Related to the Coroona, Liverpool Plains NSW battle between farmers and BHP (tides of change), an amendment was made to the "water amendment bill" passing through Parliament (November 2008) by Bob Brown of the Australian Greens but subsequently rendered ineffective by the Nationals after being belted around by the "big stick" being wielded by the mining companies.
"Last month Senator Brown and Mr Windsor visited farmers at Caroona, near Tamworth, who are strongly opposed to plans by BHP to mine coal in the area. It's feared the mining may damage local hydrology and greatly affect the productivity of surrounding farms.
Senator Brown said that the Greens' amendment, originally proposed in the lower house by New England Independent Tony Windsor, made it necessary for a mining company to undertake an independent catchment-wide groundwater study before exploration or large-scale mining was permitted."
Sounds pretty fair !!
The amendment could only be described as sensible and reasonable, especially in this age of scarce water resources and the loss of agricultural land to mining :
"255C Mitigation of unintended diversions
Prior to exploration licences being granted for mining operations on floodplains that have underlying groundwater systems forming part of the Murray-Darling system inflows, an independent expert study must be undertaken to determine the impacts of the proposed mining operations on the connectivity of groundwater systems, surface water and ground water flows and water quality.
Where a substantial risk is identified exploration licences should not be granted."
"These amendments are supported by farmers at Caroona and other farming communities throughout the Murray-Darling Basin - and they were also supported by the Senate until this morning."
"But in the space of 24 hours, the Nationals have withdrawn their support for farmers...
If BHP Billiton or any other juggernaut wants to commence mining, then a hydrology study is required - but the Nationals' amendments mean they may be ignored even if significant damage to farmlands will result."
So much for the Nationals representing the farming community - this could only be described as a stupid act by stupid politicians - but then again - what's changed. Just more of the bullshit.
Nationals put mining ahead of farmers 27/11/2008.
References from Lee Rhiannon MLC NSW.