A Lismore councillor wants all northern rivers councils to take a united stand against the possibility of coal seam gas mining in the neighbouring Clarence-Moreton Basin.
Cr Simon Clough has lodged a notice of motion calling for the Lismore City Council to reject references made in the Draft North Coast Regional Plan that ‘coal seam gas resources (in the Clarence- Moreton Basin) may be able to support the development and growth of new industries and provide economic benefits to the region’.
Cr Clough also wants Lismore council to contact all local councils in the northern rivers for support in writing to Lismore MP Thomas George, and various ministers, expressing the councils’ rejection of the proposal.
He said northern rivers council had made it clear they did not want unconventional gas fields.
‘Communities and councils of the Northern Rivers have waged the largest and longest running social movement ever seen in this region to rid it of the possibility of unconventional gas mining,’ Cr Clough said.
‘Surveys of 33,670 people carried out in the northern rivers saw 147 communities declare themselves Gasfield Free with 95 per cent opposed to unconventional gas mining.
‘Not to mention the 87 per cent that voted against CSG in council’s poll.’
‘The Clarence-Moreton basin almost exactly matches the northern rivers councils’ (area).
‘The NSW state government has pledged that this area will be free from invasive, industrial gasfields.
‘The government paid Metgasco $25 million for its gas licences so that it would leave the area.
‘Yet the Department of Planning and Environment is raising the potential of coal seam gas returning.
‘The people of the region can rightly say, “What is the government thinking?”
The Lismore City Council meets on Tuesday at the council chambers in Goonellabah from 6pm.
Cr Simon Clough is too right to say ‘What is the government thinking?’ Chris Gulaptis and Thomas George should be jumping up and down asking ‘What is the government thinking,’ with the Department of Planning and Environment putting coal seam gas on the table again. The election was close last time and I reckon we should vote Thomas George MP and Chris Gulaptis MP out this time if they don’t have the Northern Rivers declared Gasfield Free! I’m sick and tired of having to spend all my time making sure they do what the majority of us want them to do instead looking out for multinational mining companies whims and wishes.
Indeed the people of the region will rightly be saying, “What is the government thinking?”
Clearly, ‘our’ government is not thinking. How dare they spend taxpayer money to rid the area of the curse that was metgasco, only to plunder any environmental protection mechanisms to fast track filthy holes in the ground and equally fast track those with a social/environmental conscience into either debt or jail!!
This has gone so far that it’s no longer the mining companies that are the worst environmental vandals, but ‘our’ own government!
Any employee failing to adequately perform his/her work duties would be sacked. This government is so unambiguously and arrogantly failing to represent the people it is paid to represent, it should be sacked and never given the opportunity to ‘work’ again!
Absolutely abhorrent. It is every bit as toxic as the industry it supports!