Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) recent reports in the Sydney Morning Herald that the Prime Minister personally promised Tara resident, Ms Debbie Orr, that nobody should be forced to have a gas well on their property,

(ii) the Coalition's election platform that access to prime agricultural land should only be allowed with the farmer's agreement – the farmer should have the right to say yes or no to coal seam gas exploration and extraction on their property, and

(iii) that there are no constitutional limitations preventing the Federal Government from giving Australian landholders the legal right to say no to coal seam gas; and

(b) calls on the Government to follow through on these statements by giving landholders the legal right to say no to coal seam gas mining on their land under federal law.

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion moved by Senator Waters be agreed to.

John Madigan (Victoria, Democratic Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 18 standing in my name.

Leave granted.

I move the motion as amended:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) in 2010 the Australian Bureau of Statistics published the Agricultural Land and Water Ownership survey (December 2010), which indicated that 11.3 per cent of Australian agricultural land was foreign-owned,

  (ii) according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Vote Compass, a significant majority of Australians want to 'further restrict foreign ownership of Australian agricultural land', and

  (iii) Australian agricultural land is a national treasure and should not be treated as a global commodity; and

(b) calls on the Government to table, no later than the first sitting day of 2013, an updated Agricultural Land and Water Ownership survey, outlining foreign ownership of Australian agricultural land as at June 2013.

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion as amended moved by Senator Madigan be agreed to.