Noosa will need a strong, articulate presence on all issues in the State Parliament in the next few years if its present status as an example to the rest of Australia of balance between sustainable development and environmental protection, and the principles of the Noosa Biosphere, is to be maintained.
The international status of the Noosa Biosphere is at threat when the LNP and Labor are silent about the destruction of biosphere principals in Noosa’s companion region, the Great Sandy Biosphere. Labor encourages coal mining and gas extraction in Noosa’s adjacent Biosphere while the LNP MPs in Noosa, Gympie and the Federal Electorate [Wide Bay] sit back silently supporting coal and gas in the Mary Valley and along the reaches of the Mary River.
The same coal resources that are found along the Mary River, and are to be developed by Tiaro Coal, extend down into the Sunshine Coast. Already exploratory drilling has occurred at Wolvi, just to the north of the Noosa Biosphere boundary
If Government and Opposition representatives cannot open their mouths against coalmining and coal seam gas [CSG] in and about our region, how can they be trusted on the Noosa Biosphere? The LNP will say anything on policies and then protect their real policy positions with back door clauses.
The LNP and Labor are no better than each other in sharing policies on CSG to encourage and provide infrastructure to the CSG extraction industry when all around the world governments are imposing moratoriums to study the blatantly obvious negative impacts on the resources farmers and householders use.
The sitting member and the out-of-town Labor candidate are in no position to stand up and protect Noosa’s hard won environmental heritage, which provides the platform for so many tourist jobs in Noosa and the hinterland, because their parties have determined to support the industries which will do most to destroy what the Biosphere stands for.
Yesterday’s accident at Arrow Energy’s gas well near Dalby, where a coal seam gas well exploded, is another incident which should tell the Bligh Government to suspend coal seam gas extraction [CSG] in Queensland immediately.
Coal seam gas exploration wells have been drilled in the Mary Valley near Munna Creek not far from Gympie. We suspect that exploration drilling along the Coondoo Creek near Wolvi is likewise for CSG.
CSG extraction is highly risky for health, water resources and farm production as we have seen in Gaslands, 4Corners and in events on the Darling Downs, such as the fourth well explosion at Arrow Energy near Dalby:
CSG well blow-out near Dalby
Greens leader, Bob Brown, last year criticised the Federal Government for not considering the impacts of CSG on prime food producing land.
The Mary Valley, Darling Downs and the South Burnett are all rich food producing areas that must be protected.
In calling for a moratorium on CSG – a principle that must apply to the intentions of coal miners to turn the Mary Valley into a Queensland version of the environmentally damaged Hunter Valley – Bob Brown said the Australian Greens will move to amend federal laws to add climate and coal seam gas triggers to the Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act, so the cumulative impacts of this new industry are properly considered before approval is given.
With Queensland Green Senator-elect, Larissa Waters, due to take her seat in a few weeks together with a number of other new Greens senators, the Greens will be in a position to strengthen calls to suspend CSG extraction. Meanwhile, Wide Bay Federal MP and leader of the National Party remains silent about protecting the Mary Valley from coalmining and CSG. Likewise there is deafening silence from Gympie State MP, David Gibson, who actually voted against a moratorium in the State parliament on 24 November last year, voting with the Bligh Labor Government [see Hansard for 24 November, p. 4287]. This is what Mr Gibson voted for:
That this House:
• notes that the CSG industry has been operating successfully in Queensland for at least 10 years;
• acknowledges the extensive laws and regulations that the CSG industry is now subject to in Queensland;
• recognises the substantial benefits that will accrue to rural and regional Queensland from the development of this industry;
• supports the ongoing development of a sustainable CSG/LNG industry in Queensland; and
• supports the adaptive management regime in place to ensure the ongoing monitoring of the environment.
It was a sell-out of the farming sector, rural communities the environment, the Artesian Basin and our grandchildren’s future. Mr Gibson, who made a speech in Parliament opposing the Traveston Dam, by his silence does not seem to think that coalmining and CSG extraction will be as damaging – if not more so – to the Mary River as the proposed dam.
The Greens opposed Traveston Dam and Bob Brown articulated the Greens’ concerns about the degradation of the river that would have occurred from the dam. His comments apply equally to mining along the Mary River and its tributaries:
For more on coal and coal seam gas visit Action on Coal and Gas,a project of the Rural and regional Greens.
Jim McDonald, Wide Bay Greens spokesperson, 24 May 2011
If Warren Truss spent as much time looking after his farming and regional constituency, thinking positively about a real food security policy, as he does advocating against mining taxes on behalf of his mates in the coalmining lobby, perhaps less of this would be happening. The Mary Valley in his own electorate – some of it good farming land – faces devastation on a Hunter Valley scale from coalmining and CSG. What has Warren said about it? Nothing.
The Federal and State Governments are betraying Australia’s interests by allowing large scale buyouts of top quality agricultural land in this country, according to the Greens Spokesperson for Noosa and Wide Bay , Dr Jim McDonald.
