'No fracking way': delegation hits Canberra

The 15-member delegation descended on Parliament House in Canberra this week, holding meetings with 30 ministers and MPs to push their anti-mining views and call for more stringent regulations.

The group was pulled together by the Lock The Gate Alliance and included amongst its members, farmers from Victoria, NSW and SA, an Anglican Minister with environmental concerns from the ACT, an eco-tourism manager from Queensland arrested for anti-CSG protests and traditional land holders from the WA Kimberley region and Gunnedah in NSW.

Their visit coincided with debate in the Senate this week on proposed legislation spearheaded by Green’s mining spokesperson and Queensland Senator Larissa Waters, to give landholders power of veto over mining on their land.

The Bill was defeated after the ALP and Coalition voted against it which Senator Waters said let down the Lock the Gate delegation.

“Right across our country, people are concerned about coal and gas threatening their land, water and climate and disgracefully landholders have no rights to stop the big mining companies from marching on to their land and doing whatever they want,” she said.

“Alarmingly shale gas is taking over Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia and the Greens are the only party standing up for landholders against this dangerous industry.

“The Liberal and National Senators didn’t even bother to participate in the Senate debate, even though rural communities are crying out for landholder rights.”

Lock The Gate Alliance national co-ordinator Phil Laird said while an invitation to meet with Prime Minister Tony Abbott was rejected, the delegation would hold talks with Environment Minister Greg Hunt and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, as well as Coalition, Greens and Labor members.

Mr Laird said the delegates came together from all walks of life throughout the nation to express community concerns with CSG and unconventional gas mining.

“This is not a lunatic fringe,” the north-west NSW farmer said.

“We’re here today to tell people in parliament that the community is concerned and that the community requests that parliament look at their powers, their corporate powers, their customs powers and their export powers – what they can do to regulate these industries.

“It’s only the federal government that doesn’t have the conflict of interest that can properly regulate these industries and we’re here today to tell politicians in Canberra that they need to step up.”

Mr Laird said the group wanted Mr Abbott to back comments he made to Queensland mother Debbie Orr, during a visit to Tara after the federal election, promising to assess health impacts of CSG mining and “that no one should have to live in a gas field” or have a gas well on their property.

“We asked the Prime Minister for a meeting and didn’t get one,” he said.

“We’d like to still have the opportunity to speak with the Prime Minister and put our concerns direct to him and ask him to make good on his commitments.

“We are an alliance of all sorts of people from across Australia and our concern really is beyond politics.

“We are not looking at a solution that’s going to be driven by a Green agenda. We are looking to get mainstream Australia involved – this is a mass movement.

“It’s time for politicians to get rid of party politics and to take on board our concerns.”

Another delegation member - third generation Liverpool Plains farmer James Bishop – said there were no state or federal government policies that provided adequate protection for farmers, from CSG mining.

“If we do not address it, it will be detrimental to this great country,” he said in referring to agriculture’s historic and potential contribution to the national economy.

“There needs to be a formal policy on where the extractive industries, mining and gas, can actually operate and we need to be ensuring that our key agricultural lands are protected.”

Mr Laird said he supported an extension to the Water Trigger Bill passed by federal parliament last year - introduced by former New England Independent Tony Windsor - which strengthened environmental protection measures around CSG and coal mining projects, through scientific guidance.

Mr Windsor’s legislation was designed to bolster science underpinning the Independent Expert Scientific Committee’s rulings on mining approvals, which was furnished with $200 million via the mining tax, to consider impacts on water and agricultural productivity.

Mr Laird said he backed Independent SA Senator Nick Xenophon’s moves to extend Mr Windsor’s Water Trigger Bill to include all hydraulic fracturing or “both shale and tight gas”.

He said there were two key steps to mining approvals - getting the science right and gaining community agreement.

“The Lock The Gate Alliance will support any community that has concerns in this area,” he said.

Traditional indigenous land owner Dolly Talbot from Gunnedah in NSW said she was part of the delegation to represent concerns of her community elders about negative impacts from the Maules Creek coal mine project.

Ms Talbot said Minister Hunt had the power, “with the stroke of a pen” to stop the land destruction and bulldozers that have been “ripping the guts out of our country”.

“You can do that Mr Hunt, so it’s time you stood up and done something about it,” she said.

Ms Talbot said it was about time the government started standing up and doing something about “the destruction of the aboriginal culture”.

She said the mining sites are also Australian with shared history, not just for indigenous Australians.

“It’s about time someone did something and had the guts to stand up and say enough is enough,” she said.