THE coal seam gas debate has become a personal matter for Senator Barnaby Joyce, with the Nationals' Senate leader revealing his own Northern NSW property has been scheduled for exploration.
Eastern Star Gas has been approved to explore for coal seam gas at Sen Joyce's property at Baradine.
The revelation was made during the Federal Rural Affairs and Transport Committee Senate hearing in Brisbane last week.
At the hearing the following exchange took place between Sen Joyce and Lock the Gate Coalition president Drew Hutton:
Sen Joyce: "I had better declare an interest too. I have hated this diminution of people's rights, but in the last couple of weeks I have had a notice given to me about coal seam gas coming out to my place. What does that do? It just gives me greater resolve."
Drew Hutton: "You should lock the gate."
Sen Joyce: "Believe you me, I will be doing more than locking the gate. Fortunately, I have got a little job in Canberra that helps me with this."
It was among a series of frank admissions and revelations during a Senate hearing in the state capital last Wednesday.
The six committee members had traversed the Western Downs earlier in the week, with landholders recalling the often strained relationship between the agriculture and oil and gas industries across the region.
With a strong panel of CSG industry representatives presenting their side of the debate in Brisbane, Sen Joyce and committee chair and Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan appeared keen to challenge the claims of the mining sector.
Sen Heffernan asked Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) chief operating officer and former Santos vice-president, Richard John, what his salary was.
"You do not have to tell us how much they pay you, but I would be interested," Sen Heffernan called out.
When Mr John replied that he would not like to ask what Sen Heffernan was paid, the politician was quick to declare his salary was $140,000.
"I am happy to tell you it is $131,600 a year. What do they pay you?" Sen Joyce chimed in before Mr John was finally allowed to continue with his submission.
The mining industry also drew criticism from committee members after they had difficulty explaining how CSG companies would clean up contaminated aquifers.
APPEA Queensland CSG director Ross Dunn said companies would seal off any affected area.
But Sen Heffernan asked how that would be possible when even the CSIRO didn't fully understand the geology of aquifers.
Reading from the National Water Commission's submission to the inquiry, Sen Heffernan stated "potential impacts of CSG developments, particularly the cumulative effects of multiple projects, are not understood".
"How do you make good on something that is not understood?" Sen Heffernan asked.
"You don't know the geography under various fractures (in the coal seams). The CSIRO don't know. When the National Water Commission says they don't know, who does know?"
Mr Dunn said mining companies had done some modelling.
APPEA chief operating officer Rick Wilkinson said the modelling was state-of-the-art. He said it involved nine independent and government bodies.
After it was revealed landholders were receiving widely varying compensation payments, Sen Joyce said any amount was minimal given the worth of the wells.
"I'll be generous to you, that means you're giving them (landholders) about $10 to $15 million a year and you're still collecting $8.5 billion a year ? that's not a bad deal," he said.
"You'd have to say that's a pretty good deal."
Sen Heffernan replied to the outpouring of emotion from landholders during the three-day hearings by claiming more has to be done to ensure a fairer outcome for agriculture.
He said the lack of action to address "legislative imbalances" from the State Government was an "insult" to common sense.
Sen Heffernan was also critical of the apparent power of mining companies in negotiations with landholders.
"A lot of people are frightened to give evidence (at the Federal hearing) because it might injure their capacity to get a decent deal out of the companies they are dealing with. So they do not want to put their heads up in case they get penalised," he said.
"The other thing is they (landholders) are absolutely intimidated by the process, to the point where some of them have just sort of given up.
"They just do not have the capacity. They are dealing with enough issues just running a farm. And there does not seem to be a process to enable them to be heard, as they would see it, fairly."
l To provide further clarification surrounding landholder agreements, Queensland Country Life has approached four major coal seam gas companies (Santos, QGC, Arrow and Origin) seeking details of average compensation payments for gas wells and associated infrastructure.
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