On 1 November 2011, Qld Greens Senator Larissa Waters introduced the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Protecting Australia's Water Resources) Bill 2011 to the Federal Parliament. This amendment would give Federal government the final say as to whether a mining operation can take place and would take away some of the power from the states to do this. To date the states have been failing spectacularly to protect water resources, precious and scarce agricultural land, the natural environment, and the people who live in these mine-affected areas from rampant and destructive mining activities.
It would help to get the amendment passed if people wrote to politicians to support it. Following is a list of politicians to write to, and below that are some points you could make in your letter.
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;orderBy=priority,title;page=1;query=Dataset_Phrase%3A%22billhome%22%20ParliamentNumber%3A%2243%22%20ChamberSource_Phrase%3A%22senate%22;rec=14;resCount=Default The second reading speech can be found on p.45 of yesterday’s Senate Hansard -
http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/dailys/ds011111.pdf
Some points to make
1 Water is the most valuable resource our country has, and yet our scarce surface and ancient groundwater systems are under threat from significant and potentially irreversible impacts from the rash of mining operations expanding across all our states and territories. Inappropriate mining operations risk our environment, our food security, the viability of diverse agricultural activities, and the sustainability of the groundwater systems themselves – nationally important resources that do not respect state borders.
2 The federal government should have a regulatory role in managing the water impacts of coal and coal seam gas mining, and the flow-on effects those water impacts could have on the environment, food security and rural communities.
3 The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Protecting Australia’s Water Resources) Bill 2011 will help to protect Australian water resources from mining by requiring federal assessment and approval for mining operations likely to have a significant impact on Australia’s water resources. This is an important safeguard as do date the state governments have failed to protect these precious resources.
4 This Bill complements the Landholders' Right to Refuse (Coal Seam Gas) Bill 2011 introduced by Senator Larissa Waters on 24 August 2011, which is designed to provide Australian landholders with the right to refuse coal seam gas mining activities on food producing land without prior written authorisation. This is an additional step which would help protect the 4% of Australia’s good quality agricultural land from inconsistent land uses and stop the mining industry continuing to ride rough-shod over Australian farmers.
No comments:
Post a Comment