NSW Lib Warn of Scare Campaign Against CSG

A NSW Liberal MP has accused opponents of coal seam gas mining of running a scare campaign by suggesting CSG threatens Australia's food security.   

In the strongest defence of CSG to emerge from within the NSW Coalition, upper house MP Scot MacDonald told parliament yesterday Australia is a net exporter of food and is likely to remain so indefinitely.

Farming and environmental groups opposed to CSG - which operates by pumping water into underground coal seams, depressurising them and extracting gas - have warned of risks to groundwater supplies and prime agricultural land.

But Mr MacDonald, the party's former country vice-president in NSW, said there was no data to support claims CSG is threatening agricultural production.

"Listening to some of the excitable commentary, you could be forgiven for thinking Australians will go from feeding 60 million people a day outside this country to foraging in the rubbish tips for scraps of food," Mr MacDonald said.

There is a policy vacuum in NSW on CSG as the O'Farrell government prepares a land use policy that will define prime agricultural land and set it off limits for mining.

While Mr MacDonald did not directly criticise that approach, he warned heavy-handed regulation risked crimping the freedom of farmers who want to profit by allowing CSG mining on their land.

Mr MacDonald said the greatest threat to Australia maintaining its food surplus was not CSG, but "weaker agricultural productivity growth; urban encroachment; bio-security threats; lack of commitment to trade liberalisation; the high Australian dollar; a profligate federal government; ageing and inadequate infrastructure to support agricultural trade; protectionism through mis-placed nationalism; deteriorating salinity in some areas; and workforce availability and skills".

The Australian

Editor:  How true is the statement that there is a Policy Vacuum in NSW ... not only on CSG but it seems to sum up the Liberal Party all over!!   The NSW State Government seems to be making policies on the run as required, however the scary thing is that it seems to be the policy  of the Coalition not to have any policies!!!  SQUAWK!!!  SQUAWK!!