The state government and mining industries are violating Queenslanders’ human and environmental rights, the Senate Inquiry into Unconventional Gas Mining (Bender Inquiry) heard at Dalby on Wednesday.
The senators on the committee in attendance included Senators Glenn Lazarus, (chair) Larissa Waters, Joe Ludwig and Joanna Lindgren.
In evidence before the inquiry, mother-of-two Shay Dougall said international law recognised the interdependence between human rights and the integrity of the environment.
Mrs Dougall lives at Hopeland near Chinchilla on the Western Downs, a region surrounded by coal seam gas (CSG) and underground coal gasification (UCG) projects.
She said the state government was complicit in human rights violations by allowing third parties to violate the rights of locals by failing to create and implement policies to protect them and by failing to act on regulation.
Mrs Dougall cited in her submission the Guide on Rights-Based Advocacy: International Human Rights Law and Fracking, produced by the Sisters of Mercy (NGO), Mercy International Association, a group who have consultative status with the United Nations.
She said there was a growing understanding that “human rights law recognizes that human rights and environmental protection depend on each other”.
"To enjoy human rights fully, it is necessary to have a safe and healthy environment; and to have a safe and healthy environment, it is critical to protect human rights," Mrs Dougall said.
“Environmental degradation can and does adversely affect a broad range of human rights.”
Mrs Dougall said states were required to adopt measures against environmental health hazards such as creating and implementing policies to reduce and eliminate air and water pollution.
They must also take measures to prevent third parties from violating the right to health of others by enacting or enforcing laws to “prevent the pollution of water, air and soil by extractive and manufacturing industries.”
“We have begged our local, state and federal governments to listen to the people and act,” she said.
Another couple, Narelle and Nood Nothdurft, Bellara, Chinchilla, have 26 gas wells within 2km of their house and are living in what they describe as “hell”.
They currently have 63 grievances outstanding with a resource company, and told the inquiry of their illnesses and those of their children.
The Nothdurfts now have seven wells dotting their property and 23ha of roads, infrastructure, pipes and cleared well pads servicing the gas wells. Gas vents are released regularly within 150 metres of their house.
There is constant noise with a compressor station running around the clock just a few kilometres away.
"At night the noise pounds on, destroying any chance of a solid night’s sleep. We just don't sleep," Mrs Nothdurft said.
Their youngest children wake up screaming from headaches in the middle of the night with the youngest girl slamming her head against her bedroom wall in a desperate bid to get the pain inside her head to go away.
“We can’t prove it's the gas, but something is making us sick,” Mrs Nothdurft said.
The inquiry also heard from Dr Geralyn McCarron, a Queensland GP, who said she had become aware of “strange and unexplained symptoms” including blood-noses, headaches, fatigue, nausea and vomiting in people living at coal seam gasfields.
"In recent years, during my visits to Queensland's gas field, residents have repeatedly voiced concerns about the frequency of cancers, as well as unusual types of cancers occurring within the rural triangle bordered by Dalby, Chinchilla and Tara," Dr McCarron said.
She said that in many cases communities were gagged and couldn't speak out due to the confidentiality clauses of their individual agreements signed with resource companies.
Dr McCarron told the inquiry she thought the best solution would be to close the unconventional gas industry down as she is of the view it will poison people.
"In making a decision on the future of unconventional gas, decision makers need to learn from the painful lessons coming out of Queensland, and so everything in their power to protect the health of the people now living in their communities, and those not born yet," she said.
The closing date for submissions into Unconventional Gas Mine (Bender Inquiry) is March 14, and the select committee will provide a final report to the Senate before June 30.
