Quirindi’s Rosemary Nankivell spells out what is happening on the Liverpool Plains.
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I LIVE in a country where mining companies are the government.
Mining and gas companies are free to dictate policy, governments merely enforce and implement those policies.
Our politicians have been proven to be corrupt.
If not corrupt, they have been governing with the knowledge that their colleagues have been engaging in corrupt behaviour. How disappointing they have become.
And how out of touch with we punters who voted for them to represent our interests.
Take for example, the proposed mining and gas projects for the Liverpool Plains.
Mining and gas licences were granted here by now disgraced ex-state government minister Ian McDonald.
This mighty region produces 40 per cent above the national average for cropping. When the rest of Australia is in the grip of drought, the Liverpool Plains clothes and feeds us.
Suddenly our name has been changed. No longer are we the Liverpool Plains. Our new name is the Gunnedah Basin.
We are now seen in terms of tonnes of coal and millions or billions of petajoules of gas.
The great disappointment begins like this:
An exploration licence is granted over your land.
Appalling community consultations are conducted. The mining company tells you in the vaguest terms that they will start drilling.
But exactly where? What plans for the district?
A mining company will tell you of jobs (grossly overestimated) and beads and blankets for your community.
They will never tell of the final outcome – the empty, voided land and the destroyed water resources and landscape.
Many trips through the Hunter Valley give us a glimpse of our future. It should be thought of as our national shame.
Be warned.
The multinational companies and both governments are in for a hell of a shock.
The stakes are too high and we will not fail the next generation.
There is nothing short of a revolution about to occur on the Liverpool Plains.
Postscript: When we are finally victorious I will drive my 4WD into a lovely garden in Mosman, owned by someone on the board of a gas or coal company.
I will peg out an area, call in all my mates and tell them to start drilling. If the owner objects, I will simply call the police.