Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Wong. I refer to the rapid push by the mining industry into prime agricultural land in New South Wales and Queensland for the purpose of exploration for minerals. My question today relates in particular to farming communities in the Liverpool Plains region of New South Wales. Given recent exposures of BHP’s exploration and drilling practices in this region, which have been determined to be unsuitable for minerals deposits interspersed with an aquifer structure, my question is: how does the minister intend to protect these groundwater resources that form part of the upper Murray-Darling catchment system, particularly given that the New South Wales government has failed to match the federal government’s 10 per cent down payment for the water study?