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A Sydney legal counsel firm has said the access to land by mineral or gas explorations, would leave landowners fighting a David versus Goliath battle but unfortunately this time David won`t have a slingshot.
This is wrong, David has the strongest weapon in his grasp and that is the common law Crown protection to the title holder of any land under question.
This authority, given to property owners by the Crown at the point in time where the Crown leases were converted to freehold, is the strongest tool anyone has to combat the sweeping changes Resources Minister Roberts is suggesting.
Minister Roberts said there would be changes after the March elections.
How can there be changes to our property rights that have been guaranteed by our Commonwealth Constitution without conducting a nation-wide referendum of the people?
The huge Shenhua coal mine in the Gunnedah district is an example of a foreign company using our Crown protective common law system to their own advantage.
This system was handed down from the terms and condition that were won when the Magna Carta was signed, some 800 years ago.
Now, in 2015 the Shenhua mine is almost to fruition because the owners agree to mine and apparently the terms and conditions of Gunnedah Council’s LEP are being met.
No other bodies need to be involved. It is not a state issue.
Minister Roberts has pledged to adopt the 32 recommendations at state level of an independent revue on access agreements.
I believe Minister Roberts need only look to one recommendation and that be the rights of a property owner to issue a trespass notice if any intruder enters his or hers property without the owner’s permission.
Bevan O’Regan
Narrabri