ParraCAN members, Harry Stevens, Annie Nielsen, Clelia Koch, John Koch and Phil Bradley took a message to Julie Owens about coal and coal seam gas mining.
Members of Parramatta Climate Action Network (ParraCAN) joined the Lock the Gate Call to Country action to all Federal MPs across Australia. They presented Julie Owens, Federal MP for Parramatta with the Call to Country Manifesto Scroll. This has eight suggested actions which a responsible federal government should implement urgently to protect our air, water and land from pollution caused by coal seam gas and mining. (See full text of demands [link]
If the federal government imposed this moratorium we would have much greater certainty that the state government would not drop the ban after the federal election. We urged Ms Owens to support this action.
UNDER THE POWERS OF THE CONSTITUTION WE ARE ASKING ALL OUR FEDERAL MPS TO ACT NOW.
1. Put in place an urgent moratorium on coal seam gas and other unconventional gas mining
Stop processing any applications for exploration or production of unconventional gas under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, until a rigorous scientific research program has been completed into its impacts on human health, water resources and the environment. This should include an assessment by the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme of all substances used in drilling and fracking fluids.
2. Use trade and commerce powers to create no-go zones to protect productive agricultural land, national tourism icons and all residential dwellings from coal and gas mining.
The Federal Government has constitutional powers to make laws with respect to trade and commerce and corporations and their export activities. These powers should be used to prevent export of coal or unconventional gas that has been obtained from productive agricultural land, national tourism icons or in the vicinity of human habitations. The latter should take the form of large buffer zones around all residential dwellings.
The powers could be enacted through the existing Customs Act 1901, related export laws or new measures. These powers have been used in the past to control some forms of mining, including to restrict sand-mining at Fraser Island. In that case, the High Court of Australia found that it was a legitimate use of Commonwealth powers to regulate trade and commerce in this manner.
3. Strengthen Federal environment laws to exclude coal and gas mining from important water sources, cultural heritage sites and sensitive environment areas.
The Federal Government has constitutional powers to make laws with respect to external affairs, including any matters protected by international treaties. However, both the Federal Government and the Federal Opposition have indicated their intention to weaken the power of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and hand over approval powers for large mining developments to state governments. This would dramatically weaken a legal system which is already inadequate.
Instead of weakening our environment laws, they should be strengthened to include a trigger for the protection of water resources and to require an upfront regional assessment of the cumulative impacts of coal and gas mining and the creation of exclusion zones for important water resources, cultural heritage sites and sensitive environment areas. Full approval powers should remain with the Federal Government.
4. Put in place appropriate national standards on coal and gas pollution and enforce compliance with them.
Current air pollution standards in Australia are implemented by an agreement under the Council of Australian Governments - the National Environment and Protection Measure for Ambient Air Quality (
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