Fears for CSG mining in Mount Mulligan sparks peaceful protest 8th October 2014: KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter today attended a peaceful protest in Mareeba to halt the drilling of coal seam gas wells that pose significant health and environmental risks to water supplies; prior to the sale of Mount Mulligan Station in Mareeba this was flagged as a ‘red hot’ coal seam gas region. Close to 200 peaceful protesters gathered today in support of the Mareeba community and Djungan people in the Mount Mulligan area who were gravely concerned about the threat of coal seam gas and other forms of unconventional gas exploration. Mr Katter warned the community members of the potentially catastrophic social and economic costs of coal seam gas aquifer drilling which threaten to contaminate our waters and the lifeblood of Australia’s agricultural industries and post significant risks to human health, our air quality and levels, natural environment and threaten our native and domestic animals. “This case came to our attention because many local community members and First Australians were very concerned about the lack of proper process and consultation in relation to approvals of coal seam gas drilling in the area. “It is very rare to drill a hole and for it not to go through an aquifer. The minute it hits an aquifer – it drains the water from the aquifer. There is probably a bore hole every 15km in this country – people, cattle, sheep and wildlife, depend upon those holes to produce water. When the coal seam gas companies come in, the water will be significantly depleted. “A significant proportion of the remaining residual waters left will be contaminated. The degree of contamination will vary greatly from deadly dangerous to harmless but we do know that it will be contaminated,” Mr Katter said. In the past few years, a rapid expansion of coal seam gas development – into backyards of the Kennedy electorate and beyond – has provoked heightened public concern throughout Australia. Mr Katter attended the auction today to show his solidarity to the local Mareeba community and bidders who were seriously considering purchasing the station to provide long term employment in the cattle and live export industries. “Mount Mulligan is a red hot area for coal seam gas. Despite there being jobs, it is in the construction phase only. It isn’t good for any community to get a quick sugar fix. It’s like a drug – the withdrawal symptoms are catastrophic. Where you once had 25,000 people working in the gas fields in Queensland, in 5 years’ time you will have less 2,000. The coal seam gas industry themselves claim there will only be 4000 jobs. “Many of the local community members attending the auction today were trying to get the banks to hold up the sale; instead the sale was rushed through and sold. If they were given more time, there was a group of local First Australians that were interested in purchasing the property to run cattle. “The cattle prices will double in the New Year people claim, currently we supply 8 million ox per year, but the demand next year will increase an extra 1.5 million from China and Indonesia. Given the time, we are certain that there may have been other buyers and in this case we understand that one of the potential buyers would have been very hostile to coal seam gas exploration,” Mr Katter said. Last year, Mr Katter introduced laws to place a temporary suspension on aquifer drilling for coal seam gas extraction.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 09:00:56 +0000
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