Evidence that the Liverpool Plains is still in the sights of the gas industry will be an election campaign headache for Mr Joyce who has been caught between the Abbott and Turnbull cabinets' support for mining expansion and red-hot resistance to CSG by farmers and regional communities in New England. Barnaby Joyce has been given a campaign headache. Mr Joyce broke ranks to label as "madness" his government's environmental approval of the proposed Shenhua mega coal mine on the Liverpool Plains and a spokesman for the Deputy Prime Minister said he remains opposed to CSG extraction in productive agricultural areas. Mr Joyce is due to front a Q&A audience in Tamworth on Monday night along with his rival for New England, Tony Windsor, and the gas issue is almost certain to be raised.

Many farmers believe plans to grow the CSG industry in NSW to match the scale of Queensland have gone quiet rather than gone away and a recent ABC Vote Compass survey of 250,000 people found two-thirds of voters oppose easing restrictions on CSG exploration - a level of opposition that has risen significantly since the 2013 federal election. Santos has remained largely silent on its CSG expansion plans amid ardent resistance across regional and North Coast communities, but was forced to update its intentions under the Baird Government's so-called "use it or lose it" licence provisions. The company's renewal application for PEL 1 was obtained under freedom of information laws by the Wilderness Society of Newcastle. It sets out almost $4 million to be spent over three years to "explore and appraise two possible CSG targets identified in the Gunnedah Basin". Due to more than 35 redacted pages in the 50-page renewal application, the exact location of its four drilling target areas remains a secret, but Santos has flagged exploration of "the late permian coals of the Black Jack Group and the early permian coals of the Maules Creek formation".

The PEL 1 application identifies ten other PELs as part of its "contiguous exploration plans". Santos owns exploration acreage covering 200,000 kilometres of Australia. In a statement, the miner downplayed its intentions in the Liverpool Plains, saying the company's focus remained its existing gas-producing project at Narrabri on the edge of the less-fertile Pilliga Scrub. Santos' general manager of energy in NSW, Peter Mitchley, said: "The licence obligations are consistent with those carried over from 2009. Santos' Narrabri Gas Project is a 'Strategic Energy Project' under the NSW Gas Plan, meaning the company is focused on developing much needed gas in the Pilliga and that all other work obligations in surrounding licences (including in PEL 1) are in abeyance. "Santos has no plans to work outside the Narrabri Gas Project area at this time. Any future work, should it be planned, would be subject to landowner consent, community consultation, and rigorous regulatory assessment."

A spokesman for Mr Joyce said the granting and renewal of mining exploration licences were "entirely the responsibility of the NSW Government". "However, it's worth noting that petroleum exploration licenses were handed out indiscriminately under the previous NSW Labor Government. It has taken the current NSW Government to implement a Gas Plan that has seen the CSG footprint in NSW reduced from over 60 per cent to less than 8 per cent," Mr Joyce's spokesman said. Mr Joyce remained opposed to mining on prime agricultural land and on the Liverpool Plains in particular, he said. But farmers will pursue Mr Joyce on the issue, saying the federal government can intervene and must state its clear position before election day. David Quince, a farmer from Mullaley, south-west of Gunnedah, said: "For too long the National Party has tried to hoodwink voters into thinking that CSG is a state issue, or that they don't have any powers, but the reality is they have all the power they need at a federal level to protect land, water and communities – they just don't want to.

"We're tired of the double-speak and the blame-shifting – either Barnaby Joyce steps up now and delivers real protections for the Liverpool Plains, or he is revealed as a hollow man who supports multinational mining giants at the expense of local farmers." Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham said Santos' plans meant "nothing is off limits for gas development in NSW". "Barnaby Joyce has spent more time talking about Johnny Depp's dogs, than he has protecting our best agricultural land from coal and coal seam gas," Mr Buckingham said. Follow us on Twitter