The Shenhua Group appear to have first approached the NSW O'Farrell Liberal-Nationals Coalition Government in 2011-2012 concerning its plans to mine for coal on the Liverpool Plains, a significant NSW foodbowl.
This particular state government was the subject of not one but two investigations by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) - Operations Spicer (2014) and Credo (2014).
After he was found to have misled the independent commission Premier O'Farrell resigned as Premier in April 2014 and as Liberal MP for Ku-ring-gai in March 2015. Similarly the then NSW Minister for Resources and Energy, Minister for the Central Coast, Special Minister of State and Liberal MP for Terrigal Chris Hartcher resigned as government minister in December 2013 after he was named in ICAC hearings and left the parliament in March 2015.
On 28 January
2015 the NSW Minister for Planning and Liberal MP for Goulburn Pru Goward granted development consent
for a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned Shenhua Group, Shenhua Watermark Coal Pty Ltd, to create and operate an open cut mine on the Liverpool Plains.
On 4 July 2015 then Australian Minister for the Environment and
Liberal MP for Flinders Greg Hunt ticked off on the Abbott Government's environmental approval for Shenhua Watermark Coal to proceed with its mining operation.
Glaringly obvious environmental risks associated with large-scale mining in the region and vocal local community opposition had led to a downsizing of the potential mine site, for which the NSW Berejiklian Liberal-Nationals Coalition Government paid the Shenhua Group $262 million in compensation.
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| ABC News, 31 July 2015, projected new mine boundaries |
However, in July 2018 the Berejiklian Government renewed Shenhua’s mining exploration licence.
Given that on the successive watches of the O'Farrell, Baird and Berejiklian governments instances of mismanagement and/or corrupt conduct in relation to water sustainability, mining leases and the environment have been reported one would think that an abundance of caution would be exercised.
Instead we now learn
that that Shenhua Watermark Coal has been allowed to vary development consent
conditions for the open cut mine on the edge of the flood plain and, it is looking increasingly like pro coal, former mining industry lawyer, current Australian Minister for
the Environment and Liberal MP for Durack, Melissa
Price, will wave through these variations on behalf of the Morrison
Liberal-Nationals Coalition Government.
Thereby placing even more pressure on the already stressed
surface and underground water resources of the state.
The Liverpool Plains are said to be a significant groundwater source in the New South Wales section of the Murray-Darling Basin.
The Liverpool Plains are said to be a significant groundwater source in the New South Wales section of the Murray-Darling Basin.
Lock The Gate
Alliance, 8
January 2019:
The NSW Government has
allowed mining company Shenhua to alter its development approval for the
controversial Watermark open cut coal mine in the Liverpool Plains, near
Gunnedah, which will enable work on site to begin without key management plans
being approved.
Despite the NSW deal,
Shenhua is still not able to commence work under the Federal environmental
approval until two important management plans, including the crucial Water
Management Plan, have been approved by the Federal Government.
Now local farmers are afraid that the Federal Environment Minister, Melissa Price, may be about to follow the NSW Government lead and vary the approval to allow Shenhua to start pre-construction for their mine without the management plans that were promised.
Liverpool Plains farmer John Hamparsum said, “We’re disgusted that the NSW Government has capitulated to Shenhua yet again, and amended the development consent to let them start pre-construction work without the crucial Water Management Plan in place.
"They have repeatedly stated that the best science would apply to this mine before any work was done, and now they’ve thrown that out the window.
"We’re calling on the Federal Environment Minister, Melissa Price, and New England MP, Barnaby Joyce to now step up and promise that not a sod will be turned on this mine until the full Water Management Plan has been developed and reviewed by independent scientists.
"This mine represents a massive threat to our water resources and our capacity to feed Australia, and if the National Party has any respect for agriculture they need to act now and deliver on their promise that the best science will be applied.
"We won’t accept creeping development of this mine and weakening of the conditions that were put in place to protect our precious groundwater," he said.
Lock the Gate Alliance spokesperson Georgina Woods said, "It’s been four years since the NSW and Federal Governments approved Shenhua’s Watermark coal mine on the Liverpool Plains and there are still no management plans in place.
"Instead of upholding the conditions of Shenhua’s approval, the NSW Government has watered them down so that Shenhua can start work without these crucial plans in place.
"The community has a long memory and will not accept Governments changing the rules to the benefit of foreign-owned mining giants over local farmers," she said.
The former Federal Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, made a strong commitment that a Water Management Plan for the project would not be approved unless the Independent Expert Scientific Committee was satisfied with it.
The amended NSW approval can be accessed here.
Now local farmers are afraid that the Federal Environment Minister, Melissa Price, may be about to follow the NSW Government lead and vary the approval to allow Shenhua to start pre-construction for their mine without the management plans that were promised.
Liverpool Plains farmer John Hamparsum said, “We’re disgusted that the NSW Government has capitulated to Shenhua yet again, and amended the development consent to let them start pre-construction work without the crucial Water Management Plan in place.
"They have repeatedly stated that the best science would apply to this mine before any work was done, and now they’ve thrown that out the window.
"We’re calling on the Federal Environment Minister, Melissa Price, and New England MP, Barnaby Joyce to now step up and promise that not a sod will be turned on this mine until the full Water Management Plan has been developed and reviewed by independent scientists.
"This mine represents a massive threat to our water resources and our capacity to feed Australia, and if the National Party has any respect for agriculture they need to act now and deliver on their promise that the best science will be applied.
"We won’t accept creeping development of this mine and weakening of the conditions that were put in place to protect our precious groundwater," he said.
Lock the Gate Alliance spokesperson Georgina Woods said, "It’s been four years since the NSW and Federal Governments approved Shenhua’s Watermark coal mine on the Liverpool Plains and there are still no management plans in place.
"Instead of upholding the conditions of Shenhua’s approval, the NSW Government has watered them down so that Shenhua can start work without these crucial plans in place.
"The community has a long memory and will not accept Governments changing the rules to the benefit of foreign-owned mining giants over local farmers," she said.
The former Federal Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, made a strong commitment that a Water Management Plan for the project would not be approved unless the Independent Expert Scientific Committee was satisfied with it.
The amended NSW approval can be accessed here.
A legal perspective on the issues surrounding water management by Dr Emma Carmody, Senior Policy and Law Reform Solicitor, EDO NSW and Legal Advisor, Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, is included in the December 2018 issue of Law Society Journal, Managing our scarce water resources: recent developments in the Murray-Darling Basin.
