Monday 29th of April 2024
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tonicchio gasbag is back from holidays...

gasbag and pyne

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has sought to clarify his comments about farmers having the right to refuse coal seam gas miners access to their land, now saying it is a matter for the states.

Under law, minerals on private property are owned by the Crown and landholders are required to allow mining companies access for exploration or mining. The states administer the laws and glean royalties from mining.

In a radio interview on Friday Mr Abbott said: "If you don't want something to happen on your land, you ought to have a right to say no."

The remarks were seen as risking the perception that Mr Abbott was putting the interests of farmers ahead of those of an industry sector the Coalition strongly supports - mining.

The Greens, who oppose coal seam gas mining, seized on his comments, saying they would introduce a bill under the Commonwealth's corporation powers to give landholders the right to deny access.

The bill would override state powers, but Mr Abbott says the Greens are anti-mining and have never looked after the interests of rural people.

"The Coalition won't support the Greens," Mr Abbott told reporters at Parliament House this morning.

"The Greens are just against mining, full stop. They are particularly against the coal industry, which they want to close down."

Mr Abbott said land use decisions were "fundamentally a matter for the states" and said the mining industry was very important and should be "broadly supported".

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-15/abbott-backtracks-on-coal-seam-comments/2839638


fibbing tonicchio...

"What I would like to do this week is talk with both of them about the Commonwealth's power through the corporations section of the constitution to require coal seam gas corporations to get the permission of farmers before they invade their lands and carry out coal seam gas exploration," Senator Brown said on ABC radio.

But Senator Joyce said Senator Brown was practicing "wedge" politics instead of trying to safeguard the property rights of farmers.

Senator Joyce said the current Senate inquiry into coal seam gas should be allowed to run its course, and accused the Greens of pulling a stunt by talking to the media before the political parties.

"That's the essence of what a political stunt is, because they presume the public is ignorant of what they are doing," he said.

Labor Senator Doug Cameron said Mr Abbott "says one thing when he's talking to miners and another thing when he's talking to farmers".

Senator Cameron described Mr Abbott as, "a chancer, shooting off at the cuff all the time. He really does not have the economic credentials or the capacity to be the prime minister of this country."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-15/abbott-backtracks-on-coal-seam-comments/2839638

painful pyne, always with the hose...

Pyne tries to hose down his leader's budgies...

Instead, his frontbench colleague Christopher Pyne tried to hose down his leader's claims, saying he was simply reflecting on the "cavalier attitude" of some miners and was not actually calling for legal changes.

"I don't think Tony Abbott was saying that he believed farmers had the right to veto exploration on their properties," he said.

"I think what he was saying was they should have more opportunities to negotiate and consult with the miners."

The Coalition tensions came as Mr Newman said there were areas in Queensland where he would not allow coal seam gas.

"I say right now today that we would not be approving open-cut coalmining on the Darling Downs, at Acland, indeed anywhere in that prime cropping land," he said.

http://www.optuszoo.com.au/news/top/courier-mail/coalition-split-over-mining-farmland/431261

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Pyne tried to hose down his leader's budgies...

A federal Coalition frontbencher has rejected claims that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott advocated for a carbon tax in a two-year-old interview shown on ABC TV last night.

In the interview with Sky News, Mr Abbott said that there are some benefits to a carbon tax and said it was preferable to other ways of pricing carbon.

...

Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne told Q&A he had already seen the interview and said it does not mean Mr Abbott believed a carbon tax is necessary.

"Tony Abbott wasn't actually arguing in favour of a carbon tax. He was talking about all the different options available," Mr Pyne told Q&A.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-06-07/abbott-wasnt-arguing-for-carbon-tax-pyne/2748668