The NSW Resources and Energy Minister, Chris Hartcher, has written to newspapers in regional and rural areas seeking to discredit groups involved in an anti-coal seam gas protest outside State Parliament tomorrow, warning they will "turn on" farmers.
The rally is being supported by the NSW Farmers Association, the Nature Conservation Council and other groups opposed to the state government's draft strategic land use policy for where and how coal and coal seam gas mining and exploration may occur.
The groups say the government has reneged on an election promise to quarantine sensitive agricultural and environmental land from mining exploration.
In the letter, Mr Hartcher says organisers of one of the groups, Stop CSG Illawarra, belong to the Socialist Alliance, a political party whose agriculture policy includes "sharply reducing cattle and sheep numbers … to minimise methane emissions per head".
He says another group, GetUp, "has continuing campaigns to ban live cattle exports".
"Now that the government has toughened controls on CSG activities, these protest groups will soon turn on NSW farmers," Mr Hartcher warns.
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Hunter Valley News
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