Liam Flenady, the Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of South Brisbane in the upcoming Queensland state elections, spoke with Green Left Weekly’s Jim McIlroy about his views on coal and coal seam gas mining in the state. Flenady’s remarks are below.
The coal and coal seam gas (CSG) industries are a cancer spreading across Queensland, and are threatening to destroy our farmland, our water resources and our environment. The Queensland coal industry is already massive and is expanding rapidly. CSG companies are planning to drill 18,000 wells across the state.
What this all means is that our food and water security is severely endangered. Farmers are mobilising against the incursions of the giant corporations onto their land and environmentalists are alarmed that precious natural habitat is being destroyed at a furious pace.
Coal and CSG are fossil fuels that are worsening the effects of greenhouse gases in accelerating climate change. The future of humanity and our planet are at stake.
On February 20, hundreds of farmers and ecologists joined together to protest the expansion of the New Hope Coal mine at Jondaryan, on the Darling Downs. This is a sign of the diverse mass movement that is building up against expansion of coal and CSG in Queensland and nationwide.
Green Left Weekly
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