A Clarence Valley woman recently sent the following email to Andrew Stoner, M.P., Deputy Premier of NSW and Leader of the NSW National Party.
Dear Mr Stoner
I send this email to you with sadness in my heart as I reflect upon your recent
statement about Coal Seam Gas as quoted below:
"The extremists in this debate will
never be pleased, no matter what.
We won't be dealing with those people. We're dealing with people who are
making constructive suggestions as to how we can protect our farm future
whilst also reaping the benefits of resources development."
My understanding has always been that our elected politicians are ‘in power’ to
protect and listen to their people. Apparently this is not the case.
Are you not voted into parliament by the people and for the people? Do the
concerns of the people not matter to you any more? Do the money hungry mining magnates and mining
companies, being allowed by your government to rape our land of national
resources, (and yes, they do belong to the crown not a handful full of greedy
mining executives) matter more to you and your government than the majority of
constituents in NSW?
I was in Sydney at the Save our Land and Water Rally earlier this year and saw
you stand up in front of at least 7,000 people, and heard you state that, your
government would not allow any new Coal Seam Gas (CSG) Evaporation Ponds in
NSW. Well Mr Stoner, I can tell you (and I’m sure you already know), that a new
CSG evaporation pond is being built near Casino in NSW. And yes, we all know
that they and the government are calling it a ‘Holding Pond’ and not an
evaporation pond. Do you think that the community are so out of touch that they
don’t know what is going on?
We will not fooled by verbal semantics. Times
have changed Mr Stoner. The people are well educated and have the resources to
educate themselves. We will not have the ‘wool pulled over our eyes’ any
longer. The people are tired of being lied to and quite frankly tired of all
the political propaganda. How many more of these ponds will be constructed on
the floodplains of the northern rivers? How many more toxic spills and gas
mining ‘incidents’ need to occur before the government takes the people’s concerns
seriously?
Oh I forgot - we are just extremists who won’t be dealt with!
We don’t want this dirty toxic industry on the north coast, northern rivers or
anywhere else in NSW. We have spoken to landholders in Queensland who have
experienced the whole damned mess. Bores and dams have been poisoned and
rendered useless. People are becoming ill from the toxic fumes and chemicals.
Aquifer levels are falling and farmers are having to walk off their properties
because they can’t successfully farm their land. They can’t sell their farms. Who
wants to live in a gas field? The properties are worthless.
Do we want 40,000 CSG wells here, as is planned in Queensland? Do we want this
in NSW? I think not Mr Stoner.
I am not a fool or an extremist, Mr Stoner. I am a business woman, mother and
grand mother, and I am floored by the whole greedy urgency of the CSG Industry.
No consideration has been given to the rights and future needs of the people,
or to the people’s right and need for clean water, healthy undamaged food
producing land and a non toxic environment. We are living in a time when we
should be taking steps to safeguard our water and food production assets for
the future, when in fact we are doing the opposite. Future generations will
suffer the double whammy of ongoing global warming AND loss of food-producing
land and water assets because of the greed for profits and profligate
development of fossil fuel.
Your government will be remembered as the government that sold out its people
and their environment for the short term monetary benefit of a few Gas Mining
companies who are selling the majority of the produced gas overseas!
Shame on you Mr Stoner!
