AS Australia's two great resources industries - mining and agriculture - slog it out over access to prime food producing land, there are calls for greater land use planning by governments so the two sectors might co-exist.
Mitch Hooke, the chief executive officer of mining's big power lobby group, the Minerals Council of Australia, repeatedly made the call for major improvements in rural land use planning at Senate Inquiry into food production in Canberra last week.
Mr Hooke - an ex-farm lobbyist of Victoria's rural western districts stock - seemed frustrated that, according to him, the two sectors are continually portrayed as enemies when in fact mining "is in the business of working with agriculture" and not against it.
Instead of fighting over prime land, Mr Hooke believes the two sectors can, and already do, operate side by side.
But with tensions brewing, especially in the farm sector over suitable land use and the protection of resource-rich agricultural land, Mr Hooke is advocating the development of an integrated land use planning model which would incorporate water, land, vegetation and mineral resources, and can be used as a basis to land use decision making by Governments.
Mr Hooke was called to the inquiry to explain the interaction between what he sees as two of Australia's most important industries.
"Agriculture and mining are sectors that were the bedrock of the Australian economy 100 years ago," Mr Hooke said.
"They are the bedrock of the Australian economy today, and they will be the bedrock of the Australian economy in the foreseeable future.
"Fundamental to this longevity is that these industries are resourceful, innovative, technologically advanced, and socially and environmentally progressiveness.
"Indeed, from my position in the minerals industry and my experiences as one of the pioneers of zero tillage ecological farming systems in Queensland, I can attest to the remarkable transformation in both these industries in their contribution to the global pursuit of sustainable development, and their capacity to identify and remedy social and environmental legacies of the past.
"The scale of these industries joint contribution to the social economic welfare of all Australians is underestimated to this nation's peril."
Mr Hooke said the minerals industry represents around 8.5pc of Australian GDP, and agriculture approximately 3pc, and in the year to July their combined earnings exceeded $190 billion - the equivalent to the annual GDP of Ireland or Denmark.
"Society requires minerals and agricultural products which can be sourced from overlapping and adjacent elements of the landscape. For continued economic growth, these resource industries must and will continue to co-exist," he told the inquiry.
"Clearly, the perception that mining and agriculture cannot co-exist is wrong, as is the increasingly populist view that is media-driven, that minerals companies are moving in on Australia's prime agricultural land."
He listed examples such as in the Hunter Valley where underground coal mining occurs beneath highly productive vineyards and pastures; in Victoria, where cattle graze on land once mined for brown coal adjacent to operating mines; cattle also graze on former coal mines in the Bowen Basin; old minerals sands operations are used for beef and dairy production in WA and in regional centres like Bendigo and Orange Mr Hooke said mining provides water for the townships and/or regions.
He said agriculture occupies some 70pc of Australia's land mass, while mining occupies less than 0.3pc - a ratio he said the ABS previously characterised as less land than the combined area of the car parks of Australia's hotels.
And promoting conflict on a platform of environmental incompatibility - especially water - was without real foundation, he added.
Mr Hooke said the minerals industry in Australia accounts for less than 2.4pc of Australia's net water consumption, or 4pc of the storage capacity of Cubbie Station.
He said the value-add per megalitre of water used was the highest amongst industrial users in Australia - $86,000/Ml on average for coal mining and ranges from $50,000-$25,000/Ml for other sectors of the minerals industry.
By comparison, agriculture represents 60pc of Australia's consumptive water use and the value add per megalitre (ML) of water consumed ranges between $160/ML (rice) to $3900/ML (vegetables).
"The perpetuation of these myths that mining is voraciously chewing up Australia's best agricultural lands and water resources are seriously undermining the platform upon which these two great industries can work through a process of effective land use planning," Mr Hooke said.
"For continued socio-economic growth, these resource industries must and will continue to co-exist but it has to be on a much better land use planning basis.
"Such a model should be truly integrated, to incorporate all landscape managers in a region and all current and proposed land use activities, and be appropriately resourced."
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