LIKE many others in the Tamworth electorate, I watched Q & A (ABC TV) on Monday night with much interest because of its relevance to our prime agricultural areas under threat from coal mining and coal seam gas extraction.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Most damning were the statements made by Senator Fiona Nash in relation to The Nationals’ supposed action on coal mining and coal seam gas.
Senator Nash claimed The Nationals had been working on these threats to farmers for years.
All hollow words, of course, as Liverpool Plains farmers know that when BHP first appeared at Caroona and barricades appeared, The Nationals were not to be seen offering support to the people they claimed to represent. Greens and independents, but no Nationals.
Same again for the Shenhua Project at Breeza.
If The Nationals truly represented the rural community, they should have led the affected farmers, marched on Macquarie St and demanded that both the BHP and Shenhua licences be revoked and the whole process wound back.
Instead, they have contributed to years of heartbreak and misery for many farming families and rural communities.
But not a National Party member appeared to support the Liverpool Plains in a true sense, just hollow words uttered from a very safe distance, in close company with their Liberal minders.
Senator Nash relayed how the current NSW government has cancelled licences and is seen to be taking action. Hollow words indeed, as most of these operators are small opportunists set up as shelf companies – not major players like BHP and Shenhua.
If Nationals truly had merit they would push for removal of BHP, Shenhua and any others from the great black soil plains of NSW.
Senator Nash, when spruiking up The Nationals, neglected to add how Nationals senators vacated the senate chamber when the bill was presented to protect prime agricultural land (including the LiverpoolPlains) from the ravages of mining.
This was their great opportunity to protect Australia’s prime 9 per cent of agricultural land, but they blew it and it shows that they can’t be trusted to stand up on behalf of rural people.
In horse vernacular, they are a show pony operation and not an honest work horse making positive rural changes step by step.
And the NSW Nationals are merely a reflection of their federal counterparts, not to be counted on and not to be trusted to be there to deliver true representation for the electorate.
Jim Guider
Wallabadah
