Member for Barwon Roy Butler has expressed his disappointment and concerns over Santos gaining conditional approval for its controversial Narrabri coal-seam gas project in NSW.

“I’d rather that the project was not approved,” said Mr. Butler.

Australia is calling for increased education about cotton in schools, after a student survey revealed more could be done to inform young people about Australian agricultural production.

The Food, Fibre and Our Future Report 2020, commissioned by the Primary Industries Education Foundation Australia, found students lacked basic knowledge of many agricultural industries, including cotton production.

“Over 400 NSW kids attend boarding schools in Queensland, many of them coming from remote and regional NSW where we’ve had no cases of COVID, these kids and their families were tied up in politicking,” said Mr Butler.

Riverina-based farmer research group Riverine Plains has appointed well known agricultural leader Catherine Marriott as its first CEO.

Farmers from all of mainland SA will have the option of growing genetically-modified crops.

It has been another busy fortnight, one week sitting in Parliament, and since Parliament rose, I have been in Canberra talking water and energy with federal actors. I also managed to slip down to Eden Monaro where Matt Stadtmiller is running for the Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party in the by-election. Matt and I spent a couple of days talking to locals and looking at the impact of recent devastating fires. We also turned to locals for advice on what needed to happen to prepare for the next fires.

In early July I am heading out to Coonamble, Walgett and Lightning Ridge. I hope to speak to plenty of people, and report back on the work we have been doing relevant to their communities.

Please keep your guard up on Coronavirus, as we see people moving around more and more, social distancing and hand hygiene is our best defence to keep the virus at bay. You have done an amazing job, hopefully in coming months we can see zero cases, and get back to a more normal life.

After years of delays, the NSW state government has approved the expansion of the controversial Narrabri gas project, despite opposition from many in the local community. 

The project, which was opposed by the vast majority of submissions during the consultation process, could involve up to 850 new coal seam gas wells being drilled on 1,000 hectares of a 95,000 hectare site covering the Pilliga forest and nearby farm land.

If you've never seen a gas drilling site up close, they're not pretty. 

Towers being raised across the countryside, orange flames from gas flares, glaring floodlights, constant noise from the grind of the drill - and that's not even touching on the potential for land and water pollution from fugitive emissions during the drilling process.