The opposition leader remarked last Friday that farmers had “a right to say no”, a statement he has now backed away from.

Both sides of politics have become involved in the hot topic that leaves farmers with few rights in negotiating mining exploration deals on their land.

Country Greens member for the Legislative Council Jeremy Buckingham said it was a disappointing reversal of comments from Mr Abbott.

“The Greens were very pleased to hear Tony Abbott say that, but even more disappointed to hear him back away from that,” Mr Buckingham said.

“At the moment communities are being devastated by the continued roll-out of coal mines and the threat of coal-seam gas.

“They are being forced into negotiations with big miners ... once a licence [for exploration] is granted the company is compelled to explore and the land owner is compelled to negotiate.”

He said communities and farmers should have a right to say no if they thought mining and explorations were not in their best interests.

Mr Buckingham said Queensland Premier Anna Bligh’s announcement that they would ban exploration in areas with a population larger than 1000 people was a positive move.

He said it would be a good thing for the NSW government to follow, to protect communities.

He said the Greens would ask for at least the same protection Queensland was offering their farmers and would introduce a moratorium for no coal-seam gas exploration.

Orange landowner Graham Brown has represented the farming industry for a number of years and says farmers are being “left out in the cold” with the current arrangements.

“In the legal evaluation process of property rights the social and economic impact studies that are required have never been done,” he said.

Mr Brown said farmers shouldn’t have to chase these studies themselves and that the studies should involve looking at water and a cost benefit analysis.

“It may be more important to help prime agriculture land in production than allow mining to interrupt the process,” he said.

“The long-term impacts of prime agriculture land may suggest it may be more economically viable to not mine at all.”

Not entirely agreeing with the opposition leader, federal member for Calare John Cobb says improvements do need to be made in the negotiation process between mining bodies and farmers.

“We have to have mining and we have to have agriculture ... farmers don’t really have many rights,” he said.

“Whether it’s coal-seam gas or an open pit, farmers have to have more rights in their negotiations rather than knowing at the end of the day they have no rights.”

Mr Cobb says farmers must be a “knowing participant” in the negotiations and that farmers need to be an “earner” out of any deal.

“We have to make sure the farmer has to be a part of the financial process,” he said.