I am a victim of the system. My property is out of the CSG exclusion zone but is 110 acres of certified organic land.
Attempts to appeal to all levels of government have failed. Lismore Council commiserates, NSW government says we can appeal but success is an unlikely prospect, and the federal government representatives look like rabbits caught by the lights of an unstoppable car that will yield to nothing or no-one except the pressures of a non-sustainable mining industry.
How many times and how many of us have hit our heads against this proverbial brick wall? It’s not just about CSG.
Our outdated system of government promotes the ‘boys’ club’, which encourages profits, and the price of that privilege is our poverty.
Even here in paradise generational poverty, lack of work and homelessness is rife. We as citizens have been tossed around in a system that will create a lower class, devalue our land, threaten our health, and once again a mining company of all companies will triumph over the will of the people.
Didn’t we vote our elected members in on a platform of ‘duty of care’?
The failure lies in our system of government. It has failed from its lowest level in councils in not promoting the excellence of these non-excluded hamlets and pristine country to the inexplicable denial that the NSW government should look after the welfare of all its people.
Bottom line is no amount of political ‘buck-splitting or bull’ will save this system that shows complete indifference for the service of the land and the undeniable rationale that we need to service the planet first and not their money belts.
From a farmer’s point of view, our elected members need to live in total reality. We voted you in because you have a ‘duty of care’ to the environment and its people. Do your job.
Catherine Ford, Rosebank
