Sydney-based Independent MPs Kylea Tink and Dr Sophie Scamps to meet with Liverpool Plains landholders amid seismic testing, pipeline concerns

The Leader can reveal Independent federal MPs Kylea Tink, from North Sydney, and Dr Sophie Scamps, from Mackellar, will travel to the region next week to hear firsthand from landholders.

Ms Tink said she'll come with an open, 'you tell me' mindset, but the focus is expected to be on seismic testing for coal seam gas on the Liverpool Plains, the potential impacts of the Hunter Gas Pipeline, and the Narrabri gas project.

Ms Tink told the Leader she was born and raised in Coonabarabran and the plight of regional NSW was important to her.

"The main reason I am going out next week is to really listen and learn," she said.

"I think the most important thing I can do, once I'm educated and informed, is to advocate, to actually add my voice to this community's voice.

"It's really important that people living in the area of the Liverpool Plains know that there are people standing with them without even living in the community."

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While Ms Tink will be making the trip from her city home, she said the worlds are not that far apart.

"I believe the ambitions and concerns of the North Sydney community are 100 per cent aligned with the concerns of the people living in the Liverpool Plains," she told the Leader.

"When I look at what is happening in our country, it has never been more obvious to me that it actually doesn't matter where you live, the things that are challenging us are all pretty consistent."

Ms Tink will meet with locals, including former New England MP Tony Windsor, during the visit.

"It's critical - those views and those lived experiences are 100 per cent what should be informing any piece of policy that any government pursues," she said.

"I think that that's sometimes the danger and the weakness in the way that various pieces of legislation are passed, is that they're passed in rooms and buildings a long way from where the final impact will be."

She said she understood the short-term attraction of profits and that regional residents needed high-quality work opportunities, but that she wanted to fight for other innovative solutions to be prioritised.

Ms Tink was elected on a platform of no new coal or gas projects.

Born-and-raised on the Liverpool Plains, farmer Kate Gunn said the region was "one of the jewels of Australian agriculture".

She said farmers on the ground were glad people were starting to listen.

"It can be hard to have a voice, so it's wonderful to have an ear," she told the Leader.

She said to her, the Hunter pipeline would be an enabler for a gas field on the Liverpool Plains, which she strongly opposed.

She said landholders in the prime agricultural area, known as the food bowl, feared a gas field would have "catastrophic" impacts on aquifers.

"I don't think many people fully understand the magnitude of the risk," she said.

Santos received approval from the state government late last year to carry out seismic testing for coal seam gas on the Liverpool Plains.

A spokesperson for Santos said in January the seismic surveying was "low-impact" and "non-intrusive", and "does not impact groundwater or farming land in any way".

The spokesperson said the testing is not associated with the Hunter Gas Pipeline project and the company had "consulted extensively" with landholders and community members before beginning the seismic work.

The Hunter Gas Pipeline's proposed underground route passes close to Santos' Narrabri gas project and would connect Queensland to Newcastle to deliver gas to the domestic market.

Farmers have been attending protests in the Liverpool Plains, rallying against the exploration as well as the pipeline.

The MPs will also visit the Pilliga area as part of their tour of the Narrabri gas project.

Santos was contacted for comment for this story.

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