The party has a love-hate relationship with activists, slamming the “economic naivety” of the Greens’ plan to ban coal-fired power plants in NSW.

Then last year the SFF party re-asserted its “clear position” of supporting a total ban on CSG projects in the Northern Rivers, and a complete moratorium on all other CSG projects across the state until the 16 recommendations of the NSW Chief Scientists have been implemented.

“We were not approached by the Greens to support their bill, and generally we take a dim view of ALL Green bills as you can imagine,” the SFF party said last August.

The party also wants the federal government to commit to a national gas reservation policy “that will ensure Australian households have a constant and affordable supply of gas”

Yet it also said last August it would “continue to meet and work with organisations such as Lock the Gate to represent the interests of people across regional NSW”

This morning, Northern Rivers peanut and potato farmer Sarah Ciesolka, whose property is 6km from Santos’ proposed Narrabri gas project near Gunnedah, told Energy News that it was her understanding that other farmers who had approached the party’s office had been told that it would vote for the new law changes that crack down on protestors.

“We are very concerned about ramifications for our water, amongst other things, and landholders do not have the legislated right to say no to CSG,” Ciesolka, who has colluded with Lock the Gate in the past, said.

“Yet these amendments essentially mean that landholders who opposed CSG drilling rigs coming onto their land can be charged with interfering with a mine under the Crimes Act which potentially has a seven-year jail term.”

Ciesolka has been in the region for over 20 years and her husband’s family has been in the district since the 1970s, having come down from Kingaroy as peanut farmers looking for the underground water.

“Where are groundwater and surface water comes from is directly out of [the Narrabri] project area, so any spill or contamination is going to be particularly problematic for our enterprise, because we’re horticultural producers,” she said.

“If the [SFF] party has any hope of representing farmers, they need to have a good long hard look at the ramifications of these new laws.

“Not only that, they need to understand what the risks and impacts of CSG are and the concerns of the local community – and in the community where I live we have been involved in surveying over three million hectares to date, and 96% of people are saying they do not want to live in a gas field.

“These laws crack down on public assemblies in our region and make farmers subject to invasive search powers without a warrant. This puts our basic freedoms on our properties and in our regions at risk in ways which we could never have imagined.”

Northern Rivers farmer and member of the Sporting Shooters Association Peter Nielsen said it defied belief that “… a party that has just decided to call itself the ‘farmers’ party would hang landholders out to dry like this”

The SFF party has been contacted for comment.