It is hard to see how Coal-Seam Gas (CSG) exploration and extraction could continue unimpeded following the release of the Senate’s Interim report: the impact of mining coal seam gas on the management of the Murray Darling Basin on Thursday 30th November. I have always been concerned like many farmers that vital food production would take a back seat to mining and CSG interests and the royalties that State governments would derive from CSG extraction. In NSW the former ALP government issued exploration licences with gay abandon leaving a huge mess for the current Stoner/O’Farrell government to fix.
I watched the documentary movie Gasland which chronicles the environmental disaster of the reckless extractive processes of CSG in the USA and I reckon it rivals the environmental chemical mess left after the fall of the former German Democratic Republic. Naturally there would be no one in Australia that would want to follow the USA on this one, although I am not convinced our CSG industries are behaving in such an environmentally negligent fashion. We need mining very much, but we need productive food-producing farmland and fresh water more. In our region, landowners had felt intimidated and patronised even betrayed by CSG (specifically Eastern Star Gas) company employees and board members. I know this to be true.
If the Commonwealth government can work constructively with State governments, convince them to adopt the reports’ recommendations then CSG may not be the pariah that in some areas it has become. Coupled with the promise of funds from the proceeds of the Mineral Resource Rent Tax (MRRT), a promise gleaned by the Member for New England to investigate the impact of CSG, I believe many of the concerns raised by farmers in our region will be alleviated.
The Nationals Federal Leader Warren Truss announced on November 7 the adoption of five core principles to guide CSG development:
1) No coal-seam gas development can be granted if it damages aquifers or water quality;
2) Coal-seam gas development must not compromise prime agricultural land. We must protect our ability to deliver food security for our nation and a hungrier world, for generations to come;
3) Coal-seam gas development should not occur close to residential areas. Thos who have a reasonable expectation of the quiet amenity of their home should be able to enjoy it;
4) Payments to landowners should not be limited to compensation, they deserve a proper return on the development of resources that occur on their land; and
5) The regions that deliver much of the wealth from coal-seam gas deserve a fair share of the revenues to be reinvested in their communities.
Nationals Senators Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash have since drafted a 1% deal for farmers that they receive 1% of the value of coal-seam gas extracted from their land. On the face of it, it might appear meagre however if you consider that if one CSG well might extract $1 million worth of CSG per day that would be $10,000 per day and a nice little earner for the farmer, for the mining company and for the Great State of NSW.
Point 5 of the Federal Nationals plan is essentially a policy of Royalties for Regions which had been adopted by the WA Nationals and used in 2008 as a pre-requisite to join a Coalition with the Liberals in Western Australia. In WA there is so much money the communities don’t know how to spend it……so I am told. The NSW Nationals adopted the policy at its 2010 conference held in Tamworth. I believe Royalties for Regions is a marvellous policy which will go far to assuage the anger and justifiable concerns many people have in our region about extractive industries in general and the future of the rural and regional areas where extractive industries are carried out. Royalties for Regions will give back a fair share of money to reinvest in infrastructure and to “future-proof” rural and regional Australia.
So there appears now to be almost universal bi-partisanship on this issue. I’m loath to quote him but elderly lefty and former PM E.G. Whitlam once said “we in Australia must get together and work toward a common goal”. On this issue, I cannot wait to see it.
Mark Rodda,
Tamworth
