The protracted and detailed local grassroots community campaign supported by federal independent Rob Oakeshott has been attributed to the decision late last week to include the local region in the study by the Independent Expert Scientific Committee, ordered by the Federal government.

It has justified local concerns that coal seam gas mining could impact heavily on the communities of the Gloucester and Manning valleys who depend on water from the upper Manning catchment, according to those who have been most outspoken during the campaign.

“Science, and not mining royalties, will determine the future of coal seam gas and open cut coal mining in the Gloucester basin,” Mr Oakeshott said on Thursday as he announced the government’s decision to include the local region in the studies.

“The grassroots community campaign which urged the government to include Gloucester on the bioregional priority list has been won.”

A delighted Peter Epov, chairman of Manning Alliance, said: “Being on the priority list for an independent scientific study is a really big deal, which could actually lead to the exclusion of coal seam gas mining from the Manning Valley.

“A properly conducted independent scientific study should clearly demonstrate that coal seam gas mining is just not an appropriate activity in our catchment.”

Manning Alliance was formed last year to work strategically with the community to prevent coal seam gas drilling in the valley, and has played a major role in convincing governments that prime agricultural areas such as the Manning and Gloucester valleys should be protected from mining activities.Its determination was highlighted in late October when hundreds of local people protested in the grounds of Club Taree where the State government inquiry into coal seam gas mining was being held inside.

Last month, the Alliance sought the help of member for Lyne Mr Oakeshott in hand delivering to prime minister Julia Gillard a comprehensive letter detailing the concerns of Manning and Gloucester residents, about threats to their local environment, especially the water catchment.

Mr Epov yesterday described Thursday’s announcement as a major breakthrough for people power, and commended Mr Oakeshott’s ongoing efforts.

“Most importantly this result should clearly encourage, motivate and empower the people of the Manning Valley to expect better; to rejuvenate belief in people power; and to set greater expectations and demand far better results from our local politicians,” he said.

“This outcome is a very clear lesson that community groups can achieve outstanding results when they are united and the elected representatives are actually prepared to work for the community.

“Whether it be roads, or hospitals, or power lines the community has to be prepared to demand and express its very clear expectations of our local politicians, constantly!”

In praising the member for Lyne’s efforts, Mr Epov said the Manning community needs to recognise Mr Oakeshott’s “enormous contribution” towards the result.

Manning Alliance believes Thursday’s decision to formally recognise the local area as a priority was released directly from the Prime Minister’s Office, in Canberra.

In its recent letter to Ms Gillard, Manning Alliance emphasised the need for Australia to focus our core strength of food production and food security.

After presenting the letter personally to Ms Gillard, Mr Oakeshott said the prime minister “understood the local community’s concerns about the potential impacts of coal seam gas mining and coal mining”, and had referred his request for the catchment to be identified as a research priority area to the expert scientific committee.

Last November, the two Federal independents, Robert Oakeshott and Tony Windsor were successful in securing the prime minister’s commitment of $150 million over four years to support the work of the independent expert scientific committee and a further $50 million for those states which agreed to use the committee’s advice when assessing coal seam gas and coal mining projects.

In January, the Commonwealth government announced the establishment and composition of the committee and Mr Oakeshott immediately wrote to federal environment minister Tony Burke, calling on Manning and Gloucester Valleys to be included on the priority list for scientific study.

Manning Alliance followed up Mr Oakeshott’s initiative by writing letters to all major stakeholders, calling on the community and stakeholders to express support.

“We are just so delighted with this outcome and very pleased that our letter and our work may have made a small contribution to the result,” Mr Epov said.

“The recently released peer review by Professor Pells of the AGL (Australian Gas Limited) project, clearly indicates that insufficient scientific work was done before AGL embarked on its massive incursion into Gloucester, and whatever scientific work has been done, is not supported by the actual modelling released by AGL.

“I am also very gratified that the work of our Alliance team, and indeed, all the concerned members of our community who have vigilantly supported us, has resulted in achieving this real, and significant result.

“Our work is not over, but this is such a great outcome for the people of our community and it renews our determination to do more.

“I believe the community of the Manning Valley clearly needs to recognise the enormous contribution of Mr Oakeshott to towards this result.

“Thus far the Alliance has enjoyed an excellent working relationship with Mr Oakeshott and through this we have seen that he is very focused on delivering positive outcomes for this community.

“Regional communities in this 21st century can longer be sycophants to a political party or a brand name that they or their parents may have voted for, in past decades, innocently expecting that they will do the right thing by us. It just doesn’t work this way anymore and it’s time we woke up to this!

“We have to carefully scrutinise all our elected representatives before we allow them to have the privilege of influencing and impacting on the future of our lives. Otherwise we will get the government we deserve and potholes in our roads.”

Mr Epov said it is time for communities such as the Manning to stop accepting less and time to start demanding more.

“Regional communities are clearly disadvantaged compared to our city cousins,” he said, adding that in future the Manning Alliance will be commenting more on other issues which affect the welfare of the Manning Valley.

“The fact that the Commonwealth government has committed $200 million towards proper scientific studies clearly vindicates the concerns of community groups throughout this state that the consequences of coal seam gas mining are dangerous and hazardous to regional Australia,” he said.

“It also dispels the concerted industry propaganda that coal seam gas mining is safe.”

A recent story on ABC’s ‘Landline’ regarding a major coal seam gas industry seminar revealed that the Australian coal seam gas industry is at least 10 years behind that of the United States.

“The implications of this revelation are just horrific,” Mr Epov said.

“It clearly supports our assertion that our Australian coal seam gas industry is immature, inexperienced and unqualified. The Australian industry is exposed to repeating all the American mistakes; the technology is American as are the practices and the unknown chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.

“This is just further evidence which reinforces and supports our argument that coal seam gas mining is such a dangerous and unknown quantity and the science has to be right before this industry is allowed to proceed on any scale in this country. The risks are just too great!”