News

LNP calls for a Gasfields Land and Water Authority

The LNP has called for the urgent formation of a powerful new statutory authority to oversee land and water regulations in the rapidly developing coal seam gas fields in the Surat and Bowen basins.  Shadow Ministers Jeff Seeney and Ray Hopper received unanimous support from the LNP State Council for their call for the immediate formation of a Gasfields Land and Water Authority to play a key role in ensuring that the land and water issues involved in CSG extraction were properly addressed. 

The new authority should be appointed by Parliament and include leaders from local landholder groups and local governments to ensure landholders and communities across the gasfields could have confidence in the administration of the new regulations that have been introduced. 

The Gasfields Land and Water Authority should be a statutory authority with powers enshrined in legislation and a structure that ensures its independence from government and it should be empowered to make recommendations directly to the Parliament. 

Legislation currently before Parliament identifies the need for such independent oversight and it is absurd for the Labor Government to suggest that an independent role can be filled by the Water Commission based in Brisbane whose only current role is to decide water restrictions for householders in the southeast corner. 

Monitoring the impacts of CSG extraction will be critically important as the industry rapidly expands and the oversight of that monitoring needs to be done by an independent authority with the necessary powers to take action quickly if it identifies the need. 

No matter how comprehensive the regulations are, unless there is some independent oversight by a statutory authority on which stakeholders themselves are represented, then everyone is still being asked to trust the Government. 

Member for Condamine and Shadow Primary Industries and Fisheries Minister Ray Hopper said there are many local people who had already proven they had extensive local knowledge about the range of issues involved and would be ideally suited to represent their communities on a Gasfields Land and Water Authority. 

"These local people and community leaders know the area better than anyone else. They know the issues involved and they should be involved in overseeing the rapid expansion of this industry," he said. 

"Independent scrutiny is the only way we can have any confidence in the regulations and we are not going to get that from a water commission based in Brisbane,” Mr Hopper said.