Deborah Lilly, Mullumbimby
‘We’ve looked and listened, and we’re stepping up’, says the honourable PM about super-cheap loans for farmers being his drought-relief plan.
Meanwhile, around Narrabri, Whitehaven Coal have used so much water to wash their coal that Maules Creek has run dry, the Namoi River has run dry, and ground water has run dry, according to the ABC 7.30 Report this week.
Furthermore they are buying up properties with water, catching surface water, and taking ground water from aquifers and trucking it to the Maules Creek coalmine, deviating from planning approvals.
Local farmers say ‘We can’t compete’ and ‘It’s taking agriculture out of the game… there are more expansions to come’.
Remember ScoMo holding up his laminated lump of coal in parliament (Feb 2017) announcing ‘This is coal, don’t be ’fraid, don’t be scared, it’s COAL’. Perhaps we should be very afraid.
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. 
