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A group of about 50 protesters chanted “No coal seam gas! No fracking way!” outside the Queensland Gas Conference at the Brisbane Convention Centre on August 17.

The rally, which coincided with “People's Day” at the Ekka (the Brisbane Exhibition Show Day), was organised by the Stop CSG Brisbane Committee. It indicated the strong public opposition to the threat the expanding coal seam gas industry poses to land, water and the environment.

Indigenous leader Sam Watson said he had "significant concerns about the effect of coal seam gas on our land. This is a dangerous industry, and any damage to land and water could last for thousands of years.

“The Anna Bligh government [in Queensland] and the mainstream political parties are in bed with the big mining companies. We must challenge this threat to our future with all our strength.”

Leonie, a landholder in Tara in south-west Queensland, said at least 2000 farmers have put a Lock the Gate sign on their properties. "The Bligh government's new laws to limit coals seam gas exploration around larger country towns will make no real difference to the situation," she said.

Adam Sharah, an Aboriginal representative from the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, told the rally: “There is a second mining invasion of Indigenous land under way. We now have a third World War going on between the people and the multinational mining companies.

“We must stand together against the divide and rule tactics of the big corporations.”

Mike Crook from Socialist Alliance said he had worked in the mining industry until the 1980s, when he realised that "nothing good comes out of mining”.

He said: “The companies are destroying the environment and attacking their workers. The world is now turning against the coal mining industry. But the mining corporations control the major parties.



"We have to turn to alternative parties like the Greens and the Socialist Alliance, which are taking a stand against the coal and coal seam gas industry.”

Hannah Reardon-Smith from Stop CSG Brisbane explained that her parents owned a farm at Felton on the Darling Downs, where the landholders had campaigned strongly against the threat of coalmining to their land.

“Contrary to the myth being advanced by the industry, coal seam gas is not better than coal on greenhouse gas emissions,” she said. “We need to look to renewable energy sources instead of coal seam gas.

“The push for coal seam gas has nothing to do with reducing carbon emissions, but everything to do with increasing mining company profits.”

Rally chairperson Ewan Saunders said that the people’s movement against coal seam gas had swept the country, with rallies, meetings and protests in many areas.

“This movement has united many varied forces, and captured the imagination and the anger of the people in defence of their land, water and the future," Saunders said.

The protesters then marched through Brisbane’s South Bank precinct and back to the convention centre. A further protest was held later that afternoon at the same venue, when the conference was due to discuss public relations strategies to sell coal seam gas to the community.

[For more information on Stop CSG Brisbane email stopcsgbrisbane@gmail.com.]