NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is being urged to halt Shenhua’s Watermark coal mine and protect the Liverpool Plains from mining, following an open letter from former agronomists and soil scientists, including several who worked for the Government.
Lock the Gate Alliance spokesperson Phil Laird said: “Premier Berejiklian needs to act before it’s too late and cancel that coal licence."
Eight agricultural experts, including former Government agricultural scientists, have written to the Premier saying that the agreement the Government reached last month with Shenhua to renew its coal exploration licence, paving the way for the mine to proceed, puts at risk “the future of one of the major contributors to food and fibre security”.
Mr Laird said: “All the excuses about mining on the ridges not affecting the farmland below are absurd, as these experts make clear. The landscape doesn’t work like that. Underground water doesn’t work like that.
“Premier Berejiklian must stop this mine and cancel this coal licence. She must end the uncertainty that the farmers of the Liverpool Plains have been living with for nearly ten years and make this outstanding area off-limits to coal and gas mining forever.”