass a broad spectrum of opinions and not just function as an anti-CSG forum.

“We can either say no, absolutely no more minerals or gas or whatever, and we pay the consequences in terms of a lower standard of living, energy security, revenue for the state and all its services, or we can say yes, we need that sort of economic activity but we need to regulate it appropriately,” Mr MacDonald said.

In his opinion, the current moratorium on fracking should be extended until after the inquiry tables its report in March or April next year.