Well, despite every warning, the out-of-control coal seam gas juggernaut rolls on Queensland’s Resources Minister, Andrew Cripps, gave the green light to coal seam gas and oil shale mining in the Channel Country yesterday the Channel Country is a vast floodplain during wet periods with water channels at those times more than a kilometre wide.

It covers a huge area mostly in Western Queensland but also stretching to parts of NSW, Northern Territory and South Australia 

It contains 3 precious river systems – Cooper Creek, the Diamantina River and the Georgina River – which drain into Lake Eyre and, up until the Queensland Government recently repealed the former Labor Government’s Wild Rivers legislation, it was protected from mining but Andrew Cripps and the Queensland Government will open it up to CSG despite advice from their own Western Rivers Advisory Panel recommending a total ban on mining near floodplains and major rivers

Cripps is promising stringent controls on mining in the Channel Country but Bill Morish, a delegate who attended Cripps’ briefing yesterday, says Cripps refused to detail what these stringent controls were farmers’ body AgForce is extremely concerned Dale Miller a senior AgForce adviser said “our position on CSG is for a moratorium in those regions until there is adequate scientific knowledge about the potential impact” Governments and miners cannot be allowed to walk all over the public like this water is Australia’s most vital resource and it must be protected.

Well, despite every warning, the out-of-control coal seam gas juggernaut rolls on Queensland’s Resources Minister, Andrew Cripps, gave the green light to coal seam gas and oil shale mining in the Channel Country yesterday the Channel Country is a vast floodplain during wet periods with water channels at those times more than a kilometre wide.  It covers a huge area mostly in Western Queensland but also stretching to parts of NSW, Northern Territory and South Australia   It contains 3 precious river systems – Cooper Creek, the Diamantina River and the Georgina River – which drain into Lake Eyre and, up until the Queensland Government recently repealed the former Labor Government’s Wild Rivers legislation, it was protected from mining but Andrew Cripps and the Queensland Government will open it up to CSG despite advice from their own Western Rivers Advisory Panel recommending a total ban on mining near floodplains and major rivers  Cripps is promising stringent controls on mining in the Channel Country but Bill Morish, a delegate who attended Cripps’ briefing yesterday, says Cripps refused to detail what these stringent controls were farmers’ body AgForce is extremely concerned Dale Miller a senior AgForce adviser said “our position on CSG is for a moratorium in those regions until there is adequate scientific knowledge about the potential impact” Governments and miners cannot be allowed to walk all over the public like this water is Australia’s most vital resource and it must be protected.

The Alan Jones Breakfast show: Highlights

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