MINING and farming will be the priority in 2017 for both Family First MLC Robert Brokenshire and Greens MLC Mark Parnell.
Mr Brokenshire said the Labor Party had “failed” farmers and regional communities after 15 years in office.
“They reduced expenditure with PIRSA and cut back on staff and research and development, we’ve got to turn this around,” he said.
“We will continue to fight for right to farm, and will be arguing that a review of the Mining Act 1971 needs to give farmers a fairer go when it comes to mining and farming.”
Mr Brokenshire said he would also be raising the importance of money being spent on rural roads and ports.
“We’ve had too much of a drift of city focus at the expense of country SA,” he said.
Greens MLC Mark Parnell had mining and fracking on his 2017 agenda.
“I’ll be reintroducing my bill to protect all farmland, conservation areas and residential land from gas fracking. The Liberal Party’s moratorium is a welcome start, but it only applies to the SE and not to other farming districts potentially affected by gas extraction,” he said.
Mr Parnell hopes to target underground coal gasification this year, which he calls a “dangerous and polluting technology” that is banned in Qld.
“We will oppose plans by Leigh Creek Energy to burn coal underground to create gas and invasive mining on farmland. We will seek to amend the Mining Act 1971 to ensure farmers have more say on mining. There is a golden opportunity with the government’s review of the act scheduled for this year,” he said.
Mr Parnell said the citizens jury had “killed off” the proposed international nuclear waste dump, but Premier Jay Weatherill was "wedded” to the idea.
“The other dump is the proposed national facility which is shortlisted for the Flinders Ranges, but there is also a push to have Kimba reconsidered. Domestic nuclear waste is Australia’s responsibility, but they haven’t yet made a case for a single dump or justified why it should be in SA. Lucas Heights’ nuclear waste should stay there, near the reactor,” he said.