The two-hour forum headed by eight politicians and scientific experts failed to bring clarity to the governments draft strategic land use policy, according to chair of the Bellata/Gurley Coal Seam Gas Action group Penny Blatchford.
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Mrs Blatchford attended the forum and questioned the mapping of strategic agricultural land in our area.
“Mr Hazzard has mapped out 9.6 per cent of the New England area as prime agricultural land,” Mrs Blatchford said.
“We know in the real world there is more strategic agricultural land than that. Our shire is recognised as having one of the highest agricultural outputs in Australia,” Mrs Blatchford added.
NSW Planning and Infrastructure Minister Brad Hazzard noted the plans were a first for the government and were turning out to be a “challenging process”. “We want to have the process honest and transparent and have no more dirty business deals behind dirty doors,” he said.
The draft plans were launched on March 6 and aim to identify certain areas as priority agricultural land.
However, those lands are not excluded from mining practices and are subjected to a “gateway” process, to be judged by a scientific committee.
“We thought the process would be upfront, but it does not protect anyone, even farmers who are on so called prime agricultural land are still subject to an exploration licence,” Mrs Blatchford said.
Since the plan’s release, they have continued to come under fire from politicians, mining companies, landholders and activists.
Prior to the forum the North West Alliance group held an action training protest session which ran for about an hour.
Mrs Blatchford said the session was aimed at giving people the tools to hold future protests or blockades as the fight against CSG mining continues to heat up.
“There were about 30 people mostly made up of farmer’s wives learning how to hold a protest,” she said.
“I found it very interesting. It was full of conservative farmers and people who are generally concerned about the future of farming.”
Another meeting in regards to the plan was hosted in Moree lastnight.
More details in Tuesday’s paper.
