CSG land access fight heats up

Coexistence between agriculture and mining has been hotly debated over the past week following the tragic suicide of anti-CSG campaigner and Queensland farmer George Bender.

Radio celebrity Alan Jones and Queensland Independent Senator Glenn Lazarus have used the tragedy to attack mining companies fiercely, in demanding legislative changes so landholders can deny access to CSG activities and protect environmental assets.

Mr Jones said he wrote to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week expressing concerns about mining companies pushing farmers to “the edge” and urging the Coalition leader’s intervention.

Other senior federal politicians - including Environment Minister Greg Hunt and Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg - have also weighed into the emotive debate but clarified that States are ultimately responsible for any legislative changes.

Mr Frydenberg has now promised to put the land access issue around CSG regulations on the agenda when he meets with State energy ministers next month.

Mr Hunt told ABC television farmers being able to say no to CSG mining was “overwhelming and primarily” a matter for the States, under the Constitution.

But he said over a period of years he had encouraged gas producers to say to farmers that they would not explore or extract on their land without their consent.

“I have argued that the gas producers should give that right to the farmers to control who comes onto their land,” he said.

“In NSW we have seen progress on that front.

“I think it would be valuable to see that same progress in other States.

“I think that the States should move towards that position.”

Mr Hunt said the right of farmers to control who enters their land was a moral right but because of the Constitution it was not currently a legal right.

“But frankly, in the 21st Century, the right way to do this is for the gas companies to effectively say, ‘we won't assert our legal right over your moral right’,” he said.

“And in the real world, it won't work unless there’s farmers’ consent.”

Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss also publicly backed comments from NSW Nationals Senator and Rural Health Minister Fiona Nash last week that farmers should have the right to choose whether or not mining companies can come onto their land.

“I think State and Territory governments need to do what is necessary to make this happen,” Senator Nash told Fairfax Agricultural Media.

Mr Truss said the Coalition supported responsible CSG development under three co-existence conditions.

The first one being that access to prime agricultural land should only be allowed with the farmer’s agreement and the farmer should have the right to say yes or no to CSG exploration and extraction on their property.

The other two conditions are that there should be no long term damage to the underground water supply and agricultural production should not be permanently impaired.

“The States have a constitutional responsibility for managing coal seam gas harvesting, and indeed mining and other land use activities,” he said.

“The Commonwealth has no constitutional responsibility in the area; our only involvement ever comes when there's an engagement under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

“So it's clearly a responsibility for the States.

“They make those kinds of decisions and the attitude taken by the State governments across Australia is different.

“Each one is a separate jurisdiction and they make their own decisions.”

Shadow Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said as the Member for Hunter located in the NSW Hunter Valley he’d been dealing with land use conflict issues for many years, between mining and agriculture industries.

“I've always had the view - even though I'm a strong supporter of the coalmining industry - that we can't allow any of those industries to develop at the expense of our sustainable industries,” he said.

“The coal mines (and) CSG might be with us for 100 years maybe but our sustainable industries hopefully will be there to sustain us for many thousands of years.

“Our country has enjoyed enormous wealth through the extraction of coal and iron ore and other commodities and now CSG, and it has been a tenant of our, or a foundation of, our legal system for all our history that companies wanting to exploit that will have access to those resources under the land of others.

“That aspect of it, in my view, to be honest, is not going to change anytime soon because the extraction of those resources are too significant to the national economy.”

Queensland LNP Senator Matthew Canavan said consideration must be given to developing a better method of sharing mining profits with landowners to help break the current deadlock.

He said the current situation would also be aided by landowners having more say and control over what’s happening on their land.

“This has been a long held view of mine but the imbalance in rights between mining companies and landowners not only causes much heartache on the ground, it’s also not the best way to see our resources developed,” he said.

“We have a situation where the State has control of the resources and it’s a bit like mini system of communism under our soil and when the State has control over such things it tends not to do a good job.

“If we gave landowners more rights, they’d do a better job of managing the resources and then seeing the economic benefits flow through to rural communities.”

NSW Greens mining spokesperson Jeremy Buckingham welcomed Mr Truss’ statement that farmers should have the right to say no to CSG on their land.

But he stressed the Nationals needed to demonstrate the commitment was genuine and “not a convenient deception to get out of a sticky situation”.