Only three of the six candidates standing in the Richmond electorate bothered to respond to a survey of attitudes towards coal seam gas.
Local anti-CSG group Lock the Tweed has published a table of their responses on its website and, of all six candidates, only the Greens’ Dawn Walker’s responses were rated as ‘good’.
John Ordish of the Christian Democrats, and independent former Tweed mayor Kevin Skinner, failed to respond to the survey.
Phil Allen of the Palmer United Party simply responded with a statement that the party opposed CSG development.
The Greens’ Dawn Walker and Labor’s Justine Elliot both gave detailed responses to the questions in the survey but Nationals’ Matthew Fraser gave standard responses to a small number of the survey questions, mirroring those given by National Party candidates in other electorates.
Lock the Tweed (LTT) rated Mr Fraser’s responses as ‘moderate’, despite admitting he ‘seems somewhat conflicted in his public statements on the issue (which have ranged from opposing CSG to saying it is not an issue)’.
But LTT spokesperson Michael McNamara acknowledged Mr Fraser ‘has supported fair compensation and protection of important agricultural land’.
The report rated ALP sitting member Justine Elliot’s responses as good in many areas but also only gave her a ‘moderate’ rating overall.
Ms Elliot was marked down for her responses to the call for ‘no-go zones’ and the removal of taxpayer subsidies for CSG miners. Her responses on fugitive emissions and the establishment of a royal commission into unconventional gas mining were rated as poor.
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