Bligh Has Sold Out Qld - Alan Jones

Broadcaster Alan Jones has called for Anna Bligh's scalp, accusing the Queensland premier of selling out her state's prime farming land to mining companies.

In a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Jones said food security was the biggest issue facing Australia's future.

Ms Bligh and her treasurer Andrew Fraser should be asked to stand down for their addictions to mining royalties, the Sydney-based commentator said.

'The mining industry is the upper house of Queensland - nothing happens without their approval,' said Jones, who hosts Australia's top rated breakfast radio program on Sydney's 2GB.

'If any general in war deliberately did to their troops, what the premier and treasurer in Queensland have done to their people, they would be court-martialled.'

Coal seam gas mining was out of control in Queensland and would turn the state into a 'moon crater' and industrial wasteland.

The Queensland, NSW and federal governments' approval of coal seam gas mining was putting at risk public health, water quality and the nation's ability to feed itself.

Jones, who was a speech writer and senior advisor to former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser, said scientists were unsure about the safety of fracking techniques - the injection of chemicals, water and sand at high pressures to crack rock and release gas - used by mining companies to find coal seam gas.

There are fears fracking chemicals will poison underground water, contaminate good agricultural soil and cause serious health problems.

'Farmers are being invaded,' Jones said, adding that many were bullied into selling their land and forced to sign confidentiality agreements.

'Our politicians have forgotten they are servants not masters.'

The former Rugby Union coach He also took aim at the leaders of the Queensland Liberal National Party, Campbell Newman and Jeff Seeney, for lunching with gas company executives and employing former mining company staff.

Eighty per cent of their home state was under mining exploration permits, Jones said.

'Don't destroy farmers to pay the bill, Anna Bligh,' he said.

Jones, who is also a friend of the Packer family, mocked the Queensland government's recent vow to protect prime agricultural land, with strategic cropping land legislation, labelling it 'false sincerity'.

'There has never been a coal mine in Queensland's history rejected on environmental grounds,' he said, adding that environmental impact statements were not worth the paper they were written on.

The statements were produced by consultants hired and paid for by mining companies.

'Of course they're biased; the hired consultant becomes an advocate for the mining company,' Jones said.

'The terms of reference for these environmental impact statements assume that the proposals will go ahead.'

Jones said 7000 gas wells at one Queensland site could produce enough salt to raise a pile '10 metres high and 11 kilometres long.'

There are going to be 40,000 wells in Queensland, he said.

Comment has been sought from the Queensland government.

SkyNews