John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much. So the politics continues. But let's get to the Shenhua mine on the Liverpool Plains. Who has now brought it to a stop? The member for new England, Mr Barnaby Joyce, the Minister for Agriculture, took Mr Hunt up there. Thank goodness for the scientific money that is available—$150 million. I give credit to the former member for New England, Tony Windsor, for bringing that forward—supported by our side of politics, as well, of course.

The politics plays on. Here is a great example; I have to read this out. This is important to you, Mr Acting Deputy President Whish-Wilson. The coalition government in New South Wales, the Liberal-National government, which has been there almost four years, has not licenced any coal seam gas developments. They are all existing licences from the previous Labor government.

Now the politics goes on, as Mr Draper, who was a former Independent member for Tamworth and a member when all of these exploration licences were approved, now comes back and says, 'We're going to fix this issue.' It was the Australian Labor Party in government in New South Wales—and I am sure those opposite will be listening—that approved all of these. It was the Australian Labor Party in New South Wales that took the $300 million from the Chinese company Shenhua and put it in its coffers in agreeing to the exploration of the Shenhua mine. Of course, it was a government very much backed by who? The Greens! Senator Rhiannon, as a member of the legislative council back in those days, was probably in the parliament and working closely alongside Carr, Iemma—I cannot remember all of the premiers they had at that stage—when all of these approvals actually went forward.

Now, we have someone like Mr Draper, who was the member for Tamworth while all these approvals went forward, running for the seat of Tamworth and screaming out that this is a big issue. He is saying that he is going to solve the problem. Give us a break! This is a case of crocodile tears at best when the very person who was the member was sitting there with his colleagues in the Labor Party and the Greens and approved all these very issues.

I will go to what we can do at a federal level. Under the Constitution, we cannot control the land. But we have the Water Act, the EPBC Act—it was brought in by this side of parliament many years ago by Senator Robert Hill. That is why environment minister Greg Hunt has been to the Liverpool Plains very recently. And he was well received, I believe. What has happened now? It has been put on ice so that the scientists can go in and get the facts about what is going on.

I want to add one issue when talking about all this mining on prime agricultural land: something that I was informed about by Senator Heffernan was coal dust. When coalmines were developed in the Hunter Valley, I remember being told by my colleague Senator Heffernan how the coalmining industry bought the neighbouring farms. There was a dairy farm next door. The coalmining company said, 'You can stay on your farm. We've bought it, but you can stay there and continue your business.' It was only a matter of time before the milk from those dairy cows was contaminated, because of the coal dust. That is another reason why I do not agree with the coalmine on the Liverpool Plains or coal seam gas being there, because the next thing will be the dust. As I said in The Northern Daily Leader yesterday, this is a real issue that we do not hear much about: the coal dust from the open mine settling on the food—whatever crop: sorghum, corn, wheat, barley or peas—that needs to be produced in the safe, hygienic and clean manner that we are so proud of in this country. So there is a problem in itself. No country should be totally left alone.

As I said, the politics comes into this all the time. A lady came up to me at AgQuip and said, 'You can't have any of this coal seam gas. It's terrible.' I said: 'Have you got a barbecue?' She said: 'Yes'. I said: 'Where does the gas come from? That is CH4—the methane that powers your barbecue.' If you are going to have coal seam gas, it must be done correctly; it cannot be raced into. You cannot have cowboy companies doing it. It must be done professionally. As I said, five per cent of New South Wales' gas supply has been there for many years now. It seems to be working well. I have not visited the area but I have visited Santos at Narrabri and Roma. It is good to talk to landowners. In stark contradiction of what Senator Lazarus was saying, the landowners seem to just say, 'No problems; good company; work well; up-front; explained everything. Yes, we're getting some good royalties, and it's not interfering with our farming.' This is what the farmers are telling me when I speak to them face to face. It is not what I am reading in the papers in some biased report put together by whoever.

We need energy. We know that. We know we have a lot of coal. We know that we can use that gas, if it is done properly. But if we do not do it properly, we are going to make a mess of our environment for future generations. That is the key issue. I have said all along: tread slowly, tread cautiously. Yes, we have good supplies of energy. It is great to have it in Australia instead of importing. Ninety-one per cent of the fuel we import is from overseas—petrol, aeroplane fuel and diesel. We need to rely on our own clean energy, but not at the risk of destroying the environment for future generations.

Our predecessors have done their bit to grow our country and look after our country. Sure, we made some errors on the farm. Sure, we cleared too many trees in the Mallee country. Sure, there is too much wind erosion. Now, with better practices of farming, like direct drilling et cetera, and leaving the stubbles on the soil, we are doing it much better. That is the basis of this whole argument: you need to do it properly, not rush into it, see that the state governments do their job and that the federal government, through the limited powers we have in this place when it comes to mining, do our job properly. I have confidence that the environment minister, Minister Hunt, will do exactly that in relation to many of these issues.

We need to protect the environment for the future, or there will be a very blunt, very dark and very damaged future for those in this country, especially our farmers, who have to grow so much food in the years to come to feed the growing world population. Our reputation for food in this country is second to none. We have great farmers who do a great job of producing great food. We need to keep that and preserve it for future generations.