Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the fate of a giant coal mine in NSW farmland is in the hands of the state government, but by all accounts it appears to be going ahead.
Mr Abbott says the federal government's approval was just one of 17 stages of permission the Shenhua Watermark coal mine had to obtain.
"A couple more stages are in the hands of the state government but I believe that Mike (Baird) was asked about this at a NSW farmers conference (and) as far as he was concerned the mine was going ahead," Mr Abbott told 2GB Radio on Wednesday morning
Mr Abbott said based on all the evidence he had seen the decision was as environmentally beneficial and appropriate as it could have been.
Mr Abbott acknowledged people in the Liverpool Plains were passionate about their land, but he said mining and agriculture could continue to co-exist as they had for 100-odd years in Australia.
The mine was also located away from the premium farmlands of the Liverpool Plains, he said.
"It's in the ridge country, adjacent to the Liverpool Plains," Mr Abbott said.
"As all the science tells us, it's not going to have an impact on the water table and frankly if it's not going to damage the farming areas, if it is going to bring billions of dollars worth of economic activity and hundreds of ongoing jobs, I think we should say let's go with it."
