COAL SEAM GAS TALKS HIT MOREE

Fertile plains under frack attack
June 18, 2011 SMH.

It’s hard to know where to start on this latest offering from the fourth estate; maybe start with the title – fertile plains- the photo shown hardly screams fertility, more a case of slash and burn. I guess if you look past the fields of dreams to the small hills beyond, at least they’re green, maybe how the Pilliga Scrub once looked. For a headline grabber you can’t go past – frack attack- although I note Eastern Star Gas for many years has been saying it won’t use fracking, the article doesn’t make clear if Planet Gas will use fracking, but relies on Mr Cush to comment on the company’s extraction process.

Eastern star gas is proposing to clear 2410 hectares of vegetation, this represents little more than half of Mr Cush’s farm, so an area only about half of just one farm will generate multi millions in revenue and will become a large employer in a community desperate for jobs, I guess if you can afford to sit down to a bowl of upmarket pasta you don’t really have to worry about what its like to be unemployed. On a percentage basis I wonder how much of Mr. Cush’s fertile plains sit on cleared land, as I note statements like;

– on their rich black soils, gravel roads intersecting their crops.

– For Doug Cush, coal seam gas and prime agricultural land are incompatible.

It seems to me Aboriginals and farmers are the ones who are incompatible, Mr. Doug Cush is described as a third-generation farmer in the area, I wonder how many aboriginals can boast to have like Mr Cush’s 4650 hectares of plum agricultural farmland between Narrabri and Moree.

I remember being told by farmer about how his grandfather poisoned a watering hole to drive out local aboriginals from his farm, so I am heartened to see comments from the chief executive of NTSCORP (the native title representative body) Mr Warren Mundine on the benefits from the mining industry for traditional owners, in jobs and enterprise development.

”The current global demand for Australia’s natural resources provide opportunities for real long-term economic advancement Aboriginal people,” he wrote. ”As a general rule, traditional owners in NSW want to work with mining companies to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes in a culturally appropriate manner.”

Mr Cush may well be a third generation farmer from the area, but can’t lay claim to being first to harvest the land, that privilege can only go to traditional owners who were pushed off land through theft and murder. I’m use to seeing soft and cuddly farmers, animals, or tractors in the header above any story the ABC claims to represent rural Australia, but expected more from the Sydney morning herald.

To quote the words of Billy Bragg;

This earth divided
We will make whole
So it will be
A common treasury for all

The sin of property
We do disdain
No man has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain
By theft and murder
They took the land
Now everywhere the walls
Spring up at their command

Maybe for clarity and honesty Mr Cush could document how much fertilizer or fossil fuels is used in the production of his upmarket pasta, or like the UK every packet could list the amount of CO 2 generated in its production. Sadly the debate on coal seam gas seems to be a one sided affair. So let me get this right farming land is only for farmers, which begs the question why then when it rains too much the hands come out for flood relief, and when there’s no rain the hands out for drought relief, or if another country has better or cheaper quality produce they look for market protection.

I believe the average age of a farmer in Australia is 57, to that point I include a question from the New South Wales parliament:

Young Farmer Incentive Programs.

The Hon. ROBERT BROWN: My question without notice is addressed to the Minister for Roads and Ports, representing the Minister for Primary Industries. Is it a fact that the average age of farmers is now 52 and that the number of young farmers in Australia is rapidly declining—down by 60 per cent in 25 years?

The Hon. DUNCAN GAY: That is another good question. I am surprised to hear that the average age of farmers is 52; I thought it was a bit more than that. A few years ago it was 57 or 55. I thought that as I got older their average age was increasing at the same rate, disappointingly for them.

From NSW Parliament May 2011

When did farmers become a protected species, protected by the media, government, and now the Greens, the next time the farming sector cries poor and looks for another handout from taxpayers, let’s not be so hasty to hand over the loot. Maybe we would be the lucky country if we weren’t resource rich, and Australians might be happy with higher costs of living and taxation to fund Health Services, Education, Social security, government programs, and taxation etc, personally I’m pretty sure most families in this country are stretched enough now.

High fuel costs mean higher food cost, rather than being reliant on an unstable Middle East we should look to produce as much domestic energy locally, so the next time prices are through the roof this country is positioned to handle higher energy and food costs better than countries that aren’t resource rich. Having lived north of Byron Bay for many years, I always wondered what it would be like if an oil tanker broke up along our coast as happens in so many other countries around the world, my point is the less we rely on foreign energy supplies the less likely our coastline will end up covered in crude oil.

No one can argue against protecting the environment, but we should not be hoodwinked into thinking that farmers are the new green, and only have the environments best interests at heart, when it’s clearly their interests they’re worried about. For an industry that’s reliant on taxpayers’ funding, is ageing rapidly, has problems attracting new blood, has slashed and burnt its way through large tracks of Australia, and dropped more chemicals than the hippies duped into believing farmers are good for the environment, I say no fracking way should we let so few who own so much of this country deprive Australians of an energy source that can generate electricity up to 70% cleaner than coal.

Horizons-business BBC http://horizonsbusiness.com/#playlist/107 shows the future of clean energy and where this industry can go if allowed not to be stubbed out by the interests of a few, we can also add the benefits of treated water from CSG for sale back to farmers prone to drought. Farming has polluted more river systems, spawned weeds tolerant to some of the worst chemicals known to man, and made parts of Australia uninhabitable. I ask you to think long and hard what higher fuel prices will do to farmers and Australians already struggling to make ends meet, and unlike Mr Cush’s and his multimillion dollar upmarket pasta business don’t enjoy living off the fat of the land.

Another problem I see with reporting the CSG industry is the prevalence to show hazard signs or half completed construction sites in the opening picture for any journalistic endeavour, anyone who has ever worked in construction will know that a bridge, road works, or property development will never look good during the buildings stage. In construction like farming you don’t have to go too far to find a gate with a hazardous chemical or danger sign warning workers to be careful, but unlike farming the method of choice with media portraying CSG is to be alarmist.

Farmers are not the owners of the land beneath their feet, but merely custodians of a common treasury for all. When we look back at Pauline Hanson and how her views grew so popular, you can’t go past certain sections of the media that gave her way too much oxygen and failed to ask the hard questions. It’s funny that Bob Brown, who for year was treated with kid gloves, is becoming so testy towards sections of the media willing to ask questions now he holds power in a minority government.

Regards MB