The 20th anniversary of the landmark win by farmers to stop a pulp mill on agricultural land in Tasmania has been used by the Greens to offer an olive branch to farmers who fear being undermined by big coal developments.
Greens Senator for Tasmania, Christine Milne, who fought in the frontline to halt the pulp mill at Wesley Vale in her home State in 1989, has backed the efforts of farmers trying to stop mines at Caroona in NSW and the Darling Downs in Queensland.
The past 20 years has often seen farmers and Greens opposed - especially over land clearing - but Ms Milne, who grew up on a dairy farm at Wesley Vale, said there were two new "David and Goliath" battles being fought.
And she said there was a good chance the farmers would win.
"Water is far more valuable than coal - so is food," she said today.
"Coal is losing its legitimacy."
She shrugged off the fact that the cash-strapped NSW Government made $500 million from minerals royalties annually.
"Tasmania was a resource-based economy as well," Ms Milne said.
The Senator expected her party and farmers to come closer together in the future because, she said, it was widely recognised water from the Murray-Darling had been over-allocated and there had been too much land clearing.
Ms Milne said these had been the most divisive issues for the two groups in recent years.
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