Nothing really wrong with giving farmers a slice of the state government's royalty payments. But a simpler and easier solution is to give farmers an absolute power of veto over all mineral and petroleum-related exploration and development and leave it to the landowners and the miners to sort out who does what to whom. This set-up has worked well in WA for the past 50+ years - remember that we're the mining state! - and the state's experience is that landowners having a power of veto moves most (but not all) of the debate out of the public arena and hence away from activists and the media into the private realm of farmers talking to miners.

Mark Lawson here
Bernie - the veto thing is basically what happens in the US as the farmers own the mineral rights and can always refuse to sell them. But gas production in the US has still has exploded. So a veto could be made part and parcel of the deal, no problem. Provided farmers get paid the gas will come.

Fracking of tight marine shale can be up to 4000m deep while CSG might be only 500m deep and not require hydraulic fracturing. However CSG can mix gas and brine with an overlying aquifer horizon or perhaps cause a loss of pressure. We saw on TV last night a farmer who regrets agreeing to CSG while recently we saw a farmer near Daly Waters NT who sees gas drilling as inevitable and perhaps should be welcomed.

I suspect the US fracking boom is a poisoned chalice. Greener-than-thou California uses up to 65% gas power at times and now is curtailing solar output to avoid a late afternoon ramp up of gas generation. The Aliso Canyon gas leak like the San Onofre nuclear closure sent their emissions backwards. If/when US fracking wanes perhaps there will be a return to coal just like Trump promised. I think we should learn to need less gas. For example we could use energy storage to convert nuclear baseload to peaking power in heat waves.

In any case a lot more drilling doesn't necessarily mean a lot more gas. Why else are LNG exporters robbing the ageing Cooper and Bass fields when it supposed to be mainly new sources of gas?

I agree with your comments, Taswegian. Nothing in life is perfect but, in the WA mineral sands industry that I've worked in for decades, of the 60 or so farmers whose properties have been mined by 4 or 5 companies over the years, I've only heard of one having a post-mining rehabilitation problem which is a pretty good strike rate.

Such a situation where Bernie needed to comment and write what should be obvious - is a shame.

How is it even conceivable that other people can just come onto your land and do what they like, disturbing your privacy, peace and integrity?

As this is an issue of basic decency, there should have been no need to "defend" it with economic arguments.

Yuyutsu, governments of all colours are forgetting that the base on which democratic governments and civil societies around the world is 'property rights' - respect for the right of a landowner to use their property without undue restraint. The only political party which has a strong property rights policy is the Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party but their name scares off many urban dwellers who wrongly believe their rights are adequately protected by the main political parties.