Show us your social licence

What they don't have is what Mr Jones said they don't have – a social license to do what they have legislative approval to do.

Now this is a very tricky calculus. A legislative license is unambiguous. A social license however does not exist in reality.

It is not like a political license. A political license is the granting of the power of governance to a party or parties that hold a majority of votes after an election.

A political license exists and operates in society at the conclusion of a ritual performance that includes a combination of an elector's vote, a ballot paper, candidates for election and the formation of government.

Mr Jones was arguing the gas companies don't have a license that doesn't exist. Tricky.

Gas companies are being told by activist groups to suck up to 'communities' that the activist groups control through powerfully persuasive discourse and rhetoric.

They are being told to come up with a strategy for engagement that may be approved by 'communities' when in reality activist groups have no intention of allowing communities to negotiate or engage.

Very few communities have the necessary information about CSG to make informed decisions. News media too are poorly informed. If media people say it is 'out of control', who counters this claim? The gas companies? Governments? The NSW government is hiding behind the report from the chief scientist.

So how do companies with serious ethical intent go about persuading communities that they are socially acceptable?

Like Bigfoot and Martians there is a body of theory about social license. Maria Doriaof Doria, Jacobina e Gondinho Advogadosdescribes it as relating to the transparency and proactivity of a company towards local stakeholders and society in general, with the aim of increasing stakeholder participation in company decisions.

She says it is about identifying local stakeholders and any negative impact that a company's operations may have on a community so that mitigating measures can be promoted while engagement with the community is fostered.

Here we see shades of the earlier populist catchphrase 'corporate social responsibility' where the emphasis was on the organisation seeking the license to do the hard yards. There was no 'community' input.