During the forum on Wednesday afternoon, Natural Resources Minister Anthony Lynham said he envisaged gas-fired power stations to do the heavy lifting in Queensland going forward, even as the state heads towards its 50 per cent renewable energy 2030 target.

Quilpie Shire mayor Stuart Mackenzie, from a region with a significant coal seam gas industry, told Dr Lynham he feared gas was being left out of the energy conversation as renewables became more and more politically important.

"Gas seems to be off the agenda and has been lumped in as a fossil fuel with coal and, especially from an environmental point of view, it's not really talked about, especially when you're talking about future power generation," Cr Mackenzie said.

"We moved a motion (in council) to advocate on behalf of our gas industry and do a bit of positive promotion and see it as an industry for the future."

Dr Lynham said gas-fired power provided the "perfect co-existence model" alongside renewable energy sources, such as solar, hydro and wind.

"If nature gives up, we've got to have something to switch on and gas is the ideal power source to do that," he said.

"I just wish the other states would put their hands up and help a little bit, because it's us and South Australia, essentially, and the north-west shelf.

"…Gas is, no doubt, the fuel of the future and I laugh sometimes that when the gas industry first started up in Queensland, some of the conservation groups were promoting it as a clean, green fuel.

"Now, it's the devil. It's the devil reincarnated."

Coal seam gas has some under sustained fire from environmental groups for years.

There were claims earlier this year – denied by Origin Energy – that CSG mining had caused methane to leak into local waterways, to the extent that the water surface could be set alight.

Dr Lynham said the drift away from coal-powered electricity had already started, well before the state government had set its 50 per cent renewable target.

"The cost of refurbing some of our old coal-fired generators is just prohibitive, so you just don't do it," he said.

"You swap it with a gas-fired generator, which is much more productive, much cheaper and has much less greenhouse gas emitted.

"Gas-fired generators have the advantage – and you can hear South Australia wishing for more gas-fired generators – because you can switch them on and off really quickly, unlike coal, which you've got to ramp up and keep burning all the time."

Dr Lynham also said there was a need for the increasing diversification of the Queensland economy, something that has become somewhat of a mantra for the Resources Minister.

He said the downturn in the resources sector showed how critical it was for regions to not depend on single industries, which were subject to at times significant market fluctuations.

Dr Lynham said the Palaszczuk government's legislation banning 100 per cent fly-in, fly-out workforces would also help protect resources communities.

"Nothing hit home more than meeting the ladies of Blackwater, who came to me when their hairdresser left town," Dr Lynham said.

"You could see the pain of such a significant thing – a hairdresser moving out of a community – to be such an illustration of how a community was starting to fall and strong they were of trying to get families back into their communities."

Isaac Regional Council mayor Anne Baker, who chaired Wednesday's forum, said the legislation was needed.

"We've all been doing it very tough in the past few years," she said.

South Burnett mayor Keith Campbell pushed Dr Lynham on the "challenge of renewable energy to existing coal mines and power stations" and what would happen to the 600-odd jobs in his region.

Dr Lynham said the community should be prepared to eventually lose those jobs, but he said he was confident there would be enough new opportunities in the region to make up for it.

"Some of the industries of the past are industries of the past," he said.

"We don't have steam trains anymore, we have to move on and that's where the diversification of our economy is so important.

"…The future's bright with or without Tarong."

But Dr Lynham said the government were "no fools" and would tread carefully as it moved away from coal-fired power.

"We know that to get to 50 per cent renewable power by 2030, we have to take the people of Queensland with us," he said.

"We know that we have to do this in a fashion that we have no blackouts, so no-one notices, no-one's seen it in a power bill."

Dr Lynham told the regional councillors and mayors he was getting "absolutely slaughtered" in his Stafford electorate over his Adani coal mine approval.

"We're not just focused on inner-city Brisbane seats, of which I am one, because if I was, I wouldn't have made the Galilee Basin announcement," he said.

"So we're here for you; we want to grow jobs in regional Queensland."

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