All councils from around NSW have unanimously supported a moratorium on coal-seam gas (CSG) mining and exploration, Ballina councillor Jeff Johnson said this week.

The news came from a recent local government conference in Nowra. ‘Every CSG motion at the conference was passed without opposition, from all political viewpoints.’

A Coal-Seam Gas Moratorium Bill is currently being debated in state parliament and started last Friday.

If passed, it would place a 12-month moratorium on the coal-seam gas industry, while also determining the industry’s impact on water resources, the climate and agriculture and communities.

‘We need to ask why both the NSW and Qld governments are refusing to listen to the people,’ Cr Johnson said.

Govt sell-out

‘I find it totally outrageous that any state government could sell mining rights for an exploitative business that may destroy some of our best farming land.

‘And don’t they realise they are alienating rural people and destroying rural communities in the process?

‘The evidence is clear that once aquifers and water supplies become contaminated there is no going back.

‘Once a gas field is up and running, with the associated infrastructure, noise and pollution, there will be no prospect of restoring the status quo.

‘It seems that we Australians, and our collective future, may have already been sold out.

‘The future we should be planning for would have solar farms in the desert instead of gas fields covering the farming land where strong rural communities used to be.

It’s time to draw a line in the sand and Lock the Gate.’

Greens NSW mining spokesperson Jeremy Buckingham says it is a ‘sensible bill that applies the precautionary principle to a potentially dangerous industry.

Greens push to halt

‘Tweny-five per cent of NSW is currently under coal-seam gas exploration. We need to press pause on this industry and consider whether we, as a society, will grant it a social licence to operate.

NSW Labor’s new coal-seam gas policy mirrors this bill, and I look forward to their support.’

Mr Buckingham says the debate is likely to carry over until a vote on Friday November 25.