Tensions flare over ag versus mining

The Shadow Agriculture Minister attacked his rival in question time last week, demanding Mr Joyce declare his support for the controversial Shenhua Watermark open cut coal mine located in his New England electorate.

The Labor power-broker asked the Agriculture Minister whether his support for Australian mining jobs only applied to projects in his own backyard.

It was a not-so-subtle reference to Mr Joyce’s backing of the $16.5 billion Adani Carmichael coal mine in Queensland.

Mr Joyce said a process on the Shenhua mine was now before the NSW government but he stressed the federal government had “done everything within our power to make sure that there is proper oversight of environmental issues”.

The Abbott government has also moved to change the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act to stop “radical green activists” engaging in “vigilante litigation” to stop mining projects, like those waged against the Adani project.

In reference to the EPBC Act laws and delays to the Adani mine going ahead, Mr Joyce said the Labor party would “prefer to stand behind a snake and a skink than stand behind the working people of Central Queensland”.

“I think that is an abomination,” he said.

Mr Joyce told Fairfax Media his opposition to the Shenhua mine had been consistent.

But he said Mr Fitzgibbon and the Labor party were using a “trick” to try and suggest he was hypocritical for supporting the Adani project and speaking up about Shenhua.

“That’s like saying, ‘how can you support having a toilet in the bathroom but not one in the living room?’,” he said.

“There are certain places where it’s extremely important to have coal mining and Central Queensland is one such place where Adani is overwhelmingly supported by Central Queenslanders.

“But you can’t support having a mine bang smack in the middle of prime agricultural land, on the best land in Australia, on the Liverpool Plains.”

Mr Joyce said nobody would contemplate having a coal mine located in the middle of the Botanical Gardens in Sydney.

“They’d say that’s an absurd place for a coal mine - but it’s an equally absurd statement to say that ‘because you don’t believe in having a coal mine under the Botanical Gardens in Sydney, you don’t believe in coal mining,” he said.

“I do believe in coal mining but there are certain places for it and certain places where it shouldn’t be done.

“Questions number one, two, three and four are about the process for having the Shenhua mine on the Liverpool Plains which should never have started.

“We’re arguing about it now but it should never have started.

“It’s like a bad boyfriend or a bad girlfriend – the best way to get out of these bad relationships is just don’t start them.”

Mr Joyce said the Shenhua mine was approved by the former NSW Labor government and largely evolved while his electorate was held by former independent MP Tony Windsor who retired ahead of the 2013 election.

“The former member for New England held the so-called balance of power in the last parliament and he always told everyone how incredibly powerful that position was,” he said.

“But when he held that power he didn’t do anything about the Shenhua mine.

“And it was the Labor party in both instances that started the Shenhua mine processes and they still stand by it.

“In fact, it’s even more galling that they’re still standing by the Shenhua process but don’t believe in the Adani mine – it’s just odd.

“And I don’t think you’re going to get any support from Joel Fitzgibbon on stopping the Shenhua mine considering he comes from a seat where he lauds the support he gives to mining.”

Mr Fitzgibbon told Fairfax Media that, as the member for Hunter, he’d been dealing with land use conflicts his entire political life.

“I’ve said consistently and publicly on a number of occasions that coal mining is of critical importance to our economy and jobs but we should never allow extractive industries to proceed at the expense of our sustainable industries,” he said.

“Now that’s the easy part.

“The hard part is determining if and when an extractive industry is a threat to our sustainable industries like agriculture and in respect to that challenge we have to rely on the science.

“The big question on Shenhua is - have we got the science right and can we satisfy in particular that those aquifers won’t be damaged, breached or contaminated as a result of this mine?”

Mr Fitzgibbon said he was happy to accept the advice of the federal government’s independent expert scientific committee which was established in the last parliament by the ALP and Mr Windsor, to evaluate mining approvals and environmental protections like water resources.

He said he’d seen the scientific committee’s advice and some questions remained outstanding about whether aquifers would be adequately protected around the Shenhua mine.

Mr Fitzgibbon said Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt was “now awake” to those concerns and had referred he project’s water plan, back to the scientific committee.

“The scientific committee’s findings were open on a number of questions because they hadn’t seen the water plan,” he said.

“Now there are people in this government, who were prepared, including Minister Hunt it appeared at the time, to approve this mine.

“But it took a robust interview with Alan Jones to force it out and for him to reconsider his position and that hardly installs confidence in peoples’ minds.”

Mr Fitzgibbon also goaded Mr Joyce last week over the National Farmers' Federation questioning the timing of the government's proposed changes to the EPBC Act and whether farming groups were consulted.

But Mr Joyce said under the government’s proposed changes, local agricultural producers and others with legitimate proprietary, economic, financial and other direct interests will not be affected.

He said those groups “can be assured that their voices will be heard and the courts will be available for the protection of their rights”.

“Farming groups can still use their organisation and resources - such as those employed on occasion by the NFF, through their fighting fund - to support individuals affected by decisions,” he said.

Mr Joyce said the people of Central Queensland wanted to know whether skinks and snakes would be placed ahead of working men and women in Australia.

“Do you still stand behind those in high-vis or do you stand behind the 'high-vis' snakes and skinks which we never actually find, we never actually know about, until you go looking for them?” he responded.