The Government is acting like a bull in a china shop when it comes to tipping $5 billion into development in Northern Australia that was today outlined in the Northern Australia white paper announced by the Prime Minister.

Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today that ‘development in Northern Australia must be innovative, sustainable and in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’.  

The Australian Greens said today they are shocked that the Federal Government's Agricultural Competitiveness Green Paper doesn’t address climate change, one of the biggest threats posed to the future of Australia’s agriculture and rural communities.

At a community meeting in Geraldton tonight, the Australian Greens will launch their policy to stand by Western Australian farmers protecting their land and water from shale gas mining.

"Rural Western Australian communities are facing an onslaught of shale gas expansion that threatens to ruin valuable agricultural land and water supplies," Western Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said.

"Tony Abbott and Colin Barnett are bending over backwards for the big mining companies and leaving farmers stranded to fight a David and Goliath battle without any legal footing.

We give notice that on the next day of sitting we shall move that -

The Senate notes:

1.    The concern of communities in South Australia and Western Australia about their land and water being threatened by shale and other unconventional gas mining.

2.    That landholders lack the legal right to refuse shale and other unconventional gas mining on their land.

3.    The scientific uncertainty surrounding the environmental and health implications of hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') for shale and other unconventional gas mining.

The Australian Greens’ plan to tackle the supermarket duopoly and to help farmers bypass the big two supermarkets would benefit Queensland shoppers said Senator Larissa Waters and lead Senate candidate Adam Stone at the Northey Street Farmers’ Market in Brisbane today.

The Australian Greens' plan to lower on-farm energy bills would help farmers in the Mackay and Dawson region, said Senator Larissa Waters and Greens candidate for Dawson, Jonathon Dykyj, in Mackay today.

"Our plan would lower on-farm energy bills with $100 million in grants for energy-intensive farms to upgrade equipment for maximum efficiency or to install renewable energy," Senator Waters said.

Both the Government and the Coalition have chosen to stay in the dark about the real impacts of coal seam gas mining in Australia, by today voting down the Greens' proposal for the first nation-wide coal seam gas Senate inquiry.

The refusal to support widespread community concern about the impacts of CSG after today's public revelations that Bob Katter, now a vocal opponent of coal seam gas, in fact vetoed giving farmers any right to say no to mining on their land when he was Queensland Mines Minister in 1989.

Senator Larissa Waters talks to the media about the Food Security and Coal Seam Gas Forum held in Brisbane today.

The Australian community expects to see action from the Australian Government on coal seam gas, as the response to the Senate Inquiry's recommendations to protect our land and our water from the dangers of coal seam gas mining is due tomorrow.

"Australians have waited and waited for the federal Government to take action on coal seam gas, and to recognise that our farmland is under threat and regional communities up in arms about the long-term risks of this new fossil fuel," Australian Greens mining spokesperson Senator Larissa Waters said.