Market News Coalition split over mining farmland |
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TONY Abbott remains locked in a policy wedge over allowing farmers to reject the intrusion of mining on their land, with LNP leader Campbell Newman splitting from the Federal Opposition Leader. Mr Abbott was yesterday faced with an unlikely political alliance with the Greens, who supported his declaration that farmers should be able to say no to mining exploration and development on their own land. Labor seized on the conflict, describing Mr Abbott's position as a "sovereign risk" that would "upend the mining sector", or even shut it down. Signalling the Coalition was in turmoil over the pro-farmer claims, Mr Abbott refused to repeat his position when pressed on Saturday. Instead, his frontbench colleague Christopher Pyne tried to hose down his leader's claims, saying he was simply reflecting on the "cavalier attitude" of some miners and was not actually calling for legal changes. "I don't think Tony Abbott was saying that he believed farmers had the right to veto exploration on their properties," he said. "I think what he was saying was they should have more opportunities to negotiate and consult with the miners." The Coalition tensions came as Mr Newman said there were areas in Queensland where he would not allow coal seam gas. "I say right now today that we would not be approving open-cut coalmining on the Darling Downs, at Acland, indeed anywhere in that prime cropping land," he said. "Nor would we permit open-cut coalmining in the Golden Triangle (near Emerald). We also wouldn't permit underground coalmining unless the mining companies could demonstrate that the surface impacts were manageable. So the onus would be on them to make sure that you could still actually crop that land, put decent crops on that land." Mr Newman said he saw Mr Abbott's perspective on the power of gas companies but he did not believe farmers should be able to say no to exploration and development. "Mr Abbott is expressing the frustration of people on the land that are seeing gas companies just march on to the place, saying 'we've got all the legal rights', knocking down fences, just almost smiling and laughing at growers," Mr Newman said. Mr Abbott this week will face an awkward alliance with the Australian Greens, who seized on his support for farmers and announced plans for legislation that would require the written permission of landholders before using their land.
Authors: mining - Yahoo! News Search Results |