He said it was already happening on the Sunshine Coast. Dr McDonald was commenting on a report in the Noosa News [18 January 2011] on a multi-national corporation’s purchase of the Yalanga property near Kin Kin by Nexis Holdings, increasing its holdings on the Sunshine Coast to 2,140 hectares. Nexis bought up 500 hectares in two macadamia farms on the Coast early last year.
Dr McDonald said, “Under present foreign acquisition rules, foreign companies are buying up large tracts of land in anticipation of the effects of climate change on world food production. If that continues, Australia will not only become the world’s quarry, but will have lost control of its food production to foreign interests.
“In the past few years, the Federal Government has sat on its thumbs while corporations owned by foreign governments have bought prime land as part of their food security strategy. Under current rules Nexis has no obligation to submit its purchase of Yalanga to the Foreign Investment Review Board for a reported $25 million because it is under the FIRB limit of $231 million. Yet the Nexis purchase is part of a strategy to buy up half a billion dollars worth of land in Northern NSW and Queensland.”
He said that the Nexis announcement on Yalanga, which is only a few kilometres from Boreen Point, left its future intentions unclear. Nexis does not have an agricultural base and recently bought up 50 percent equity in a limestone quarry in NSW for prefabricated concrete building panels.
“It is an outrage against the nation that there is presently no Federal strategy to protect the best agricultural land from foreign control and no cohesive food security strategy as a hedge against climate change. At the same time, the Queensland Government allows mining and coal seam gas exploration to degrade our best land.
“Examples of foreign government controlled corporations buying up agricultural land include Hassad Food, which is part of the Qatar Government’s Investment Authority. Hassad Food last year bought up 165,000 hectares of a group of NSW grazing properties and is buying properties on a global scale as a direct part of Qatar’s strategy of building food security against future pressures on food production.
“In another case, Shenhua Watermark Coal Pty Ltd, has bought up prime farmland for open cut coal mining on the Liverpool Plains in NSW. Shenhua is a subsidiary of the China Shenhua Energy Company, which is 68% owned by the Chinese Government.
State and Federal Governments also betray our region by failing to produce a strategy for food security in South-East Queensland. Government-owned farmland in the Mary Valley lies fallow and there is no thought given to developing the region in a post carbon economy.
South Australian Senator, Nick Xenophon, has introduced a private members bill to require FIRB scrutiny of foreign purchase of land over 5 hectares. Dr McDonald said this required all significant foreign purchases to be scrutinised. He said a failure to develop a food security strategy would leave open the possibility of FIRB rubber-stamping the sale of land, which should be reserved first for feeding Australia’s growing population let alone Australian companies exporting the surplus to the rest of the world.
Jim McDonald, Greens Spokesperson, Wide Bay Federal Electorate, Media Release, 18 January 2011
Coalmining threatens the Sunshine Coast, warned the Greens spokesperson for Wide Bay, Jim McDonald.
He said that Tiaro Coal Limited had already conducted aerial surveys in the Wolvi region, and recently reported to the Stock Exchange that it would soon commence exploration drilling in the district. It can do this under a coal exploration permit EPC967 issued by the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Planning.
Countryside near Wolvi [Photo, Jim McDonald]
The Greens raised coalmining along the Mary Valley as a major issue in the Wide Bay electorate during the recent federal election, and supported the Aldershot community near Maryborough in its fight against an open-cut coalmine just a couple of kilometres from their town.
“The Mary River is threatened by the strong possibility of open cut mines being dug from Munna Creek, one of its major tributaries in the Mary Valley, to Maryborough. That will have devastating effects on the ecology of the river, which is home to rare and threatened species, and on the internationally listed Great Sandy Wetlands, a sea grass environment that supports dugong, dolphins, prawns and fisheries.
“Now, the Sunshine Coast faces the intrusion of coalmining activity near the Noosa River catchment area. Coalmining has no place in coastal regions or where there is top quality farming land in Queensland.
Dr McDonald called upon the LNP spokesperson on the environment, Glen Elmes, and the Member for Wide Bay, Warren Truss, to reject open cut mining along the Mary River, the Cooloola Coast and the Sunshine Coast.
He said he doubted that they would do so, because the Nationals support coalmining in the region. “They certainly didn’t oppose the Colton Coal Mine during the Federal election.
“The Greens will fight the introduction of coalmines into our region.”
Jim McDonald, Greens Spokesperson, Wide Bay Federal Electorate, Media Release, 4 October 2010 Coverage: Sunshine Coast Daily 5/10/10; Gympie Times 6/10/10; Noosa News 8/10/10
The Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management [DERM] has rejected an application for an open-cut coal mine a mere 2-3 kilometres from the township of Aldershot and just outside the Maryborough City Boundary. A DERM spokesperson is reported to have said that the main grounds for rejection of Northern Energy Corporation’s application and Environmental Management Plan were soil characteristics, groundwater and potential impacts to waterways.
