- Analysis
LANDMARK reforms brought in last year were a watershed for land use conflict, while seismic shifts in export markets and community opposition to fossil fuel production did as much work as the new laws to dampen tensions.
Much was made in the past week over people power at Gloucester defeating all but one onshore gas developer in NSW.
But NSW Coalition government’s land use legacy will be defined by its handling of Labor’s coal hangovers – battles over coal projects on the fertile black soil of the Liverpool Plains.
Breeza farmer John Hamparsum, who’s helped drive local opposition, said “people are tired but more resolute” after more than a decade of opposition heads into the pointy end of the mine approvals process.
“There have been so many fights and you sometimes wonder which ones you should turn up to. But when the serious one comes, you’ll see that the strength of it will scare the hell out of the Premier and politicians going into an election.”
New Coalition reforms have wound back Labor’s excesses across the state. Mining and petroleum acts were redrawn to help balance (link) the biased land access laws, massive statewide buybacks of CSG exploration licence hauled in the cowboy prospectors and a framework for strategic release of explorations set up, so licences are now granted after environmental and social factors are assessed.
Little credit is given to these reforms enacted by NSW Resources and Energy Minister Anthony Roberts, even though he’s fond of reminding us of his clean-up job on Labor’s mess.
Opposition leader Luke Foley has distanced himself from Labor’s policies in government. He’s advocated for increased renewable energy production and a moratorium on CSG pending an investigation of environmental impacts, called for a reservation on exports to reduce domestic gas prices and last week welcomed AGL’s exit from Gloucester.
But in office from 1995 to 2011, Labor covered half NSW’s landmass with CSG leases, as corporates and two dollar companies alike moved to cash in on what was widely assumed to be a looming gas bonanza.
Coal miners were green-lighted to explore in contentious locations while coal prices rode high – including the Southern Highlands, Bylong Valley, Liverpool Plains and Sydney’s water catchment on the Woronora Plateau.
But the Liverpool Plains remain a target. BHP is pursuing an underground project at Caroona, and Shenhua has open cut plans at Watermark.
Shenhua has achieved all the approvals it needs and needs only to complete the formality of requesting a mine licence – which the Minister has limited discretion to object to.
BHP is free to lodge a miner’s version of a development application, despite the government’s own independent planning panel (the PAC) recommendation for black soil country to be barred to mining.
The horse has bolted, in a regulatory sense. These projects were lodged under NSW’s old resources regime and Coalition government looks very reluctant to reign in the miners.
Landholder groups point to AGL’s withdrawal from Gloucester as a catalyst for government to act on the looming conflicts on the Liverpool Plains.
“(AGL’s) decision plus the recent buybacks in northern NSW means there is a real opportunity for government to develop a plan which clearly sets out areas which are off limits and to mining and CSG,” said NSW Farmers mining and CSG spokesman Tim Duddy.
Lock the Gate warned these mines would incite new heights of opposition.
“Our polling carried out in the Tamworth electorate shows that only 21% of respondents support mining on the Liverpool plains. This sentiment is born out nationally,” said Lock the Gate national campaign coordinator Phil Laird.
“We have never seen any mining project galvanise public opposition like Shenhua’s Watermark mine: it has thrown a light on the mining issue more broadly, and shown people that food producing lands are being lost to short term industrial land uses.”