Greens MP for Ballina, Tamara Smith, today called on the NSW government to follow the example of the Victorian government and ban fracking in NSW.
“I asked the Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy, Anthony Roberts, if his government would ban fracking in New South Wales and he said the government would not,” says Ms Smith.
“The Minister is living in the dark ages. He pulls the ‘gas emergency’ card every time I ask him about CSG and it simply is false. We have 100 years of natural gas in NSW and it is only the greed of large mining companies seeing a short term export market that is pushing this thinking. Gas experts tell us that exporting gas from CSG will actually push the price of domestic gas up significantly like it has done in Queensland.
“But this as we know in our region is more than anything about the protection of our clean waterways and food security.”
“Unfortunately coal seam gas mining is still a live issue in this region and across the state. The Minister’s gas plan that he spoke about today does not prevent exploration licenses being given in our region or anywhere else in the state.”
“The NSW government has shown with the greyhound racing ban it can take hard decisions and I will continue to call on it to ban fracking in the same way that Victoria has,” said Ms Smith
ENDS
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