Bills: Petroleum and Geothermal Energy (Ban on Hydraulic Fracturing) Amendment Bill

Wednesday September 05, 2018

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (11:05): I will keep my closing comments brief, because we still have a bit to get through. I would like to thank all members who have made a contribution to this bill in this house. I would particularly like to thank the Limestone Coast Protection Alliance and all those community members who have travelled up for the second time to see this bill become law.

Chairperson Angus Ralton has put in countless hours of hard work organising this campaign and organising letters of support from industry peak bodies, all whilst running a small business. He is a determined advocate for this cause, as is Kalangadoo fifth generation farmer David Smith. David put over $100,000 of his own money towards producing a documentary that highlights the impacts of fracking upon farmland, which I think is a good indicator of how passionately this issue is felt in the Limestone Coast.

I want to thank Nick McBride, my parliamentary colleague and neighbouring seat, for his lobbying and support on this very important issue, and for listening to his community and his constituents. I want to thank the 4,000 people who signed a petition at very short notice to bring this into law. I will table that before question time today.

Just picking up on a few comments, we are elected to this place to represent the people of our electorates, and that is exactly what the member for MacKillop and I are attempting to do. To correct the record, it is not a ban on all gas: it is a ban on a form of extraction for 10 years in a very isolated format in a region. With those comments, I commend the bill to the house.

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