E & OE
Subjects: Tony Abbott and coal seam gas
BENSON: Martin Ferguson what’s your understanding of the rights of farmers now, are they simply obliged to allow miners to explore on their property if that’s what the miners want to do?
FERGUSON: Look historically miners are allowed to explore because the resources under the ground are actually owned by all of us and it’s constitutionally the states’ responsibility in association with the territories to manage the development of our resources. But, having said that, engagement with rural communities is very important and some miners are better at the manner in which they engage with farmers than others. And I must say in some of the coal seam mining areas there has been some negligence. Now I have been reinforcing to the whole industry the need to do more in terms of their community relations.
BENSON: So you think the miners have not been doing a terribly good job specifically in that coal seam mining area?
FERGUSON: I think it is fair to say that the engagement has been mixed, some are better at it than others but on the other side of the debate you could also appreciate that in terms of the negotiations some of the miners want to up the ante so as to maximise their own return as an outcome of those negotiations. So you’ve got pressure on both sides. But in the end the coal seam methane industry is very important to Australia, and especially Queensland where you’ve had $45 billion in investment since December of last year. That’s very central to job growth and lifting the performance of the Queensland economy and the national economy. It is also important from a foreign investment point of view. But Tony Abbott wants to remember that two of the major investors are Australian companies – Santos and Origin – and ordinary Australians have invested in those companies, he is now raising serious questions of sovereign risk.
BENSON: Is that a genuine risk or is this simply a political argument?
FERGUSON: Well the three companies have now committed $45 billion, a combination of investment both from in Australia and beyond Australia. You can’t have the Leader of the Opposition, the alternative Prime Minister, in a cavalier way going around the country saying that all the famers have a right to veto. But you know it’s interesting he says one thing on the east coast, then he goes to the west coast 24 hours later in Perth, makes a speech about he’s a friend of the mining industry and one should not forget that’s where he got all his big political donations in the lead up to the last election.
BENSON: What about the question that people raise of prime agricultural land? Is there some balance that the Government needs to ensure between the interests of miners and the interests of agriculture in the national interest, apart from any formalities of law?
FERGUSON: Well one should not forget that in terms of the coal seam methane industry approvals to date there are over 3,000, well over 3,000 conditions imposed by the Commonwealth and the Queensland Governments in terms of environment and water related conditions. Clearly in the context of all these approvals be it coal seam methane or I might say the issue of coal mines there has got to be a scientific assessment of what’s right for the overall community. And that’s why for example in New South Wales in the Liverpool Plains the Commonwealth Government has made a contribution of $1.5 million to proper water studies so as to determine whether or not coal mining could endanger a major food bowl, the Liverpool Plains. You’ve got to do it in a proper policy context but what we’ve got at the moment is the Leader of the Opposition, having no regard for real policy or the overall economic welfare of all Australians, going from area to area saying what he thinks the local community wants to hear irrespective of any economic consequences for the overall local community and the national interest at large.
BENSON: And what about the politics of this? The Greens are suggesting that they will introduce a Bill to boost the farmers’ rights to say no to miners. If they introduce that Bill and it were to have Coalition backing, would you then be defeated on numbers in both Houses potentially?
FERGUSON: I just remind the community that constitutionally, historically this is a state responsibility. On-land resource development, in coal mining, iron ore mining or for that matter the coal seam methane industry, these are state responsibilities. It would be inappropriate for the Commonwealth to start undermining the constitutional capacity of the states for short-term political gain.
BENSON: Martin Ferguson, thanks very much.