Greens advance Abbott's call for farmers' rights

The Australian Greens will bring a bill into the Senate, in the next fortnight, to require the permission of landholders before companies can explore for, or extract, coal seam gas.

Queensland's new Greens Senator Larissa Waters' bill will use the corporations power in the constitution to require coal seam gas corporations to get written permission before entering a farmer’s land.

It is a simple solution to the growing alarm in rural Australia where, on the fertile Darling Downs alone, more than 40 000 drill holes to extract gas are proposed in the coming years.

Bob Brown has written to the Opposition Leader and Nationals’ Leader in the Senate, Barnaby Joyce, seeking talks to move our common position forward as quickly as possible. The Greens will also seek talks with the independents in both houses.

The numbers are there in both houses to have Senator Waters' farmers' rights legislation, with its obvious advantages for foods security, through the parliament before Christmas.