Mining conflicts are likely to escalate in Queensland if State and Federal Governments push ahead with plans to remove the rights and protections of communities, water resources, bushland and farmland under the guide of "cutting green and red tape."

Letter to the Editor

The phenomenal growth of the Lock the Gate Alliance with membership of 170 community groups and thousands of individual members is testament to the deep concerns the broad community has regarding land use conflict in NSW and beyond.

The Alliance welcomes recent state government land use policy changes that include residential exclusion zones from CSG and urges the government to protect all the residents of NSW no matter where they live.

The Lock the Gate Alliance has called on coal seam gas company, QGC, to abide by its promise to stay away from the residential estate outside the southern Queensland town of Tara after vehicles belonging to a drilling company, contracted to QGC, injured two local residents today. 

The Lock the Gate Alliance is glad to see the NSW Government moving forward with CSG exclusion zones towns and critical industry clusters, but says the devil is in the detail which hasn't yet been released.

The Alliance has also called on the Premier to deliver on his pre-election promises by allowing the gateway panel to reject projects on prime agricultural land and by extending the exclusion zone to family homes on rural properties.

The NSW Mine Safety Investigation Unit has released a report on a 'high risk incident' at a Metgasco gas well near Casino in July this year, where more than 200m of steel drill pipes shot out of the well at high pressure.  The unconventional tight gas well had been fracked in 2010.