On the first anniversary of the worst federal government in Australian history, it is galling to note that the Abbott government, in its constant campaign to trash Australia and its environment, will not back Australian farmers with the ‘water trigger’ and refuse open cut and underground coal mining on the Liverpool Plains.
With the Abbott government recently attempting to scrap the ‘water trigger’ legislation (introduced by former Member for New England, Tony Windsor) the current MP for New England, Barnaby Joyce, is using one of his standard cop-out lines that the issue is a state and not a federal government responsibility.
This is the same government that is readily willing to rubber stamp the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef and Great Artesian Basin (such as Abbot Point dredging and dumping or the Pilliga Forest CSG destruction/toxification/salinisation of NSW largest recharge area).
Farmland on the Liverpool Plains is some of the best agricultural land in the world, with top quality aquifers.
It appears that the NSW government with the compliance of the federal government is set to approve the Chinese government owned Shenhua Watermark open cut coal mine proposal. This beggars belief. Australia can’t afford to lose any of its water or arable land let alone it’s best.
The BHP- Billiton underground mine and the Shenhua open-cut fiasco should have both been dead in the water as soon as they were proposed. Instead we continue to endure coal mining and CSG approval systems corrupted legally and morally.
Ken Brown, Invergowrie, NSW
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
