Katrina Shields, Mullumbimby
I’ve been concerned for sometime now about Richmond MP, Justine Elliot’s ‘campaign’ against coal seam gas, which amounts to little more than lots of advertising and a blame-shifting exercise onto the state government. Justine’s position looks particularly shallow when we know there are many ways that the federal Government could intervene to protect our communities from the threat of CSG.
The recent announcement of a ‘water trigger’ in federal laws is a positive step, but it comes after the Labor environment minister already approved every major CSG operation in NSW, including massive new CSG mines at Gloucester!
On the other hand, I was relieved to see the Greens candidate, Dawn Walker actually commit to something credible – legislation to create a CSG exclusion zone over the north coast. This is what the Lock the Gate movement have been asking of all federal representatives.
Justine should put her money where her mouth is and introduce a bill in the arena where she is an elected representative to stop CSG and protect our communities and environment now. We need a federal representative that pushes for real action on CSG, not simply hides behind the state government. It looks more like a PR campaign than an action agenda.
