Every day, I get up and walk out my back door to start one of the most satisfying jobs in the world – growing food for Australia. But that got a lot harder with news that Chinese mining giant Shenhua plans to proceed with a massive open-cut coal mine right on my doorstep.
You might have heard that the NSW government will pay $262 million to buy back part of the Shenhua exploration licence in order to "protect" the black soil plains of the Liverpool Plains.
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Sydney shock jock Alan Jones has gone toe-to-toe with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian over a decision to hand back more than $250 million to Chinese miner Shenhua.
But it's a complete furphy. They've only bought back areas that Shenhua wasn't planning to mine anyway.
They've spent almost a quarter of a billion dollars of taxpayer funds without fixing the problem. Shenhua plans to go ahead and destroy some of the best farming country in Australia for a coal mine.
The mine will cover an area larger than the entire City of Sydney.
Shenhua will dig three large open-cut coal pits and leave behind an enormous hole in the ground that will never be filled and can never be rehabilitated.
The NSW government has been trying to spin this as a win for farmers. They say that by excluding some parts of the area from exploration, they've protected water and farms.
But in this country, buying back one part of it while allowing the planned mine to proceed in full, is a bit like a doctor saying he can save your arm by cutting it off at the elbow.
![Andrew Pursehouse, from Breeza Station, is pleading with the Premier to protect the Liverpool Plains](http://web.archive.org./web/20170722114952im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/f/7/d/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxf7en.png/1500548726675.jpg)
There is a whole farming system out here. This mine will destroy a massive amount of land that is needed for food production, permanently, as well as putting at risk a very complex groundwater system. Our farms and our towns depend on groundwater from bores.
Then there is the coal dust that will be deposited on farms and food all around the mine, impacts on koalas, destruction of Aboriginal heritage, and the toxic waste from the mine that will end up in local creek systems that are located in the headwaters of the Murray Darling system.
Last week Premier Gladys Berejiklian said that buying back this part of the exploration licence was "the only option" that she had.
First, I don't believe that was the case. The NSW government had broad legal powers to cancel this entire licence and stop the mine.
But second, as the Premier of NSW, she is a lawmaker. That's her job. There's no argument for powerlessness when you can walk into the Parliament and give yourself the power you need to lead.
What's more, late last week the NSW Labor Opposition Leader Luke Foley came out in support of cancelling the entire mining licence and stopping the Shenhua coal project.
So, not only does the Premier have the power as our chief lawmaker, but now she knows she has the numbers needed in Parliament. There are simply no excuses left.
As I said, my job is to grow food for Australia. Across the Liverpool Plains, farmers produce enough grain to supply 58 million packets of cornflakes, 365 million loaves of bread and 62.5 million packets of pasta.
And it's not just my generation, we've got a whole lot of young farmers out here stepping up and planning ahead to grow food and fibre for generations to come.
We're having a bumper season this year, and all I want to do is get out there and keep putting food on your table. But I can't do my job unless the Premier steps up and does hers.
I'm calling on her to walk into Parliament on the next sitting day and table a new law to protect the Liverpool Plains, for good: because that's her job.
Nothing less will do – the future for Australia is in dining, not mining, and you can't eat coal.
Andrew Pursehouse is the owner of Breeza Station on the Liverpool Plains.
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