A former president of the Queensland Graingrowers Association who was born in Kingaroy, Macfarlane told a press conference he first went into agri-politics in 1984 to help address the regional issues where he grew up and farmed.

“Nothing I have done, nothing any government has done, nothing any local government has done has changed the economic prosperity in the region where I grew up like CSG,” he said.

“It has had an enormous impact – it has raised the standard of living.

“It’s brought kids home that would never have come back to the farm [and would] never have come back to the community as professionals – it has literally changed the world.

“If you drive through it you will see that change.

“And so if you say to me what is the biggest change that caused the CSG industry to be embraced in Queensland? It was that the community actually saw the benefit.”

In relation to New South Wales, CSG proponents Santos and AGL recently agreed to waive their rights, giving property owners the power to veto access to their land, with Macfarlane saying it was a cornerstone deal.

He says the big question will be what happens when people he refers to as “anarchists” ignore deals between gas companies and farmers and cement stakes into people’s driveways, destroy their fences and affect their livelihoods.

“That will be the test in New South Wales,” he said.

“Activists run riot anywhere the government allows them to.”

He said the Queensland government took a stiff line by putting rights-abusing protesters in front of a magistrate.

Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell took a liking to Macfarlane’s “anarchist” branding of extreme protestors and used it in his subsequent speech at the event.