THE Greens plan to force the major political parties to choose between helping farmers or drillers.
The Greens plan to amend the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to specify the extraction of coal seam gas as another justification for intervention, giving the federal government the power to halt coal seam gas projects on agricultural land, The Australian Financial Review reports.
Canberra's ability to intervene in coal seam gas development is tightly restricted under environmental laws, leaving the approval of projects in NSW and Queensland up to the states.
"Effectively, we want more triggers in that clause," incoming Greens Senator Larissa Waters said. "This will be a real test for others, particularly Queensland Liberal National Party members. At a political level, they've effectively decided to back the miners, not the farmers."
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