2015-11-24
Nationals Senators have failed to stand by their own claims that they believe landholders should have the right to say no to coal seam gas by voting against on a Greens' Senate motion today.
Queensland Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens Deputy Leader and mining spokesperson, who put forward the motion, said:
"Our motion included the claims of Warren Truss, Barnaby Joyce, Fiona Nash, Michael McCormack, Andrew Broad, Bridget McKenzie, John Williams and Matthew Canavan.
"But the Nationals Senators failed to stand by those claims and voted against the motion.
"The Nationals need to come clean to farmers who are forced to have coal seam gas drills on their land without any legal right to say no.
"Without any legal rights to say no, landholders face a David and Goliath battle and are backed into a corner by big mining companies who know farmers have to take whatever they're offered.
"The Nationals need to stop taking political donations from big mining and gas companies, and stop saying one thing in regional communities and on national TV and another in the Senate chamber.
"We Greens have a bill in the Senate to ban fracking and to give landholders, including farmers, native title holders and local councils, the right to say no to unconventional gas, including CSG, and coal mining," Senator Waters said.