THE Liverpool Plains are about 1600km from Tasmania, but independent senator Jacqui Lambie said voters back home would expect nothing less than for her to fight for the farmland in this state.
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Senator Lambie flew in to take part in a convoy of 40 tractors, backed up by about 100 locals, yesterday near Gunnedah in a protest against the proposed Shenhua Watermark coal mine on the Liverpool Plains.
“It’s all about protecting our farmers and our prime agricultural land, and I don’t care where in Australia it is,” she said yesterday, just before hopping up in the cab of a tractor and joining the rally.
The protest was organised by Liverpool Plains Youth members Maddy Coleman and Sarah Hubbard to show their opposition to the open-cut mine adjoining the farmland.
They gathered on Pullaming Rd just off the Kamilaroi Highway and rumbled to Breeza Hall for a barbecue and music.
It saw about $6 million worth of high-powered machinery muscle on the back road to Breeza.
When Senator Lambie was asked what other important business in her constituency she’d had to forgo to be there, she said nothing was more important – and that fighting for the Liverpool Plains was fighting for agriculture across Australia.
“It’s the tip of the iceberg – if we don’t fight against this coal mine starting up here, then where else are they going to attack our prime ag land?” Ms Lambie said.
“That’s basically what it is, an attack on our food resources.
“I think Tasmanians would be expecting me to make sure that our prime agricultural land stays in place.
“Tasmanians would want me here, because they wouldn’t want me risking our food security.”
Senator Lambie said if the mine went ahead adjacent to the Liverpool Plains, “then it’s open slather – it’s time to stop it in its tracks”.
Ms Hubbard said it was a shame the convoy could not take its originally planned route along the highway from Gunnedah to Breeza, due to police and roads authority red tape.
However, she said she was thrilled with the turnout of about 100 people in all their machinery.
“Obviously tractors are very symbolic of what we do (for a living), so we thought this was a fun, entertaining way of getting our message across: that this is the wrong mine in the wrong place," Ms Hubbard said.