Prime agricultural land protest movement strengthening

THE Queensland Government is facing an increasingly united front against the incursion of mining onto prime agricultural land.

As Premier Anna Bligh prepares for a series of government and industry-directed community forums through regions affected by coal seam gas, the grassroots protest movement continues to strengthen.

This article originally appeared in Queensland Country Life on August 2nd. See the original article here.  An extract of this article is reproduced here.

An interview with Drew Hutton on ABC Radio on the 26th July can also be downloaded here.

The latest round in the ongoing mining and agriculture bout saw angry protesters from around the state descend on Roma for the community cabinet meeting last week.

The protesters, from a range of newly organised groups, arrived in buses and cars armed with placards highlighting a raft of issues. And while their focuses might have differed, the common thread among the groups was their concern over the impact of mining in their communities and the lack of response from the Queensland Government.

Among the protest rally was the Golden Triangle Community Group, a Springsure-based unit concerned about strategic cropping. The group had all downed tools in the middle of their grain harvest season at their busy properties to hire a 60-seat bus and take their concerns directly to the State Government.

Another group, the Wandoan Clean Foods Alliance, formed less than a week earlier, took the step of becoming an incorporated group after months of debate because they were spurred on by the opportunity to rally directly to government ministers against the planned coal-mining venture on the outskirts of their town.

Six Degrees spokesperson Drew Hutton, who addressed the Roma rally, said the protest movement was gaining strength across the state: 

The government hasn't done its homework and now it is trying desperately to catch up - all this government seems to be good at is spin.

All the government saw was gold at the end of the rainbow. They thought they'd be able to earn hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties and it would solve their financial problems and they'd go into the next election saying they've created jobs.

But they didn't put the time and effort into ensuring these developments didn't go into good cropping land and ensuring they won't damage important environmental assets such as the Great Artesian Basin.

Even Queensland Resource Council chief executive Michael Roche said the mining industry needed to more actively engage with agricultural and community groups in affected areas:

Industry has got to do a hell of a lot more. You can't pretend that there aren't concerns and you can't pretend that there haven't been examples of poor practice - industry just has to do much, much better.

The next focus for the increasingly mobilised yet unlikely protest alliance between agriculture and environmental groups is to engage people in the cities on the issues facing the bush, with a rally planned outside Queensland Parliament on August 4.

Mr Hutton has opened an office at Warra to act as a conduit between bush and city people.

As Mr Hutton said: 

A lot of people don't understand the issues, but they know there's a big moral issue there and that now has to be converted into political power.

If the government is not going to listen to the concerns of Queenslanders - both in the bush and in the city - about the impact of mining on agricultural land, then they will pay the price for it fairly shortly.