Stephen Bennett pledges bipartisan opposition to ‘polluting’ coal mine

A grassroots fight against a proposed coal mine on “prime” farming land in Bundaberg is gearing up, with bumper stickers, a social media campaign and petitions launched.

LNP Burnett MP Stephen Bennett launched a petition opposing the proposed coal mine for Bundaberg together with community group leaders.

LNP Burnett MP Stephen Bennett has committed to a bipartisan effort to block the coal mine proposed for prime agricultural land in north Bundaberg.

Mr Burnett announced his sponsorship of a petition calling for the state government to prevent Perth-based coal exploration company Fox Resources from commencing operations in a 7818ha area.

The petition was posted on the Queensland Parliamentary website on Thursday, October 5 by Moore Park Beach Action Group spokesperson Alan Corbett.

Mr Corbett said his group would conduct a social media information campaign and distribute bumper stickers to marshall community opposition to the project.

Stephen Bennett (left) launched the petition with farmer Judy Plath (middle) and Moore Park Beach Action Group spokesperson Alan Corbett (right).

“This is not rocket science, you just don’t put a big polluting coal mine in the middle of a high value agricultural area,” Mr Corbett said.

“Nor do you put one close to the southern Great Barrier Reef, nor close to communities that are going to wind up having coal dust on their breakfast in the morning. It just doesn’t pass the pub test.”

Farmer Judy Plath said the addition of 200 jobs the project was estimated to create was outweighed by the threat to agriculture in the region it would bring.

“At the end of the day, this is a prime farming region, we’ve got high value agricultural land and the very precious water supply that we rely on to grow our crops,” Ms Plath said.

“A coal mine threatens our reputation as a clean, green farming area, it threatens the water supplies that we rely on, and it threatens the 8000 jobs that are supported in this area by local farmers.”

The Supreme Court overturned Resources Minister Scott Stewart’s decision to reject Fox Resources mining application on the grounds that he had made an “error of law” by not including a formal evaluation of the public interest claims for and against the proposed mine.

Despite the courts calling out this administrative error by the minister, Mr Bennett was not taking up the opportunity for political point-scoring on the issue, saying it was “just too important”.

“In my assessment, (Mr Stewart) did a lot of public interest consultation, and he had made a firm decision based on his own analysis and the analysis of his department,” Mr Bennett said.

“We’ll be talking to minister Stewart, he’s a decent guy, he understands the issues and he understands our community sentiment.”

The area covered by the lease is a 7,818 ha swath of north Bundaberg including land owned by one of Australia’s largest strawberry farms, SSS Strawberries, and other macadamia orchards and cane farms.

The parliamentary petition sponsored by Mr Bennett follows a separate petition announced by ALP Bundaberg MP Tom Smith on Wednesday and released on the SurveyMonkey platform.

“But this is about engaging the stakeholders like the industry, like the Moore Park Beach Action Group that can really get into their networks to make sure that this thing reaches as many people as possible,” Mr Bennett said.

“So this is nothing but bipartisan, there’s nothing political in this at all; this is too important.”