"People have an option - you can vote for more coal mines, or you can vote for your children, but you can't vote for both," Mr Brown told the Leader.

"And if you're voting for one, you're voting against the other.

"Barnaby Joyce, and the National Party, are a mining party. They are no longer a country party, or a rural and regional party."

Mr Brown passed through Tamworth with the Stop Adani convey on Thursday, as they head to Canberra to hold a protest in front of Parliament House on Friday, against the proposed giant coal mine.

He said there were many parallels between the Adani proposal in north Queensland and the Shenhua Watermark coal mine on the Liverpool Plains.

"Shenhua should never have been allowed to go ahead," he said.

READ ALSO

"I argued against that when [former New England MP] Tony Windsor was arguing against it when I was in the federal parliament."

"Here we have the Namoi, which is the gem if you like of the Murray Darling catchment in terms of food production, dependent on water. And Shenhua puts that at risk."

While country NSW has traditionally been a Nationals stronghold, Mr Brown said that was changing.

"The question is whether it will take a full on catastrophe for people to abandon politicians who hold up coal in parliament, like Barnaby Joyce and Scott Morrison, and think it's funny to say this is good for you," he said.

Want to have your say? Click this link to write a letter to the editor