Senator Richard Di Natale met with farmers on a property near Breeza, next to the site of the proposed coal mine, to talk about the how the mine would “compromise the region’s potential as a food bowl for the rest of Australia”.

He said New England MP Barnaby Joyce hadn’t done enough to stop the proposed mine.

“He’s the Deputy Prime Minister of the country, he should make it very clear that this is a proposal that should never get off the ground and it should be part of the Coalition’s policy agenda,” Senator Di Natale said.

“What good is it to have somebody in that position, if at the end of the day we end up with this mine going ahead?

“What is the point of having somebody in the position Barnaby Joyce holds going to an election saying, ‘I’ve got concerns’, but when push comes to shove this mine gets built?”

However, New England MP Barnaby Joyce hit back, saying he had “always opposed both Shenhua and Caroona mines being developed and have done so since 2009”.

“There is no place for mines on prime agricultural land,” he said.

“There is only one mine in the New England electorate, the one at Werris Creek and I think we all know the story around that.”

Greens MP and the party’s mining spokesman Jeremy Buckingham said Mr Joyce was “big noting” himself, rather than focusing on the “nuts and bolts” of the problems the Liverpool Plains farmers were facing.

“The man has spent more time talking about Johnny Depp’s dogs than he has about water, the Murray-Darling basin and mining on the Liverpool Plains,” Mr Buckingham said.

“We need to end the uncertainty. These people need to know that this isn’t going to ruin their farms and lives. 

“We want this issue front and centre of the New England campaign and also the federal election campaign.”

Senator Di Natale said the renewable energy industry was the future of local communities, such as Gunnedah, that rely on the coal industry.

“We’ve got this great nature advantage that the rest of the world would love to have: we’ve got sunshine, we’ve got wind and we’ve got space,” he said.

“We’re connected to a national electricity grid in many parts of Australia, why don’t we use these natural advantages we have to create opportunities for these communities?

“It’s about time we made a decision in this country that we’re serious about dangerous global warming and we want to create jobs in the new clean-energy economy and that means no more coal mines.”