Recommendations accepted by the Palaszczuk Government in response to the QLD Gasfield Commission’s subsidence report fail to do anything to prevent the serious damage the coal seam gas industry is inflicting across some of the state’s best farmland.
The government yesterday released its response to the QLD Gasfield Commission's coal seam gas-induced subsidence review, and said it would accept six recommendations in full, and two in principle.
LTGA National Coordinator Ellen Roberts criticised the Palaszczuk Government for continuing to peddle the myth of “coexistence”, and said the recommendations would not stop the gas industry from putting more of the state’s best farmland out of production.
“This report is basically the Palaszczuk Government telling farmers that gas is going to make their land sink, and farmers have no choice but to put up with it and seek a resolution after the fact. That’s not coexistence by any stretch of the imagination," she said.
“These gasfields are on some of the best cropping country in Australia. This is land the government should be protecting at all costs. Instead it is giving the gas industry free rein to continue drilling, thereby causing this farmland to sink.
“Subsidence reduces crop yields and impacts water flow, and is a very serious issue for Queensland’s farmers. These recommendations simply do not go far enough.
“Rather than giving the gas industry the go ahead to continue laying waste to the Darling and Western Downs, the Palaszczuk Government should say enough is enough and ban any further expansion of this insidious industry. At a bare minimum, farmland classified as priority agricultural land and strategic cropping land under the Regional Planning Interests Act must be off limits to new CSG drilling, and the Palaszczuk Government must reject Arrow Energy’s two current applications (RIDAs) to drill this best of the best farmland.”
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