Caring for the Australian countryside

Resolving the conflict between agriculture and mining over prime land on the Liverpool Plains

Click to view presentation

Tuesday 2 October 2012, 6 pm

Tony Windsor MP
Independent Federal Member for New England
Australian Parliament

Tony Windsor is the independent federal member for New England in the Australian parliament. He is a primary producer and has lived near the town of Werris Creek his whole life where he operates the property 'Cintra'. Tony has a Bachelor of Economics Studies from the University of New England in Armidale. Tony first entered politics in 1991 as an independent member for Tamworth in the New South Wales state parliament, where he held balance of power, with three other independents. In 2001, he was first elected as the federal independent member for New England and currently holds the balance of power with five others in the House of Representatives. In 2010, the Australian Labor Party was able to form a minority Government with Tony’s agreement, which involved securing major Government commitment to regional Australia in areas such as infrastructure, telecommunications, local government, regional development, agriculture, water, health and education.

Resolving the conflict between agriculture and mining over prime land on the Liverpool Plains

The Liverpool Plains is often referred to as Australia’s food bowl, but beneath its highly-productive soils are rich deposits of coal and coal seam gas worth many billions of dollars. This lecture provides an overview of the conflicting interests of agriculture and mining in sensitive landscapes such as the Liverpool Plains, and identifies the failures of the planning system to minimise the risk of permanently damaging our best land. It also discusses the recent signing of a national partnership agreement between the Federal Government and the eastern states on coal seam gas and large coal mining development, which provides for the establishment of an independent expert scientific committee. The lecture will outline how researchers will map the environmental values of sensitive regions, and then assess the impact of proposed coal or coal seam gas developments both individually and also cumulatively across several projects. Key to restoring the public’s trust will be the independence of the committee and the way its recommendations are integrated into the state planning system.