There is a lot of opposition against Gas Fracking. Farmers object to it on the grounds that they are losing their land. Mining Companies can virtually come onto their land and start mining indiscriminately. Farmers feel they are virtually being forced off the land that has been in their family for generations. It is claimed that some people have committed suicide because of this.
What is happening is we have is a group of people coming into an area and exploiting the land in a new way. Without any degree of care concerning the current landholders. These people are more organised than people they are displacing and they have a superior technology. They can do this because the law says they can and they are extracting more wealth from the land than the current owners. The mining companies believe they can make better use of the land than the current owners. I cannot help but compare current farmers to the original aboriginal inhabitants. What exactly happened to the aborigines who in Australia before the British came? Surely the parallels are recognisable. What is happening is that farmers are being displaced in exactly the same way as aborigines were displaced. A new way of making money is allowing a new class of people to override previous economic activity. When the British came to Australia they came to a place where all the land was owned by someone or other. No part of it did not belong to the local people. The problem was the new arrivals believed they could use the land better than the people who were here. And they did not recognise the system of land ownership. Plus they had superior technology. I always feel country people whinge far too much. If suddenly they were making money out of fracking would they object so much? Have they considered the following. 1. Is it not true that all citizens have a right to mine? Is not this right a hard won right dating back to the Eureka Stockade. 2. Why do we not let mining occur but make penalties extremely harsh - 20 years in jail for all management when they do not follow regulations. Comments are closed.
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