Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Health Services and Indigenous Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Where is it? Show us where. Where?

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

I thank the member for Bowman for pointing that out. I will point out some more examples. We will go to the Nationals' five-point plan. That is right—

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Individuals have the right to be heard.

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

the Nationals have a five-point plan to expand the coal seam gas industry and, for the benefit of members opposite, I will point out a media release that the member for Wide Bay and Leader of the Nationals put out in November 2011. It is called 'Nationals launch coal seam gas blueprint' and the first line of it says:

FEDRAL Leader of The Nationals Warren Truss has today outlined a blueprint for coal seam gas development in Australia.

That is right! They have actually got a blueprint, a five-point plan, to roll out coal seam gas mining across Australia. They say in that that they adopted a policy and finalised a set of principles, so they have a very strong commitment to rolling out coal seam gas mining.

I would now like to turn to the visit that we had from Senator Barnaby Joyce to the North Coast. He also was able to confirm the commitment the Nationals have to coal seam gas mining, and I would like to refer to a story on the front page of The Byron Shire Echo, from 9 April. I will quote from the interview that Senator Joyce did with them. It says:

Mr Joyce told The Echo that CSG is a hot button issue for the upcoming election. He said however that many Byron Shire residents may not agree with his view that the CSG industry should continue.

'We shouldn't have a moratorium,' he said …

So there it is on the front page of The Byron Shire Echo. That is what the Nationals stand for, and that was reiterated in that front-page article on 9 April. I think it shows that it is no surprise that the Nationals candidate there, as I have already said, is a big, strong supporter of CSG mining. It is no surprise he had Senator Barnaby Joyce up there campaigning for him; they are great mates in supporting the CSG industry. But it goes on—we just see so many instances of the Liberal and National parties supporting the coal seam gas industry.

Of course we know that recently we had an amendment to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Bill 2013 in which we had water as a trigger in relation to CSG activities. Speaking in the Senate, the Liberals' Senator Birmingham, the shadow parliamentary secretary for the environment, told the Senate that the coalition does not like the legislation but they would not oppose it. What he did say was:

We will work to fix these issues should we succeed later this year.

So there we see it: that is their secret agenda. They want to roll it out right across the board, and it was seen there very, very clearly.

Mr Laming interjecting—

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Where is the courtesy of the member for Bowman?

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

So there we have it—that is the Liberal and National parties' agenda right across the board. When we look at the North Coast of New South Wales they want to roll it out. So, as I said before, the fact is: this election is 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; a vote for Matthew Fraser of the Nationals is a vote to expand CSG mining.