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Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Page: 5365

Ms SAFFIN (Page) (09:33): I want to raise the issue of coal seam gas and what is happening in my area. What issue would bring together a children's TV character—that is, dirtgirl from dirtgirlworld—the Presentation Sisters of Lismore diocese, the CWA, five local councils, environmental groups, farmers and thousands of residents across the Northern Rivers?

This month, in Lismore, where I live, an estimated 7,000 people took part in a march and rally in the streets to make their voices heard in opposition to coal seam gas mining and exploration in the Northern Rivers region. This rally did not get media coverage on the national level but I wanted to bring this to the attention of the parliament because it was an incredible show of unity of purpose a very diverse group of people. The heading in the local paper, Northern Star, said, 'Community unites against CSG'. That is what we have in my area: a community, and a community united against CSG. Among them were the Presentation Sisters of Lismore. They marched under a banner which read, 'Presentation people say no to CSG'. As it said in the Northern Star, a directive from the International Presentation Association states that part of their mission is to confront personal and corporate greed:

… which contribute to the present extremes of wealth and poverty and the degradation of Earth.

One of the rally's organisers, Amanda Doran, said she got involved in the CSG action after hearing a Queensland farmer, Brian Monk, who has been travelling around giving talks on this. He was talking about his kids—or grandkids, I think it was—getting skin reactions from their bathwater, which had been polluted from CSG bore water. This is an issue that drew many people from the Northern Rivers to attend a rally in Sydney at the parliament, including members of the CWA both at state level and also locally. That was where dirtgirl from dirtgirlworld, a children's TV show, made her presence felt. As she said, she was making her first political stand on the issue of CSG.

Since early last year, anti-CSG groups have been getting active right across the region and have been coming to see me to raise their concerns. There is the Clarence Valley Alliance Against Coal Seam Gas, the Group Against Gas Kyogle, the Keerrong Gas Squad, CSG Free Northern Rivers, and the umbrella group, which is Lock the Gate—there is that broader movement, but it is Lock the Gate Northern Rivers, a local chapter. Also, four of the five local councils in my Page electorate have declared some form of moratorium. They are saying that they are against it because we do not know what the impacts are and we are very concerned about what we do know, particularly with water. Richmond Valley Council approved a moratorium on all new coal seam gas projects on council-owned land until the state government adopts its new Strategic Regional Land Use Policy.