Farmers are claiming a partial victory after the Queensland government backed down on controversial changes to gas mining approvals above a vital underground water source.
Parliament passed amended legislation on Wednesday, reinstating a planning approval that gas companies need before drilling on farmland above the Condamine Alluvium.
The alluvium is a huge underground water supply beneath the Darling Downs that farmers rely on to grow crops and water livestock.
The government had originally planned to scrap the approval, known as a Regional Interests Development Approval (RIDA), arguing it duplicated other checks.
The backdown follows a fierce campaign from Darling Downs farmers and agricultural lobby groups.
Cecil Plains farmer Stuart Armitage says gas cannot coexist with farming in the Condamine Alluvium area. (ABC Rural: Brandon Long)
Save Our Darling Downs spokesman and Cecil Plains farmer Stuart Armitage said the win followed a hard-fought campaign.
“It is definitely a backflip,”
he said.
“It was really rewarding to see the parliamentary process work as well as it did because the original bill was just a disaster for us.”
Farmer Liza Balmain, also from the region, said the result was bittersweet.
“We are relieved that existing protections for our farms from gas mining will be retained, but we are not happy,” she said.
“We have been put through a terrible ordeal … and now we are basically back to square one.”
Pat Weir has been navigating the interests of the resources and agriculture sectors. (ABC Rural: Brandon Long)
Member for Condamine Pat Weir said he lobbied the government’s top brass to save the approval process once it became clear landholders wanted it kept.
“I rang the premier and deputy premier and said, in my view, the RIDA provisions need to remain, and the bill needs to be amended to reflect that,” he said.
“The deputy premier agreed.”
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said the changes delivered an election commitment and accused Labor, which voted against the bill, of having “repeatedly ignored local community and landholder concerns over the Condamine Alluvium” while in power.
The legislation also creates a dedicated compensation framework for farmland damaged by coal-seam-gas-induced subsidence or sinking, welcomed by Cotton Australia and the Queensland Farmers Federation.
But Mr Armitage said the compensation was only “the bare minimum”, echoing a warning from Katter’s Australian Party MP Robbie Katter that one-off payments were a “sugar hit” for farmers planning to work their land for generations.
Darling Downs farmers last week lined up more than 70 machines at Stuart Armitage’s Cecil Plains farm to spell out the words “no gas”. (Supplied: Save Our Darling Downs)
“We’re on fourth-generation farming here now,” Mr Armitage said.
“This sugar hit of compensation and potential damage to what we’re farming just should never occur.”
Mr Armitage said the fight was far from over, calling for a moratorium on gas in the alluvium area.
“The battle continues,” he said.
