Extract from ABC News
Updated about 2 hours ago
A farmer's suicide in his home state has prompted
Queensland senator Glenn Lazarus to demand a halt to coal seam gas
(CSG) mining projects until the human impacts can be established.
Western Downs landholder George Bender took his
life on Wednesday.
He was involved in a long-running dispute with
resources companies, one of which reportedly wanted to put 18 wells
on his farm near Chinchilla.
In an interview on Macquarie Radio, independent
senator Lazarus said he had known Mr Bender for some time and was
"gutted" by his death.
"Not only does this community have to live
with this scourge of CSG coal seam gas mining on a daily and nightly
basis, now they have to deal with one of their most-respected and
most-loved community members taking his life.
"What really gets me so frustrated is the
governments of the day just don't care what they're doing to
Australians and Queenslanders ... just honest hard-working people
that want to work the land.
"They've given them no rights to say 'no' and
they just don't care that these people are living in an absolute
nightmare and they don't care because these governments are being
given donations."
Senator Lazarus said the situation had become
"un-Australian".
"These mining companies are bullying, they're
berating, they're threatening these people on a daily basis," he
said.
"They go on ... until they break them.
"We've brought these hard-working, hard men
to tears they're just so frustrated they have nowhere to go, they
have no-one to back them up."
List of demands
Senator Lazarus said he did not want Mr Bender's
life to have been in vain and had come up with a list of demands to
put to government and resources companies.
"I need a royal commission into the human
impacts of CSG mining which I've been calling for for months and
months now.
"They [landholders] don't have anywhere to go
- we need a resource ombudsman to be established so they have
somewhere to go.
"And let's just take a deep breath and pause
further CSG mining projects until we can establish the human and
environmental impacts."
Senator Lazarus said he would be putting his calls
to Federal Parliament and would be knocking on the door of newly
appointed Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg.
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