The federal resources minister Ian Macfarlane announced early in his term that one of his first priorities was to expand the coal seam gas (CSG) industry in NSW.
This will put him on a collision course with a powerful rural and city alliance – including activists like mother-of-four Melinda Wilson from western Sydney.
Wilson helped form No CSG Blacktown and CSG Free Western Sydney. She is organising a protest outside the East Coast Gas Outlook conference in Sydney on October 22.
The rally aims to send a message to the new federal government that community opposition to CSG mining is not going away until it stops the rollout of the CSG industry.
“This conference is supposed to be discussing ways for agriculture and coal seam gas to co-exist,” Wilson told Green Left Weekly. “But no regulation can protect us from the dangers of CSG mining to our water, air, and soil – and our prime food producing agricultural lands.”
Key industry and departmental players are among attendees and presenters at the conference, including the CEOs of Metgasco and Icon Energy, and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA). The Australian Workers Union will also take part – the only union to declare its support for the CSG industry.
Wilson says governments are not doing enough to protect communities from the dangers of fracking and mining. She said the CSG industry has been allowed to dictate the terms of its engagement.
But this is changing as community pressure begins to bite. The NSW Labor Party once championed CSG, but recently introduced a bill to ban CSG mining in special areas of Sydney's water catchments.
The bill was tabled on October 17, one day after an August submission by the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) opposing CSG activities and longwall mining in the catchment's “special areas” was made public. The submission was signed by the SCA's former chief executive Ross Young, whose contract was terminated last month less than one year into a five-year term.
The special areas comprise 371,000 hectares around Sydney, Illawarra, Blue Mountains, southern highlands and Shoalhaven. They are a buffer to stop contamination of the water supply.
Wilson became active in the anti-CSG movement two years ago after hearing about children living near the Tara gas fields in Queensland becoming sick with constant ear and nose bleeds.
She said the Stop CSG and Lock the Gate movements have had many small victories, such as the NSW government's two-kilometre residential buffer zone. But this was not enough to protect communities as the Abbott government considers changing the land use bill to create loopholes for the CSG industry.
“This is our chance to show the Abbott government that we are not a minority group – we are the voice of the people. Profits before people is not acceptable – especially when our water can be contaminated by a cocktail of mining chemicals.
“If we don't all stand up now and stop fracking and CSG mining, our clean uncontaminated water supply will be just a story our children tell their grandchildren about,” Wilson said.
[The Stop CSG protest is on October 22 at 11am-1.30pm outside the Marriott Hotel at Circular Quay. Groups supporting this event include: ParraCAN; Parramatta Greens; The Wilderness Society; Socialist Alliance and Stop CSG groups from all over NSW.]