South-west anti-fracking campaigners are celebrating a permanent fracking ban with legislation introduced in state parliament this week.
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Lock the Gate’s Western Victoria community campaigner Alison Marchant said the announcement gave farmers certainty.
“We’re pretty confident it will pass the lower house in December and the upper house in January,” she said.
“It gives us that protection that we want for our water and our agriculture.”
The Resources Legislation Amendment (Fracking Ban) Bill 2016 will be an Australian-first, permanently banning all onshore, unconventional gas exploration and development, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and coal seam gas.
Most of the 1600 submissions received by a parliamentary inquiry in 2015 were against the exploration and extraction of unconventional gas.
More than 75 Victorian communities – including agriculture and environmental groups – rallied at declaration days across the state, “sending a strong message to industry and government”.
The legislation moved to extend the moratorium on conventional onshore gas exploration and development until June 2020.
Western Victoria MP James Purcell said regional communities were “thrilled” when he welcomed the legislation on Wednesday.
He said the decision was “common sense and a relief for all farmers who have been limping along with the uncertainty of the moratorium for too long, with mining companies waiting to pounce”.
"I commend the grassroots campaign that pushed to make this ban a reality,” he said.
“This is certainly the result of people power.”
"We have always been against messing with our environment in this way.”
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said legislation would help protect farmers and agriculture exports.
“We were elected to put people first,” he said.
“That means supporting Victorian farmers, their families and regional communities by protecting their produce and our environment.
“We promised to ban fracking and we're getting it done – the livelihoods of thousands of Victorians and the reputation of their world-class produce depend on it.”