This represents a major win for the Aldershot community, which has campaigned long and hard against the mine.
We congratulate the Aldershot community in its steadfast and savvy campaign against the Colton Coal Mine, an open cut mine that was to be dug on the community’s doorstep.
Without Aldershot and District against Mining’s [AADAM] campaign, Northern Energy Corporation’s plans for an extensive mine outside Aldershot and Maryborough might have slipped under the radar and been approved by the State Government.
They did not go it alone, though, and the Wide Bay Conservation Council is also to be congratulated in standing shoulder to shoulder with the community.
The same cannot be said for local politicians, none of whom openly opposed the mine, with the exception of a single Fraser Coast Regional Councillor. The only party that consistently fought against the mine on public health and environmental grounds was The Greens.
The whole question of mines along the Mary River and its basin needs to be re-evaluated by the Bligh Labor Government before any more of the mining companies seek to exploit the Maryborough Coal Basin.
Jim McDonald, Greens Spokesperson, Wide Bay Federal Electorate, 30 September 2010
The announcement last week of the extent of coal deposits at Munna Creek along the Mary Valley represents one more threat to the environment integrity of the Mary River system. After years of threat to the River from the Queensland Government’s Traveston Dam proposal, the threat to the world heritage wetlands at the mouth of the Mary River from the Colston coalmine application, and the Queensland Government plans to pipe water from the Mary River any way, the River now faces threats from open-cut mines at Munna Creek and Tiaro. These are two different coal exploration areas granted to Tiaro Coal Corporation. A third is located in the Tin Can Bay – Rainbow Beach hinterland.
The Munna Creek – Tiaro developments on top of the emergence during the Federal election campaign of the Colton Coal Mine issue represents an escalation of a campaign to protect our region from being turned into a Queensland version of the Hunter Valley, which is disastrous for public health as well as the environment. The Colton Coal Mine is an open-cut mine planned by Northern Energy Corporation a mere couple of kilometres from the Aldershot township just outside Maryborough. That mine is planned to expand into an area drained by the Susan River, which flows directly into the Mary River estuary and the Great Sandy wetlands reserve.
Jim McDonald, Greens Spokesperson, Wide Bay electorate, 27 September 2010
Green Candidate’s response to Coalition promise to pledge $125,000 to support the Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee riparian tree planting program:
I welcome Mr Truss’s initiative to support the wonderful work done by Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee, but it could be a matter of too little too late. As well as the ecological vandalism from the State Government pipeline, the Mary River faces major threats from open-cut coalmining at Tiaro, the beautiful Munna Creek and Aldershot. Mr Truss has been silent on protecting the Mary River from the inevitable impacts on groundwater and aquifers on the health of the Mary River. The proposed mines will also threaten the heritage of the internationally recognised Great Sandy wetlands at the mouth of the Mary River.
While the promised funding would assist the work of the Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee, Mr Truss commits nothing to protecting the Mary River from environmental disaster arising from coalmining.
Comments published in an article in the Noosa News, Friday, 13 August 2010
River pollution from a coal mine in NSW south of Sydney confirms the concerns that the Greens have for the prospect of coalmining in the Wide Bay electorate.
The Greens candidate for Wide Bay, Dr Jim McDonald, said that an independent water quality report by researchers from the University of Western Sydney has shown contaminated water from an underground coalmine near Appin is flowing into the Georges River, south of Sydney [Sydney Morning Herald 4 August 2010]
He said that the report concludes that the levels of contamination are toxic to aquatic life. These are the real threats faced by proposals that would turn the Wide Bay electorate into another Hunter Valley.
Proposed open-cut coalmines at Tiaro, Munna Creek, which flows into the Mary River, and the Colton Coal Mine near Maryborough will affect the ecosystems of the Susan River and Saltwater Creek, Munna Creek and the Mary River itself.
The potential damage to the Mary River and Hervey Bay eco-systems of mine run-off on will affect the farming economy along the river system, the tourism industry in Maryborough and the world listed Great Sandy Straits wetlands reserve at the mouth of the Mary River. It will undermine the viability of the Great Sandy Biosphere, which aims at sustainable development in the region.
These dangers, the effect on regional agricultural productivity and the tourism industry, the effect on community health of coalmines, and the need to stimulate industries in a low carbon economy are the compelling reasons why the Greens oppose coal mining in the Wide Bay electorate.
Please download the Queensland Greens Membership Form here or contact us directly
here.
"No world leader can ignore the planet's population burden. There were 3 billion people when Kevin Rudd was born. There are 6.8 billion now. There will be 9 billion by mid-century. This population boom is not economic wisdom, it is a recipe for planetary exhaustion and great human tragedy."
Bob Brown, September 2009
We would love to hear from YOU...
We would love to hear from you, what YOU consider our priorities should be to ensure our communities remain special and sustainable. Please feel welcome to contact our convenor Steve Haines directly at steve@widebaygreens.org or mobile 0421 00 1956.
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