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Remarks to Watermark PAC, June 27 2014 on behalf of Caroona Coal Action Group

I. What is before you should be reviewed as is.

As well as the many thousands of pages of reports and studies commissioned by the proponent itself, Shenhua has benefitted from multiple reviews and assessments by public agencies (and consultants engaged by public agencies at the taxpayers’ expense) to help it identify, quantify and respond to the risks which an open cut coal mine will create on the Liverpool Plains.

The Project which the Minister has directed this PAC to review has been assessed over many years. Shenhua have told you that their assessment has been lengthy, expensive and thorough. The Department of Planning and Environment’s own EAR recommends that the project now before you should be conditionally approved.

The long process of assessment to which the project has been subjected has, unsurprisingly, produced a good deal of uncertainty. Supporters and opponents of the project are both relieved that a decision on the project is now imminent.

Notably, the fact that the PAC has held this public hearing means that a longstanding and important legal right for opponents of major projects in NSW, a merit objector appeal, has been lost.

It follows that, after this hearing and the submission of your report which flows from it, there is a reasonable and real expectation that Shenhua will not be encouraged or permitted to carry out remedial or further assessments or make yet more changes to its planned mine in response to any criticisms made of its project.

This PAC must take the project as it finds it today, warts and all.

II. The substantial risks posed by the project demand a proportionate degree of reliable assessment.

The Liverpool Plains is largely a known quantity:

• a long established, famous and highly successful agricultural domain; • a place with a rare and valuable combination of rich black soil, reliable water and a

favourable climate;

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• a place with a history of innovation and sustainable farming practices with a future of further prosperity before it;

• a place with rare ecological, cultural and heritage values; • a place that all levels of government in this country have recognized and endeavoured

to protect from incompatible land uses through policy and law; and • unlike many other parts of NSW, a place where people don’t just stay on the land, their

children do too.

The risks posed by the construction, operation and inevitable closure of this open cut coal mine in the midst of these Plains seem self-evident. The DGRs and the Minister’s own terms of referral to this PAC make it clear that there are many aspects of the assessment of this proposal that warrant a high degree of care and diligence – these are the matters to which the PAC must pay “particular attention”.

The State has, prima facie, taking a precautionary approach, to how the mine ought to be assessed.

Alarmingly, the independent reviews commissioned by CCAG and others - economic and environmental in particular – show that despite these very clear directions to Shenhua, it has either failed or refused to employ a serious, reasoned or scientific approach to the assessment of the risks its mine will create for these Plains.

Shenhua’s decision not to publish or permit the exhibition of many of the reports commissioned by it which underpin its EIS and RTS is symptomatic of this attitude. The object under the Planning Act of encouraging greater public involvement and participation in the planning process is not merely ignored by this conduct, it is deliberately dishonoured.

Two further observations should be made here about the conduct of public entities.

First, the Department of Planning and Environment’s failure to require the publication of all of Shenhua’s underlying and referenced reports is notable. These reports are not just unavailable to us, they are unavailable to this PAC.

Second, to overcome a longstanding prohibition on mining on a floodplain (itself a prohibition imposed in the EL), a Minister decreed that, in this case, there is no floodplain. This decision warrants scrutiny in another forum.

III. The PAC should adopt a precautionary approach to its review of the Project

The submissions made, and yet to be made to you, paint a picture of bad and opaque science, untested and skewed assumptions, gaps in and selective use of data, fundamental misconceptions about the established rural economy and of overinflated claims about the benefits of a coal mine.

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The PAC must have a level of confidence in the proponent’s own project assessments (as well as those undertaken by public agencies) commensurate with the risks posed to an established, sustainable economic sector. It should also consider the proponent’s environmental track record in the other places in which it has undertaken mining operations as well as its experience operating in a sophisticated regulatory environment here in NSW.

The PAC has only one safe course open to it – first, to conclude that the risks posed by this mine to these Plains have not, through design or ignorance, been properly understood or assessed and, second, that this project should not proceed.

