Lock The Gate Alliance says there can be no coexistence between coal seam gas companies and landholders on the Darling Downs while farmers are unable to refuse access to companies who want to drill on their properties and the extraction of CSG is causing the state’s best farmland to sink.
The Miles Government passed new laws late last week, creating “Coexistence Queensland”, which replaces Gasfields Commission Queensland, and extends the authority’s jurisdiction to include renewable energy.
However, unlike renewable energy projects, landholders have no legal ability to refuse access to coal seam gas companies who want to drill on their farms.
Lock the Gate Alliance National Coordinator Ellen Roberts said Resources Minister Scott Stewart’s comments praising the state’s land access regulation didn’t match reality.
“Scott Stewart is living in a fantasy land if he thinks there is coexistence between coal seam gas companies and Darling Downs farmers,” she said.
“There is a fundamental difference between renewable energy and coal seam gas: farmers can choose whether to host wind or solar farms. Farmers don’t have a choice about coal seam gas, and have no right to veto coal seam gas developments on their land.
“Landholders have not experienced the QLD Gasfields Commission as independent because it did not assist farmers who did not want gas infrastructure on their properties.
“The reality is that gas companies, with help from the Queensland Government, steamroll the rights of landholders and force them into hosting subsidence-causing gas infrastructure.
“The LNP and Katter’s Australian Party claim to represent the interests of landholders - so they need to uphold the right of farmers to say no to coal seam gas. There can be no coexistence while landholders lack the fundamental right to say no to gas companies.”
ENDS
Background:
In March this year, Cecil Plains farmers declared tens of thousands of hectares “gasfield free” in defiance against Arrow Energy’s plans to expand its Surat Gas Project.