A GOLD-rush approach to mineral resources, like coal seam gas and coal mining, are trampling land-owners’ rights into the self-mulching black soil plains of the North West, a Senate committee sitting in Narrabri heard yesterday.
Six senators, chaired by Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan, had a packed, day-long agenda listening to some remarkable testimony including an allegation, delivered under parliamentary privilege, that explorer Eastern Star Gas had broken the law when it failed to meet its obligations under the federal environment act.
Armidale resident Carmel Flint, representing a diverse coalition of environmental groups including the Wilderness Society, the Nature Conservation Council of NSW and Friends of the Earth, made the allegation under the scrutiny of Senator Heffernan and The Nationals’ senator, Barnaby Joyce.
Ms Flint said the explorer should be prosecuted for its part in the destruction of parts of the Pilliga State Forest around a number of its well pads, including leaking pipelines and saline water spillages that have killed trees and flora.
Moree Plains Shire Council mayor Katrina Humphries and one of her fellow councillors, John Tramby, were among the witnesses and spoke of how the council had had to introduce a moratorium on gas exploration because of the level of stress and concern generated in part by the explorer, Leichardt Resources, acting for Planet Gas, with its access agreements.
She related to the committee how a grown man had recently sat in her office, crying and at the end of his tether and not knowing what he could do to prevent the company from accessing his property.
The Moree council area was one of the richest agricultural production centres in the country, returning farmers an average total cheque of $950 million a year.
“At the end of the day, we have to realise we can’t eat coal or drink (coal seam) gas; we are a prime agricultural production area,” Cr Humphries said.
She said Walgett Shire had joined Moree council in introducing a moratorium on council-owned and leased land, upping the ante to combat the “cowboy actions” of some of the exploration companies.
Senator Joyce expressed concern about the alleged confidential nature of the access agreements circulated to the committee by Cr Humphries and in particular a clause within the agreements stating: “Leichardt Resources will indemnify the landholder for all losses resulting from its activities on the landholder’s land during the duration and as a direct result of its core hole exploration program”.
“The agreement is outrageous,” he said.
Senator Heffernan said the committee aimed to table its report at the end of November and as chairman he planned to hold more inquiries, with the possibility of one in Sydney where coal seam gas exploration was also causing high levels of concern.
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