A FORUM ON COAL SEAM GAS

From the Ground Up: Are we fracked?

29 September 2011

Bradley Forum, Level Five, Hawke Building,  UniSa, City West Campus, 50-55 North Terrace, Adelaide

5.00pm

Gather in the foyer, explore the maps and posters, meet and greet

5.30pm

Welcome to Country – Uncle Lewis O’Brien, Kaurna Elder

Welcome to the Forum – Diane Bell, Chair, RLCAG

5.40pm

Q&A - Getting informed, getting grounded: practices, politics and people

Moderator: Diane Bell. Panel: Ruth Beach, Tim Duddy, Paul Ferguson, Sarah Hanson-Young, Tim Kelly, Andrew Kremor, Sarah Moles, Rosemary Nankivell, Paul Oosting, Peter Owen, Steven Ross, Nick Xenophon (see bio notes below)

6.45pm

Small group discussions: What do you want to know about CSG?

7.05pm

Report back from the tables with questions for the Panel

7.20pm

Wrap up and future actions

7.30pm Close

More Photographs?

Notes on our speakers

As a solicitor with the Environmental Defenders Office since June 2007, RUTH BEACH combines her desire to practice public interest law with her love of the bush and her wish to protect it. For the previous 14 years Ruth worked in small and large firms in both South Australia and Queensland. Her experience includes industrial law and commercial litigation. She has appeared in the Federal, Supreme, District and Magistrates’ Courts and the Industrial Relations Court and Commission for conferences, mediations, applications and trials. Ruth is a member of the Law Society of South Australia, former director of Australian Women Lawyers and former member of the Equalizing Opportunities in the Law Committee of the Law Council and of the Industrial Relations Committee of the Law Society. She is also on school committees and has been involved with a local Food Centre. Ruth is married with two children, loves cycling, bushwalking, playing with the kids and singing.

DIANE BELL is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at The George Washington University, DC, USA; Writer and Editor in Residence at Flinders University; and Visiting Professor, School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide. Diane has published 11 books and numerous articles on Indigenous rights, women’s rights, and feminist theory and practice; served on numerous boards; and undertaken a diverse range of consultancies. Since returning to Australia in 2005, after 17 years in the USA, she has worked with eNGOs on water reform; and garnered 17% of the vote as an Independent campaigning for fresh water flows in the Mayo federal by-election of 2008. Diane currently Chairs the River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group Inc; is a member of the Our Rivers, Our Lifeblood Alliance; and Acting Chair of the Water Environmental Standing Committee for the Conservation Council of SA. A passion for social justice underpins Diane’s advocacy for the environment, women and Indigenous peoples.

In 2002, TIM DUDDY returned to his birthplace, the family property, Rossmar Park, on the Liverpool Plains and home to some of the earliest broad acre farming and irrigation in the region. Tim had been working as an auctioneer in decorative arts. When BHP Billiton was awarded an exploration license in 2005 over some of the most significant agricultural water resources in the state of NSW, Tim took decisive action and now spends most of his time working in Agricultural and Water Politics. He is a foundation member of Caroona Coal Action Group, the Namoi Water study working group, sits on Gunnedah Shire Council, and the Namoi Water study stakeholder advisory group and is a board member of Namoi Water. In the 2011 NSW State election, Tim stood as an Independent for the Upper Hunter and attracted 19.3% of first preference votes. In the long term, Tim believes that there are areas that should be set aside for agricultural production and remain immune from mining and extractive industries. The Liverpool Plains would be one of these areas.

PAUL FERGUSON is Chief Exploration Geologist and a co-founder of Geo9 Pty Ltd which was established in 2009 with the aim of providing superior advice and scientific exploration techniques to Australian farmers and other water users. Using the most advanced geophysical techniques from around the world, Geo9 has developed a scientific approach that uses geophysics to improve the assessment of risk from coal seam gas mining. The company is currently seeking funding to conduct a pilot study using this approach. Paul grew up in Mogriguy, north of Dubbo, NSW. He worked for many years with the Australian Geological Survey Organisation, now known as Geoscience Australia, and has worked as an exploration geologist in mining and water exploration in Australia, China, and Mongolia. Concurrent with Geo9 work with a team of geologists and geophysicists who are working on groundwater and minerals exploration, Paul is completing a Masters degree at the Centre for Excellence in Ore Deposits at the University of Tasmania on the hydrothermal history of Macquarie Island in sub-Antarctica.

SARAH HANSON-YOUNG lives in Adelaide and has been standing up for South Australia since she was elected in 2007. As the state’s first Greens Senator, Sarah has lobbied the federal government to protect the Murray-Darling Basin and been a strident voice for bringing compassion back to Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers. Sarah has been lobbying for the creation of a Commonwealth Commissioner for Children and Young People and has a bill before parliament to achieve this. Sarah and The Greens want a moratorium on coal seam gas mining in arable farmland areas until it can be proven safe and will not cause any consequences for farmland and ground water. As on July 2011, Sarah’s Portfolio responsibilities include Immigration and citizenship, Consumer affairs, Water and the Murray-Darling Basin, Human rights, GLBTI, Youth, childhood education & care, and Tibet.

