[Greens-Media] Media Release: Huge Win for Alstonville Famers

[Kirsty Donovan]

Huge win for Alstonville farmers

Today marked a huge win for the farmers of the Alstonville plateau - developers have formally withdrawn their development application to mine water from a property in Ellis road.

Michael Hogan and a group of concerned farmers have been fighting for this for several years, and today saw their tireless efforts finally come to fruition.

Tamara Smith, Member for Ballina, has stood with the farmers over the years in opposition to this proposal and was delighted to be notified of its withdrawal earlier today.

"This is a huge win for the farmers and our region. I commend the efforts of Michael Hogan and the members of the Save the Alstonville Aquifer group who have fought long and hard to protect this precious resource" Tamara Smith said.

The application proposed to increase water extraction from a site in Ellis road, with the surplus water not being used for onsite irrigation to be sold to a third party for retail sale.

"Exporting our good food growing and drinking water overseas is something I have vehemently opposed, so I have been proud to support the farmers in their efforts over the years. I trust this matter will now be put to rest." Ms Smith said.

"There is no social license or environmental license to use aquifer water on food growing land for industrial extraction". Ms Smith said.

Moving forward, Ballina Council will amend the LEP to prevent further development applications like this from occurring.

END

Contact: Kirsty Donovan E. kirsty.donovan at parliament.nsw.gov.au<mailto:kirsty.donovan at parliament.nsw.gov.au>


Kirsty Donovan
Senior Electorate Officer
The Office of Tamara Smith
Member for Ballina
Office 1, 7 Moon Street, Ballina
Phone: 02 6686 7522
Website: www.tamarasmith.com.au<http://www.tamarasmith.com.au/>

The office of Tamara Smith MP respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land on which we work - the Bundjalung Nation.

[cid:image005.jpg at 01D429B9.EE704250]

The information contained in this message and or attachments is intended only for the person to whom, or the entity to which, it is addressed. It may contain confidential and / or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient we ask you to contact the sender and to delete / destroy this message as well as any attachments and / or copies. Use of the information contained in this message by anyone other than the intended recipient without express authority is prohibited. Any views expressed in this communication are those of the individual sender except where they are specifically stated to be the views of Tamara Smith MP or The Greens NSW.

P Please consider the environment before printing this email.


Our office respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land on which we work - the Bundjalung Nation
[Tamara Smith____email_signature]<http://www.tamarasmith.com.au/>