None of the state will be declared off limits to mining or gas drilling but companies will have to prove they can keep environmental damage to a minimum if they operate in prime farmland, vineyards and horse studs, under new NSW government plans.
The strategic land use policy, released to the public after tortuous, year-long negotiations, is an attempt to heal the rifts between farmers and mining companies that have become a feature of rural NSW.
It means mining or drilling proposals that fall within areas defined by the government as ”strategic agricultural land” will have to pass scrutiny from an independent scientific panel, to be appointed by the planning minister, before a development application can be lodged.
The Premier, Barry O’Farrell, also wrote to the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, yesterday, confirming NSW would agree to new federal controls on coal and coal seam gas mining, making the state eligible for a share of $50 million in federal funding for environmental research.
A draft code of conduct for coal seam gas drillers was also released yesterday, with provision for companies to pay legal costs for farmers who go to court to try to stop drilling on their land.
”We are delivering the best protection for agricultural land in Australia and extremely tough controls on coal seam gas mining,” said the Planning Minister, Brad Hazzard.
Farming and environment groups accused the government of falling well short of what it had promised before the election last year - to fence off some key food-producing zones from miners.
The NSW Minerals Council and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association said the new rules would greatly add to their costs.
Mr Hazzard agreed that the guidelines, which are on public exhibition for two months, would mean projects would be more expensive and take longer to gain approvals.
”These measures will add to the cost - that’s obvious - but the cost is justified by the public interest,” he said.
Two sensitive farming regions - the upper Hunter Valley and the New England tablelands - have already been mapped, with about 4 per cent of each region meeting the criteria for extra protection. ”We were surprised, actually, that it wasn’t all that much,” Mr Hazzard said.
The southern highlands will be the next region to be mapped, with ”strategic agricultural zones” eventually to be identified and mapped across the whole state.
The president of the NSW Farmers’ Association, Fiona Simson, accused the government of breaking its election promise to protect parts of NSW from mining and coal seam gas exploration and extraction.
She said the government’s draft policy could allow hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and trial production for coal seam gas to continue on agricultural land.
”Nowhere is sacred, nowhere is safe,” she said. ”The government is clearly on the coal seam gas bandwagon.”
A NSW Greens MP, Jeremy Buckingham, said the policy was a ”fizzer”.
”This means the people of NSW will face a rampant coal seam gas industry and ever expanding coal mines,” he said. ”NSW is set to become one massive gasfield and coalmine.”
The NSW Minerals Council agreed that if a mining project did not ”stack up against the science it shouldn’t go ahead and that remains our position”.
But the chief executive, Stephen Galilee, said the plan duplicated regulations already in place.
”It includes the addition of yet another expert panel to decide early in the process whether a proposal can proceed to a second stage with advice from the federal government’s independent expert panel,” Mr Galilee said.
“It’s extremely concerning that this new state-based panel would decide whether a mining proposal can be developed without having actually seen a full mining proposal.”