TIM KELLY is the Chief Executive of the Conservation Council of South Australia supporting the organisation in its role to advocate for and work towards a healthy environment on behalf of its member groups and other stakeholders in working for conservation and environmental protection. Tim has a long term interest in greenhouse gas emissions accounting, prevention of double counting, and effective greenhouse mitigation policy.  On a part time basis, Tim is undertaking a Masters in Environmental Studies by research at Adelaide University on the topic of ‘Greenhouse accounting and its interaction with greenhouse mitigation policy’. Tim recently joined the Premier’s Climate Change Council.

ANDREW KREMOR has had an extensive involvement, spanning three decades, at executive management level in the energy and resources sector. During that time Andrew has successfully developed projects ranging from the first commercial wind farm in South Australia to coal seam gas fuelled power generation in Queensland.  Andrew is now General Manager of Energy Projects at Santos where his responsibilities include the development of Santos’ NSW coal seam gas investments.  Andrew holds a Ph.D. (Coal and Engineering Geology) from the University of Adelaide, a Graduate Diploma in Coal Geology from the University of Newcastle and a Master of Business Administration from Adelaide University.

SARAH MOLES has a small property near Warwick at the head of Darling River system. She has a passion for water and the Murray-Darling Basin and has been involved in community based NRM since 1993. Sarah is currently a director of the Queensland Murray-Darling Committee Inc - a Toowoomba-based regional NRM board, a member of the Queensland Great Artesian Basin Advisory Council and the national environment sector representative on the Great Artesian Basin Coordinating Committee. Sarah also served four years on the Murray-Darling Basin Commission’s Ministerial Council Community Advisory Committee and as an active member of The Living Murray Community Reference Group. Sarah is a fellow of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation. Tonight she is representing the Lock the Gate Alliance.

ROSEMARY NANKIVELL is a mother, a farmer/grazier who has been working the rich black soil of the Liverpool Plains on the property west of Quirindi where she was born for more than 50 years. She spent all of her early years obsessed with horses, earned an Arts degree from the University of New England (Politics/Sociology major). Rosemary farms cattle, grain, sorghum, barley and wheat and is passionate about seeing the land remain that way. For the past three years, Rosemary has been Chairperson of the Coal Seam Gas Committee of the Caroona Coal Action Group and is deeply concerned about the impact of mining on underground aquifers and the disposal of waste water from the wells.

LEWIS O’BRIEN “Uncle Lewis’ was born in the 1930s at Point Pearce, worked for 30 years as a fitter and machinist and in 1977 joined the SA Education Dept as an Aboriginal education liaison officer. His strong commitment to Indigenous well-being is reflected in his tireless work for Reconciliation and cultural issues. He was named Aboriginal Elder of the Year in 1977, was the winner of the South Australian Local Hero award in 2003, and is an Honorary Fellow of the University of South Australia.

PAUL OOSTING is Campaign Director at GetUp!, the hugely successful independent, grass-roots community advocacy organisation which operates with the objective of empowering Australian citizens to become involved and to hold politicians accountable on important issues. Getup! has achieved success by skilfully using social media to achieve rapid reach across the community. Paul works on environmental campaigns, his most recent being coal seam gas, marine parks, forestry, and the Murray Darling Basin. In the first 3 days of their coal seam gas campaign, GetUp! collected over 65,000 signatures on a petition to the federal government, and the advertisement has raised over $100,000 dollars.

PETER OWEN has an Honors Degree in Environmental Management, a Graduate Diploma in Environmental Studies, and a Law Degree with majors in Environmental and International Law. He was admitted as a Lawyer in 2003 after working at the Environmental Defenders Office in South Australia. He was then employed as Campaigner for the Conservation Council of SA to develop a Murray-Darling campaign, before being appointed as the Campaign Manager for The Wilderness Society (South Australia) Inc in 2005. Over the past few years, Peter and the team at TWSSA have been instrumental in the protection of vast areas of land and seascape. A particular concern for Peter is mining pushing into high conservation value wilderness areas.

STEVEN ROSS is a Wamba Wamba man from Deniliquin in southern NSW with cultural and familial connections to the Mutthi Mutthi, Gunditjmara and Wiradjuri Nations. He has worked as Executive Officer for the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (2004-2010), a group that advocates for the rights and interests of Traditional Owners in the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Steven has worked on several boards including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Water Stewardship Australia and is currently on the Board of the Murray Catchment Management Authority. Steven is working for Yakurwa Indigenous Knowledge Centre and has an Honours degree in Government and Public Administration from the University of Sydney.

Having served in South Australia’s Upper House from 1997-2007, NICK XENOPHON decided to leave state politics and was elected SA’s first Independent Senator in a generation. Nick believed he could do more for South Australians in the Senate on key issues such as gambling regulation and water. Currently Nick shares the balance of power in the Senate with The Greens and Family First. Since assuming his role in the Senate in July 2008, Nick has continued to push for changes in the key areas of gambling reform, the water crisis, consumer law and food labelling. Amongst Nick’s biggest achievements is his negotiating the fast tracking of $900 million in funding for the Murray-Darling Basin, river communities and stormwater harvesting as part of the 2009 stimulus package. Nick’s approach to politics is perhaps best summed up in his First Speech in the Senate when he simply said: I would rather go down fighting, than still be standing because I stayed silent.

And thanks to Judy Horacek for her fracking cartoon: http://horacek.com.au/

T-shirts will be on sale at the Forum - $20 - cash only

Supported by the Conservation Council of South Australia, The Wilderness Society, GetUp!, Caroona Coal Action Group