OUTSPOKEN radio commentator, Alan Jones, has launched a scathing attack on the coal seam gas (CSG) mining industry at the National Press Club in Canberra.
Mr Jones yesterday used the high profile setting before the nation’s leading journalists, to direct a tirade at the mining industry while standing up for farmers’ rights.
He said food security was the nation’s biggest challenge and called for a moratorium on CSG exploration and development, over concerns that prime farming land and underground water supplies could be devastated in pursuit of mining profits, which would also have a negative impact on public health.
In urging a moratorium, Mr Jones said CSG was the nation’s biggest land use issue since native title but State governments are bowing to the mining industry’s demands due to financial pressures and incentives.
He also called for the resignations of QLD premier, Anna Bligh and Treasurer Andrew Fraser, in accusing the QLD government of selling prime farming land to mining companies without properly considering future implications.
“The mining industry is the upper house of QLD; nothing happens without their approval,” he said.
Mr Jones said CSG was rampant in QLD and would turn the state into a “moon crater” and industrial wasteland, risking not only health but also water supplies due to lack of scientific certainty around the chemical fracking techniques used in CSG exploration.
But Mr Fraser defended the QLD government’s environmental record, saying Mr Jones had a “proven track record for spin and dishonesty”.
Mr Fraser, the acting premier, told AAP that Mr Jones’s comments were the “screaming rants of a histrionic, failed Liberal candidate”.
“This is criticism from someone who has taken money to change their views and prosecute arguments in a poor excuse for journalism,” he said.
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