Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about the Surat coal basin, which lies largely in my electorate of Maranoa and floats up into the edge of the electorate of Flynn. I want to talk about a forum that was held in my electorate last week in the town of Dalby, that was organised by the Deputy Premier, Paul Lucas. I think that in a large part the Deputy Premier was responding not only to the calls of organisations such as AgForce and to those of local mayors but also to the forum that I held and had invited the Deputy Premier and Minister Wilson to in July this year.

Some of the concerns that landholders have in relation to the development of the coal seam methane gas and the coal industry—the mining exploration for coal in the Surat coal basin—are the issues of access to their land and, if there are resources below the soil, how those resources will be accessed. Quite apart from that, there are large environmental issues that many landholders are still concerned about. The Deputy Premier, Paul Lucas, did come to the forum. He addressed the meeting, as did the local mayor. He was welcomed in a very cordial manner, as were all the attendees at the forum, many of whom were perhaps not invited but turned up because of the real concern in our community with regard to the access arrangements to the coal seam methane and the resources below the soil, mainly coal.

The Deputy Premier did announce some changes that he would bring forward in relation to the access arrangements, including a code of practice. This is long overdue, but it will certainly make a difference in relation to negotiations between mining and gas companies and the landholders. Up until the last month it has in many ways been a bit ‘Rafferty’s rules’. There has been angst in the community. There has been a lot of anger expressed to my office and to me, and at meetings that have been organised by AgForce and other community groups there has also been real anger. It did appear to me that a lot of the companies felt that they had a divine right to go onto people’s land and that they had primacy over the title deed holders.

Whilst they might have a right to the mining of the resources below the soil, they certainly need to do a lot more in public relations and dealing with people’s property, particularly in relation to access arrangements when people are trying to conduct a business on that land and also in relation to any possible compensation that those landholders could gain from a negotiated outcome between the coal seam methane gas company and the landholder. So I look forward to seeing the results of that code of practice and I hope it will go a long way towards easing some of the confusion and anger that has been in the community.

The day before the forum I attended the Queensland Gas and Sunshine Gas installation just south of Chinchilla, which is now being taken over by British Gas. It is interesting. The CEO of British Gas was out here to meet with the workers and to look at the plans for the development of that coal seam methane gas south of Chinchilla. Their proposal is to prove up enough gas, take it to Gladstone and convert it to LNG for export. That is going to be a terribly important resource for the whole nation. It is interesting that British Gas are now a capitalised company on the publicly listed stock exchange in London and are actually worth more than BHP. That will give you some idea of this global company that has come into my electorate and has made a friendly takeover of Queensland Gas and Sunshine Gas.

One of the important aspects of the coal seam methane operation at that installation just south of Chinchilla is that the people who work in that industry are local people. They are people who live in the towns of Wallumbilla, Surat, Chinchilla, Miles and Roma. They are not fly in, fly out, so some of the wealth that is coming from below the soil is, through those wages and salaries, being felt and a benefit is coming to our local communities. I do not have time tonight, but I will return to talk about global food security and the issue of prime agricultural land. (Time expired)