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Gloucester & Liverpool Plains Farmers Descend on State Parliament authorised by GRIP
4.6.09

Gloucester is under attack from a State Government Minister intent on mining prime agricultural land right up to the township itself. The NSW Premier shows no leadership and is silent on this whilst a coal exploration company (Gloucester Resources Limited) is buying thousands of acres of prime agricultural land surrounding Gloucester with their blessing.
Gloucester citizens and Council are united in their vision for Gloucester as a significant source of food and peaceful and natural recreation area for Australia's growing population.

About Gloucester:
Gloucester is 250kms north of Sydney with a regional population of 5,000. It is the gateway to the world heritage listed Barrington Tops and home to some of the most beautiful rural scenery Australia has to offer. Gloucester is enjoying balanced and sustainable industry development and a very healthy tourist industry.
Water, our most precious resource, is abundant. We have one of the most pure and reliable sources of water on the east coast of Australia. Our valley feeds the Manning Valley and Myall Lakes and Port Stephens catchments.
Gloucester currently produces a wide range of foods including: beef, milk, cheese, wine, olives, oils, poultry, pork, vegetables, fruits & nuts.

A Small Community Needs BIG City Support
The State Government has ignored our approved, long-term sustainable local environment plan. Instead they have allowed coal exploration to occur in scenically protected zones immediately around the town. These zones include residential subdivisions, productive food producing farmland, and areas with significant creeks and water catchments.

Shame Labor
This LABOR State Government is NOT BEING HONEST with the people of Gloucester. Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald has been telling the media for months now that it is "JUST EXPLORATION". He finally admitted on March 26 that the prospect of a coal mine close to our town was a real possibility. Gloucester is sick of being lied too. We are sick of being ignored by this Government.

Peaceful Protest
We are going to parliament today in a peaceful demonstration to support Mining Amendment (Safeguarding Agricultural Land and Water) Bill 2009
The object of this Bill is to amend the Mining Act 1992 to protect prime agricultural land (and water sources that feed prime agricultural land) from mining operations. As a result of the proposed section to be inserted in the Mining Act 1992, an exploration licence, assessment lease or mining lease cannot be granted under that Act in relation to any such protected land and planning approvals under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (such as development consents or Part 3A project approvals) cannot be given for the purposes of mining operations on that land. Prime agricultural land is defined in the proposed section as land that is identified as Class 1 or 2 land in accordance with the agricultural land classification by the Department of Primary Industries. The Director-General of that Department will be required to identify (by way of maps) land that is protected land for the purposes of the proposed section and to make that information publicly available.

Background Information to this Bill
High quality farming land is a limited and precious resource. Successive Governments have failed to protect it from mining interests.
Water supplies in our state's prime agricultural producing areas, such as Gunnedah basin and the Gloucester Valley, are threatened by the runaway expansion of the coal industry in NSW. The evidence is already in that open cut and long wall coal mining causes lasting damage to aquifers and water catchment areas.
Mining interests have won out over farming for decades. This Labour Government has always backed the coal industry at the expense of local communities, rivers and underground water resources and the environment. Farming communities have been short changed with Ian Macdonald as the responsible Minister for agriculture because he also has the mining portfolio.
This bill has been produced to safeguard the long term future of agricultural producers, such as the Caroona farmers in the fertile Liverpool Plains, who are battling to save the valuable farming land around Gunnedah. We need to send a clear message to the government that safeguarding farming land and water catchments needs to be put before mining interests. Communities, families, and future generations will pay for this destruction decades after profits have been posted and mining operations closed down.