The senator visited the site of the Shenhua Watermark coal mine yesterday and said he now understood the future of the Liverpool Plains would greatly affect the future of the entire nation.

“Until you’ve seen this, until you’ve experienced it, until you feel the black dirt under your feet, you can’t understand what a devastating impact this coal mine would have on the farmers who live in this area and the kids who want to continue farming into the future,” Senator Di Natale said.

“This is my first visit to the Liverpool Plains and I’ve been blown away by how beautiful it is, and how productive it is.

“Everything we’ve heard in the Parliament about this mine makes it sound tucked away and separate from the prime agricultural land this area is blessed with, but what I’ve seen here is a whopping great big coal mine to be dug smack bang in the heart of what is one of the nation’s most important agricultural assets.”

The senator travelled with Caroona Coal Action Group chief Tim Duddy and Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham.

He said the farmland was a long-term resource at risk from a short-term moneymaker.

“This is an asset not just for the people who farm this area now, but for the generations of people who will farm it into the future, and we’re potentially selling it out for a quick buck, on the back of an industry that’s dying. It makes no sense,” Senator Di Natale said.

The senator urged Barnaby Joyce to “stop outsourcing his responsibility as a government minister” and to work with the Greens to stop the mine.

He said this fight must become “one of the big battles in the Parliament leading up to the next election”.

“One of the things I hope to do over the next few months is ensure that everyone in Canberra knows the choice we’re faced with: it’s a choice between the past and the future,” he said.

“Coal is an industry of the past.”