A rally at Murwillumbah on Saturday, attended by more than 4000 people from the Northern Rivers and South East Queensland, saw the anti-coal seam gas (CSG) alliance, Lock the Gate, call for the O’Farrell Government to tighten its policy on gas exploration and production in environ-mentally sensitive areas like the Northern Rivers.
Drew Hutton, president of Lock the Gate, said that the government has handed over their rights to the gas mining companies.
“The problem has always been that these are huge companies, sometimes giant multi-nationals, and governments are in thrall to these companies.
“They don’t have the facilities, resources or skills themselves to assess the potential impacts of the industry, so they just go along with the industry,
“In QLD we’ve seen them proceed without the proper underground water assessments, and we’re going to see the same thing here in NSW,” Hutton said.
“They (gas mining companies) depended upon the fact that there are no baseline studies out there on water quality, on air quality, to measure how things have changed since they began their activities.
“We are calling for adequate, independent, scientific study, not the gas mining companies telling us how it is.
“We have a biodiversity hot spot up here, we have national parks, agricultural and tourism industries, and eco tourism…why are we going to put them at risk, under a minister who has demonstrated he is not impartial in this and wants to push the gas industry ahead.”
Lock the Gate, Michael McNamara:
“Communities from the Northern Rivers and beyond have joined together at Murwillumbah today in a strong united statement – they demand to be gas field- free. We are thrilled at the numbers who attended and the passion with which they have participated.”
Event organiser, Amanda Shoebridge:
“This is just the beginning of a massive movement of people across the country. Already there are more than 170 Lock the Gate groups in every state and territory and the movement is growing quickly.
“If the Government continues to ignore their constituents, very soon this movement will have the numbers and support to ensure we vote in a government who will listen.”
