Truss was speaking after statements from assistant health minister Fiona Nash calling for a change to state laws to enshrine the veto in law.

Currently companies such as Origin Energy, which was locked in a long-running dispute with deceased Queensland farmer George Bender, have a right to come into farms and pursue subsurface resources.

They need the landowner's agreement to undertake work, but can force a compromise by dragging the farmer through the courts, something cashed up resource companies can spare the time and cash to do.

Truss made the comments following the appearance of Bender's daughter, Helen, on the ABC's Q&A program on Monday.

Bender berated politicians on Q&A for failing to listen to farmers' concerns regarding mining activities

In her response to Bender, Nash said: "Farmers should be able to say no and state governments should change whatever needs to be changed so that they can say no."

While it is not formal National Party policy, and merely Nash's personal view, she begged off the issue as one of the states, and said they should address it.

In the same show Labor's member for the Hunter Valley coal mining region, Joel Fitzgibbon, said he believed that coal and CSG should not be allowed develop at the expense of Australia's sustainable industries, but he said it was ultimately an issue for the states.

He said it had been a fundamental of the Australian legal system that companies wanting to exploit that will have access to those resources under the land of others, and that the benefits of extractive industries were too significant to the national economy were, even if CSG and mining might be gone within decades, and sustainable industries could benefit the nation for hundreds or thousands of years.

A spokesman for Truss told Energy News this week that Coalition policy supported "responsible development" of CSG, as long as farmers approved work on any prime agricultural land, that there is long-term damage to the underground water supply; and that agricultural production is not permanently impaired.

"Under the Constitution, matters relating to mining and land access fall under the jurisdiction of the state governments," the spokesperson said.

Speaking to journalists yesterday, Truss said the Commonwealth's only involvement in CSG and mining ever comes when there's an engagement under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

"So it's clearly a responsibility for the states. They make those kinds of decisions, and the attitude taken by the state governments across Australia is different. Each one is a separate jurisdiction and they make their own decisions," Truss said.

The Greens have a bill facing defeat before the Senate that would give landholders veto rights over resource companies and in New South Wales, where CSG is less developed, the Greens also attempted to give landholders veto powers.

NSW Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham has attempted similar motions 14 times over the past four years, but he is usually voted down by the Liberals and Nationals.

The Greens argue that the issue is not purely one for the states, because the Constitution authorises the federal corporations power, which could give landholders veto power, although that would almost certainly spark an immediate High Court challenge.

Truss' office would not comment on whether it believed the corporations powers could be used.