Andrew Beatty Director Beatty Legal Pty Limited

CAROONA COAL ACTION GROUP

PRESENTATION TO THE PLANNING ASSESSMENT COMMISSION

MR TIM DUDDY, CEO27 JUNE 2014

CAROONA COAL ACTION GROUP

• Formed in 2006 in response to mining threats• Representing over 400 local businesses and landholders

• Committed to protecting the Liverpool Plains• Dedicated to ensuring our world class agricultural resources, land, water are protected

• Committed to ensuring the Liverpool Plains continues to be a viable food bowl for Australia and the world.

Rossmar Park

•6th generation farmer•Rossmar Park in the Duddy Family since 1934•Duddy family has farmed the lands on Liverpool Plains and North West NSW since 1830’s

•Proud pastoral history since the first fleet•Long history of innovation and investment

–1935 : first irrigators–1955 : first broad acre wheat–1966 : developed the largest bore in the Southern Hemisphere

9 Years of Uncertainty, Distraction & Paralysis

• November 2005• 9 years fighting for our future• 27 court cases• $ms invested in fighting not innovating• The questions we asked at the beginning of this process remain unanswered today.

Socio‐Economic Benefits? Economic Expert’s Advise:• Economic modeling is flawed• Cost Benefit Analysis is not credible• Coal Prices Overstated• Operating Costs Understated• Capital Cost overruns ignored• Water reforms ignored• $B’s investment in water reform disregarded• Risks to agricultural businesses ignored• Director General’s Requirements: non‐compliant• Project will yield net economic loss to NSW of $974m

– $B’s more when impacts on agriculture and water included

Water Risks? UnacceptableIndependent Water Experts’ Assessment:• EIS raises more questions than it answers.• EIS based on poor science – under‐predicting the impacts and future costs.

• EIS fails to adequately assess geology, aquifer connectivity and geophysical limitations of the area.

• Interconnectivity of ground and surface water systems not adequately explored

• Risks/costs of impacts to our water systems much higher than predicted by EIS

• Groundwater impact assessment “just plain wrong”

Shenhua’s Environmental Record?

• Poor environmental track record• Inexperienced entity in Australian jurisdiction• Operating in an area as sensitive as the Liverpool Plains

• Extraordinary to think this is being contemplated …

2008 – Seminal Year

• May 2008 Rural Lands State Environmental Planning Policy– Based on report of Central West Rural Lands Panel– New SEPP to support a strategic approach to rural planning across councils and manage land use conflicts

– Enabling the identification and protection of state significant agricultural land.

• October 2008 disgraced Minister Macdonald issues Exploration Licence to Shenhua– Highest exploration licence fee ever paid in NSW history

Liverpool Plains‐ Rich and Rare 

• “The Southern Plains area (Liverpool Plains and Gunnedah LGAs) has the highest agricultural productivity in NSW, with an exclusive combination of volcanic soils, rainfall reliability, climate (sunshine hours, moderate temperature and protection from hot westerly weather) and availability of surface and groundwater.” (NE NW SRLUP, September 2012, p16)

• “The black earth and chernozem soils found in the Liverpool Plains are classified as some of the most fertile in Australia.  These fertile soil types are rare in Australia, making up less than 1 per cent of the nation’s surface area (0.7%).  The major concentrations are found in the Liverpool Plains and the Darling Downs and central highlands of Queensland.” (NE NW SRLUP, September 2012,  p16) 

State Significant Agricultural Land 

Liverpool Plains:• unique and critical to state’s and nation’s food security

• recognised by the NSW Government as some of the most rare and fertile lands in Australia

• State Significant Agricultural Land that should be afforded highest level of protection from mining

Liverpool Plains LegacyBased  on scientific and other expert evidence:• No confidence in the Shenhua EIS• No socio‐economic benefit from the Project• Unacceptable risks to our water systems• Potential irreparable harm to the Liverpool Plains• No certainty & no end to land use conflict.

We need to lift this paralysis.

We request the Commission apply the  precautionary principle and recommend:• The Liverpool Plains be afforded the highest level of protection 

from mining• Shenhua’s Watermark Project not proceed• The Liverpool Plains be afforded permanent protection &  listed in 

Schedule 2 of the Rural Lands SEPP.