Queensland Senator Glenn Lazarus tells protesters he will shirt-front Tony Abbott. Credit:Tony Moore Senator Lazarus urged people to add their signatures to a Change.org petition – which has already attracted 55,000 signatures - and started calling for independent monitoring of the coal seam industry. "Once I feel I have enough signatures – I will – and I will be very clear with this – I will shirt-front Tony Abbott," he said to loud applause from around 400 ant-coal seam gas protesters. "And I will show him the petition and I will voice the concerns of the people of Chinchilla – anyone who has concerns with CSG mining. "And I will tell him - and make sure he understands it – that the people of Queensland and Australia do not want CSG mining or open cut mining anywhere in this country or in this state."

Senator Lazarus played 21 Tests (and one Super League Test) for Australia during the late 1980s and 1990s and is considered one the game's best front rowers before entering federal politics. "I took that very seriously that I was representing Australia – both here and abroad – very seriously," he told the crowd. "And I just feel that if we can get this message out to everybody that we can slowly but surely get a groundswell of supporters that Australians would not want to have this happening to Australians. "I just feel that it is un-Australian to the people on the land and that live on the land." Senator Lazarus disagreed with criticism that the recent Senate Inquiry he chaired into the previous Queensland Governments was merely a "platform for the Greenies".

"My response to them is that the environment is very important," he said, telling that three-quarters of the issues raised at the inquiry were environmental issues. "The lives of these property owners living off the land are very important and there are a lot of issues that particularly the previous state government has introduced to these people." He told the protesters of one Chinchilla farmer – Joe Hill - who is battling a burst mine tailings dams that was allowing contaminated water to spread over his farm. "I rang him and he was on his farm standing there – and his words to me were that the dam's banks had burst and poisonous water was flowing down across his property – and he could do nothing about it." That claim was immediately rejected by Queensland's Environment Department on Thursday afternoon who said they had checked on Mr Hill's complaint last week and found it was irrigation water supplied to the dam.

"The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection has inspected the site where a large privately owned and operated dam, on private land, broke its bank," a spokesman said. "Water samples taken by EHP officers have confirmed the water is of high irrigation standards, therefore there is no concern of environmental contamination or harm from the spill. The water comes from an irrigation project, the Australian Petroleum Exporters Association said. "The landowner is one of several participants in the Fairymeadow Road Irrigation Pipeline (FRIP) scheme which provides treated water to landowners for agricultural use," a statement read. "Water supplied to the dam as part of the scheme is treated by reverse osmosis and meets both recognised irrigation and stock water standards (ANZECC Guidelines).

"Routine water sampling and plant safeguards where water quality exceeds certain limits provide assurance that all water supplied under the scheme meets these standards." However Senator Lazarus said he wanted to get an inquiry underway into the human impacts of coal seam gas mining on families and rural communities of CSG mining. "I am calling on a moratorium to halt all projects that have been approved to stop and scale back on existing coal seam gas mining projects," he said. "And I would really dearly like to see a Resource Ombudsman set up so that the people of the land can go to – or a body of people that people can go to voice their concerns. Senator Lazarus said he would be happy to speak the Greens to begin negotiations on ways to attract parliamentary support for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into coal seam gas.

Earlier Darling Downs farmer Shay Dougall, from Hopeland, explained the constant difficulties her rural farming township faced from coal seam gas miners despite 34 of the 40 farming families rejecting the mining company advances. Fairfax Media reported Shay's story – and the government's response - on Thursday morning. Veteran conservationist Drew Hutton called on the Palaszczuk Government not to approve the next stage of New Hope's Acland coal mine outside Toowoomba and called on them to honour promises for greater scrutiny of coal seam gas companies. Queensland Greens senator Larissa Waters – an environment lawyer before politics – said only a groundswell of public opinion – not legal avenues - could produce policy change. "The law is terrible, the law does not give you any rights, and it does not protect the environment," Senator Waters said candidly.

"That is why I joined the parliament and it has been an absolute honour to bring your concerns to parliament and to the ears of the greater populace. "Don't give up," she told the crowd outside Queensland Parliament. "This is a big fight, but it is one we are all up for."