The majority voted in favour of an amendment to further protect water resources from coal seam gas development and large coal mining development.
The amendment was introduced by Independent MP Tony Windsor. It gives precedence to the subdivision of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) that protects water resources from significant impacts caused by coal seam gas development and large coal mining development.(This subdivision is available to read on ComLaw, the Commonwealth website that contains the full text of all recent Australian Government legislation. For more on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) see the Wikipedia entry.) This is the case even where bilateral agreements would otherwise allow a state government to act in respect of this type of development without approval.
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