CALLS for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to visit Queensland farming regions struck by drought and Coal Seam Gas mining concerns, remain unanswered.
Last November, Independent Queensland Senator Glenn Lazarus claimed he’d been advised by Mr Turnbull that he was looking into his availability, to undertake a first-hand tour of regions impacted by CSG activities.
It came immediately after the high profile and tragic suicide of Chinchilla grain and cotton farmer George Bender which re-focussed the political spotlight on the vexed land-access issue and farmers rights to ‘say no’ to mining companies.
At the time, the National Farmers Federation welcomed the opportunity for the relatively new PM to hear direct from local stakeholders on drought support policy issues and ways to improve land access arrangements between mining and farming.
A spokesperson told Fairfax Agricultural Media Mr Turnbull was expected to visit rural and region Queensland in the future – but they did not specify any dates or locations.
“The Prime Minister is visiting regional areas in Australia and is very aware of the issues facing them, including drought, water resources and mineral extraction,” the spokesperson said in November.
This week, Mr Turnbull’s office said arrangements for the potential tour had not yet been locked down.
Senator Lazarus said he had not experienced any “joy, as yet” in getting Mr Turnbull to confirm a tour of regional Queensland “but obviously I keep reminding him of it and keep hoping that he’ll come out”.
“He’s obviously very busy and I’d love to see him come out earlier in the year rather than later but that just hasn’t happened yet,” he said.
“I understand he’s a very busy man but I’m really keen for him to come out and just have a look and see what these people are really living with.”
Senator Lazarus said recent rains in Queensland hadn’t broken the extended drought and more would be needed to mounting relieve social and financial pressures.
“I know from talking to farmers that the problem is, because we’ve been in drought for four years the water will just run off and won’t have time to sink in so we’ll require a lot more water than what we’ve had,” he said.
“Farmers are doing it tough through no fault of their own and just need some decent rain on a regular basis.
“But one of the things we may be able to do is to try and convince these banks to not be continually knocking on the door wanting their money and to give farmers a bit of relief by coming to some sort of arrangement for when times are good, to look at different ways of paying it back.
“Farmers are not making an income and the banks are still knocking on the door so eventually they sell and a lot of the land is being sold to foreign ownership and I think that’s a really scary path to go down because when times become good there will be very little land that Australians will own, to be able to farm.”