Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight I would like to update the House on our community campaign to make the North Coast of New South Wales coal seam gas mining free. This is an issue of great community concern to people on the North Coast. It is a concern for a number of reasons—the impact of this mining on agricultural lands and, in particular, on our water resources—and right across the electorate of Richmond people have extensive concerns.

In fact, in the electorate of Richmond there is a current exploration licence known as PEL 445, which extends from Lennox Head in the south to Tyalgum in the north, from Byron in the east through to Nimbin in the west. It also covers the Clarrie Hall Dam, which is the primary water source for the Tweed Shire. There is also a current application before the state government which covers Tweed Heads, Banora Point, Tweed Coast and Murwillumbah.

In fact, the member for Page and I have a petition calling on the New South Wales Liberal-National government to make the North Coast CSG free. I would like to thank the thousands of people who have so far signed our petition. It is, indeed, very unfortunate and quite shameful that the state National Party MPs on the North Coast all strongly support the expansion of coal seam gas mining. In fact, the state members for Tweed, Ballina and Lismore are all vocal in their pro-CSG drilling and fracking agenda.

This sentiment extends right throughout the National Party, and one of the strongest supporters of CSG mining and the CSG industry is, in fact, the Nationals' candidate for Richmond, Matthew Fraser. The fact is that this election is indeed a referendum on CSG mining on the North Coast, and the choice is very clear: a vote for me is a vote to stop CSG mining and a vote for Matthew Fraser is a vote to expand harmful CSG mining.

But the Nationals in fact have a very strong history of supporting CSG mining, and we see reports, even today, which show just how committed the Liberal and National parties are to the growth of the CSG industry. Let us go to the front page of today's The Australian. The front page of The Australian confirms the true agenda of the Liberal and National parties: to expand the industry. We read on the front page of The Australian that:

… federal Coalition leaders, backed by Tony Abbott, urged their state allies to unlock huge gas reserves …

They are saying that. And in fact the coalition resources spokesman, the member for Groom, we read, has:

… urged Mr O'Farrell and his ministers to act urgently …

So there we see their urgency with this matter of CSG mining.

See this speech in context