WHAT price would you pay to safeguard the significant assets on your land?
Well, regardless of your valuation, NSW government says if a minerals explorer comes knocking, your right to scrutinise who comes on to your property, and what they do there, are capped at $2500.
That’s the price the explorer is now compelled to pay under the new Land Access Framework. It was enacted when these last regulations were finalised – much to the dismay of stakeholder groups (see p10).
Resources Minister Anthony Roberts should be commended for the measures he won for landholders in these reforms, which he guided through parliament last year.
Finally, farmers have the right to legal representation in the arbitration process, which kicks in when miners and explorers can’t reach terms. Miners are also required to cover the landholders costs during arbitration and through the legal process, if the matter escalates to the Land and Environment Court.
These are important measures, which will prevent cashed-up companies bleeding cockies’ bank balances dry.
But unfortunately Mr Roberts has faltered on the final hurdle. Farmers and landholders deserve the right to have their costs covered for reasonable measures to assess who the explorer approaching them is, what the legal ramifications are, and just as importantly, what they intend to do on their land.
Things can and do go wrong in the exploration game. Exploration companies are typically very small, and run on the smell of an oily rag in the hope of striking it rich. A proponent that refuses to stump up more than $2500 to cover a landholders’ costs does not inspire confidence, or foster good relations.
The capped costs won’t buy more than half a dozen hours of consultation at a decent rural law firm or land valuer, let alone the all-important advice from agronomists who, for example, could be needed to show that patch of grass is actually a valuable improved pasture, or a hydrologist to test where it is safe to drill, and so on.
The mining industry often dismisses landholders who refuse access to their land as ideological activism. But until government sets a level playing field, what choice do they have?
To address the imbalance, government needs to ensure explorers are required to treat landholders fairly.
