A resources company says it will “pursue all avenues” to overturn the Queensland government’s decision to reject its coal exploration licence in an area of prime farmland near a marine breeding ground for the southern Great Barrier Reef.
The move from Fox Resources has sparked calls for the federal candidates for two central Queensland seats – including the resources minister, Keith Pitt – to “put an end” to mining development licence MDL3040 by joining widespread opposition to the coking coal proposal north of Bundaberg.
Farmers, environmentalists and community advocates are also calling on the state government to kill off the prospect of mining exploration on prime agricultural and environmentally sensitive land across the state.
Earlier this month Queensland’s resources minister, Scott Stewart, refused Fox Resources’ proposal for a mineral development licence between Avondale and Moore Park Beach on the grounds of public interest, citing “significant adverse community sentiment” and the “potential negative environmental, agricultural and social impacts in the Bundaberg region.”
The chair of Fox Resources, Terry Streeter, indicated the company planned to launch a judicial review on the call that the proposal was not in the public interest.
“Fox does not agree or accept this decision, and will pursue all avenues to have the decision reversed,” Streeter said in a statement to shareholders.
The statement, released the day after the government’s announcement, questioned the timing of Stewart’s call and foreshadowed grounds for a judicial challenge. “In making the decision, the minister has not identified any scientific or technical reasons for concern with the activities proposed under MDLA 3040,” it read.
At a state and local level, opposition to Fox Resources’ plans to develop a coking coalmine is broad and bipartisan. The state Liberal National party MP for Burnett, Stephen Bennett, has been a longstanding and vocal opponent of the application.
He welcomed the state’s Labor government’s rejection of it, though questioned why it had taken so long. He called on the government to go further and “kill off” the prospect of mining exploration in agriculturally productive and environmentally sensitive areas across the state.
A year ago, Bundaberg council voted unanimously to oppose any potential mining activity in the high-value agricultural land north of the city. The then mayor and former LNP state minister, Jack Dempsey, has since announced his candidacy as an independent for the seat of Hinkler, which includes Bundaberg.
Dempsey has seized on opposition to coal as one of the central issues in his campaign to unseat Pitt, the federal resources minister.
MDL3040 falls within the adjoining seat of Flynn, but many of its impacts will be felt in Bundaberg, where the economy is built upon crops like macadamias, vegetables and sugar cane grown in surrounding areas, including Avondale.
Although state and local representatives have vied to outdo one another by talking tough on Fox Resource’s mining development proposal, federal candidates in Hinkler and Flynn are refusing to weigh into the matter.
Pitt declined to comment, other than to say it was a state issue.
The LNP candidate for Flynn, Colin Boyce, did not respond to questions from the Guardian Australia, nor did his Labor opponent, Matt Burnett.
Dempsey said the “fence-sitting” from his direct opponent was the “missing link in showing united community opposition to ripping up farmland for coal”.
“Farmers, the tourism industry, environmentalists, residents, state MPs and councillors are all against it,” he said.
“Mr Pitt needs to tell Fox Resources they are not welcome in this region.”
Alan Corbett, a spokesperson for Moore Park Beach Action Group who has been lobbying against the mining exploration proposal, backed Dempsey’s call for federal candidates to outline their positions on the proposal.
Corbett said both major party candidates in Flynn, who are strong advocates of the mining sector, had indicated that they did not support the prospect of mining in the food bowl north of Bundaberg in private conversations but needed to go further.
“I think if they came out publicly, that would well and truly put an end to this,” he said.
Judy Plath, a Farnsfield cane farmer and campaigner against mining on farmland, said she was grateful to Bennett, the LNP’s MP for Burnett, for “standing strong with the community”, but said the party “more broadly” needed to have a “long and hard look at who their supporters are”.
“I believe any mining activity that threatens our precious water supplies and ability to grow food for our nation should be of major concern to the National party,” she said.
“We need to see stronger leadership when it comes to prioritising food production over mining.”
Corbett and Plath also called on state Labor to ban mining exploration in areas of agricultural and environmental significance.
Ellie Smith, a spokesperson for the pressure group Lock the Gate, said the organisation was calling on the state government to do a thorough review into its Regional Planning Interests Act 2014, which was supposed to protect prime agricultural land but “has never worked”.
She said mining exploration should not be allowed in areas of environmental and cultural significance, close to established communities and in prime agricultural land, and that the Avondale area “ticked all those boxes”.
And though the MDL3040 application was currently a matter for the state government, it was a one upon which federal candidates should “make their position known”.
Fox Resources was contacted for comment.
