Craig Thomson (Dobell, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Further to my question last week, new data released by the mining company Kores shows people will die from coal dust; 79 million litres of water will be lost every day, jeopardising the future supply of water on the Central Coast; and over 245 private homes, 755 rural structures and 420 dams and roads will be affected by savage subsidence, in some cases up to two metres. Prime Minister, will your government put the health and lifestyle of the people of the Central Coast before mining interests and support my private member's bill?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dobell for his question. I understand he is seriously concerned about this matter. He has raised it in the parliament on an earlier occasion. Of course there is nothing more important to a community than water supply and water security. Water is life; we all know that. I know that the community on the Central Coast is concerned about water supply and water security. We want to make sure we are responding to those concerns by getting the balance right as there is mining development—that is, for any mining development we need to properly weigh up the factors about that mine and its environmental impacts, including the potential impacts on water, which is why the approach that the government has taken is to amend the relevant legislation so that issues about water can trigger an assessment by the federal minister for the environment.

We have also very much invested in scientific expertise in this area. As the national government we are the custodians of great institutions like the CSIRO. We have the ability to resource and finance scientific leadership, and we have done that in this area through the resources made available for the expert panel.

I say to the member for Dobell that I do not agree with his private member's bill, except that it is a sincere attempt by him as local member to deal with this question on behalf of the community that he serves. But we do not think that that private member's bill is the appropriate road to go down. We think the appropriate road to go down to get this right for the community of the Central Coast and for communities around the country is what we are intending to do through federal government environmental law.