Royalties for farmers whose land is used for gas extraction is a tempting idea – farmers should be compensated for such invasion. But as leader of the supposedly rural-based National Party, Barnaby Joyce of all people should be aware of the potential complexities of the proposal, the fact that it would be far in the future and that it really can be read as bribery to obtain unlimited use of land to produce gas.

The two most valuable resources in Australia are water and land – land which is productive for food, but also land which is productive for environmental conservation. There is at present no definitive independent scientific study to show that drilling for gas and hydraulic fracturing will not harm aquifers, and importantly in Australia, the Great Artesian Basin. Reported experience in Queensland and Canada suggests the need for great caution.

Coal seam gas and coal mining are demonstrably already threatening both water and land, and are exacerbating disastrous climate change, whether or not our leaders accept the fact. Queensland, in courting the very questionable Adani development of the Gallilee Basin is ignoring the value of the already stressed Great Barrier Reef.

The problems are enormous – but where are the leaders who will realise that new sustainable solutions must be found, and soon? And that independent science and planetary welfare must outweigh the pressure of donations and lobbying from powerful entities?

Glenys Bundy

Dungowan