SIMMERING tensions between landholders, mining companies and the State Government have reignited after ABC Television's Four Corners program showed shocking images of coal seam gas (CSG) mining.
The heat of the CSG debate has barely cooled within the pages of this newspaper in the past three years, but the intense rage gripping southern Queensland landholders has now reached fever pitch, escalating within 24 hours of the current affairs program going to air on Monday.
Among the harrowing scenes striking fear into rural and regional landholders across the state were:
Faulty gas wells polluting bores and pumping potentially lethal toxins into underground aquifers.Worrying assessments by environmental scientists that damage to the Great Artesian Basin will not be repaired for another 1000 years.Heavy-handed tactics by mining companies to access private land.The inability of Mines Minister Stephen Robertson to answer direct questions.So far, developments dominating the fallout include:
Landholders aligned to the Coal4 Breakfast group are mobilising in their hundreds to protest at a Community Cabinet meeting in Toowoomba on March 13 in what could be the district's biggest rally yet against CSG mining.Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) chief executive Belinda Robinson goes on the attack, calling anti-CSG campaigners a "noisy and misleading minority" and claiming Australia's CSG industry is the most carefully scrutinised and heavily regulated in the country. AgForce president Brent Finlay slams Premier Anna Bligh for her recent Cabinet reshuffle that has seen government responsibility for the issue withdrawn from the seasoned Stephen Robertson and transferred to two new ministers who must now be briefed on the run.Australian Lot Feeders Association president Jim Cudmore reveals that feedlots have experienced significant reductions in groundwater levels since the CSG industry began operating in their areas, while others have bores leaking gas due to CSG development despite Queensland Government guarantees that such bores would be fixed. Basin Sustainability Alliance chairman Ian Hayllor fears a raft of environmental impact statements provided to the State Government may have been shelved, saying their repeated warnings verified by independent analysis have not been paid due attention by the government or the mining companies at the centre of the storm.The overwhelming condemnation of CSG mining operations and the State Government's role in drafting legislation that has allowed a handful of energy companies to ride roughshod over prime agricultural land is now in the mainstream public spotlight.It has also left the Government scrambling to defend its environmental and economic credentials - both taking a hammering - as it walks a tightrope to appease anxious landholders, agitated miners and a fragile alliance with shadowy green groups.
But there's also trouble looming for the Opposition, with veteran hard-man Jeff Seeney reaffirming his position that CSG and liquid natural gas mining can coexist with farming, isolating him further colleagues and the LNP's rural con-stituency that Labor will be key to exploit in the state election countdown.
Before shifting portfolios last week, Mr Robertson announced the establishment of the LNG Enforcement Unit, a "multi-disciplinary unit made up of specialists tasked with monitoring the emerging CSG-LNG industry".
"This team is equipped with the power and the resources to make sure this industry adheres to its legislative obligations to the Queensland community," Mr Robertson said.
"The unit will also investigate formal complaints from landholders and lead prosecutions where investigations provide evidence of wrongdoing."
Mr Seeney said he believes the legislation and its enforcement will provide the proper safeguards to ensure landholders are protected.
"Problems developed with CSG mining because the Government was slow to act, but those regulations and their enforcement have improved markedly over the past 12 months," he said.
"I wouldn't pretend that it's perfect, but it is a step in the right direction."
However, ALFA's Jim Cudmore said the Bligh Government's legislation was flawed, and he had little faith in the new unit's ability to tackle any alleged mining company breaches.
"The Water and Other Legislation Bill does not address water quality con-tamination by CSG operators, and we remain unconvinced that other legislation addresses this issue without landowners seeking civil action," he said.
"The proposed burden of proof arrangements have already been found to be wanting, with it being almost impossible for landowners to establish that CSG operations were the cause of groundwater issues. Amazingly, despite the CSG industry being in operation for over a decade, the Queensland Government has yet to determine baseline guidelines for groundwater from which CSG impacts could be assessed.
"Concerns regarding subsidence, management of salt from treated CSG water and negative impacts upon land values due to CSG operations still remain."
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