Greens call for ban on mining on prime farmland

“Eighty percent of Queensland is under a mining tenement, and just 2.2% of Queensland is cropping land. It’s high time Bligh acted to protect that tiny proportion of our food growing areas when the mining industry has free rein over the vast bulk of Queensland,” said Greens lead Senate candidate for Queensland, environmental lawyer Larissa Waters.

“Too much of Queensland’s precious food growing land is being threatened – prime farmland at Felton, Haystack and Kingaroy could be turned into mines.  

“Farmers are being treated like dirt by profit-hungry mining companies, and Queensland laws allow it. In most cases famers cannot withhold consent for miners to enter their land and sometimes only get a week’s notice of entry onto the land. It is shameful and Bligh must immediately amend state laws to ban new mines from prime agricultural land,” said Ms Waters.            

The government’s discussion paper merely envisages a higher level of assessment of the impacts of mines on only the highest class of cropping land, where mining ‘may’ be incompatible if the land cannot be restored to its previous productive capacity. Development proposals in the ‘overwhelming long term public interest’ may still be approved – which the Greens fear is a loophole to permit business as usual.  

“The recent Bligh government discussion paper on protecting strategic cropping land is far too weak. It presupposes that land can be rehabilitated after mining and used for cropping again. But history has shown that no mine site has ever been restored to its previous productive capacity. We can’t take that risk with the precious little good quality cropping land Queensland has. Prime farm land must be off limits for new mines until the companies can demonstrate complete rehabilitation is possible - and they haven’t yet.

“As we try to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, locally grown food will become even more important and consumers will demand it. You can’t eat coal,” concluded Ms Waters. 

The Greens submission to the government’s discussion paper on strategic cropping land also called for:

• the ban on mining in national parks to be extended to all protected areas listed under the Nature Conservation Act, most importantly nature refuges - privately owned land voluntarily protected with government support;
• strengthening of the rights of landholders affected by mining;
• full protection for groundwater recharge areas for strategic cropping lands; and
• prime farm land to be protected from other inappropriate land uses like urban expansion, industrial development and dams.

Larissa Waters will be a guest speaker tonight, March 18, at the Kingaroy RSL Torbruck room, where she will address issues posed by Cougar Energy's proposed Underground Coal Gasification Project to concerned Kingaroy residents and landholders.

For comment:

Larissa Waters - Greens lead Senate candidate for Queensland - larissa.waters@qld.greens.org.au