Richmond Valley Watchdog alerts Northern Rivers to NSW Government's search for two new spin meisters

From the Richmond Valley Watchdog’s post NSW Government Hires Spin Doctors to Flog Flawed Planning Laws on 8 September 2013:

Labor fires a shot across the bow

The Daily Examiner letter to the editor 25 September 2013:

Coalition repeat job

The new Coalition Government has reinforced its historical neglect of regional Australia by announcing it will axe the Department of Regional Australia.

They are repeat offenders in this. Whether it was Robert Menzies who scrapped Chifley's co-operative regionalism program, Malcolm Fraser who obliterated Whitlam's Department of Urban and Regional Development, or John Howard who took the axe to that same department after the Hawke-Keating governments committed to rebuilding it, the Coalition has a lamentable record.

It means that all of us in the great regions around the nation will now need to steel ourselves for a battle to secure the support and funding required to ensure economic and social cohesion outside the capital cities.

It already appears clear that the Coalition will also not honour funding for 103 projects across regional Australia with a combined project value of more than $1 billion that I signed off on as minister but for which contracts were not concluded before the election.

To throw regional needs and priorities like these into the mix of a super-sized government department is clear evidence of the Coalition's apathy towards regional Australia.

After promising the National Press Club just weeks ago that regional development would be at the forefront of the Coalition's policy agenda, Nationals Leader Warren Truss has yet again been rolled by the Liberal Party.

If the Nationals cannot stand up for regional Australians, who can they stand up for?

Just as Prime Minister Abbott has dissolved the department responsible for foreign aid, split small business across departments, paid lip service only to disability and aged care and abolished the regional department, his message is very clear. If you're not front and centre, you won't be heard under Prime Minister Abbott.

The Hon Catherine King MP, Acting Shadow Minister for Regional Australia

The facts about the O'Farrell Government's October 2013 announcements as they relate to coal seam gas exploration and mining on the NSW North Coast

CSG exclusion zones are in force from 4 October 2013 for existing residential areas and areas zoned as villages across the state, and the North West and South West Growth Centres of Sydney.....

The CSG exclusion zones prohibit new coal seam gas exploration and development in and within a 2 kilometre buffer around existing residential and village areas in all 152 councils across the state, and the North West and South West Growth Centres of Sydney. [NSW Dept. of Planning & Infrastructure,4 October 2013]

More than 250,000 hectares in the Mid and Far North Coast regions have been identified as high-quality farmland as part of Government initiatives released today to better protect agricultural land from mining and coal seam gas (CSG) projects. [Minister for Planning & Infrastructure and Minister for Primary Industries,joint media release,4 October2013]

Pipelines associated with CSG development will also be prohibited within the exclusion zones, but are permitted within the two kilometre buffer zone, subject to development approval. [NSW Strategic Land Use Policy,FAQ sheet,October 2013]

Existing coal seam gas pilot/test and production wells in exclusion zones and within the 2km buffer zones are not affected by this announcement and, presumably any existing tenements which are under active exploration are also exempt from these provisions. It is also possible that current exploration licences per se may be exempt from these exclusion and buffer provisions.

High quality Northern Rivers agricultural land is not automatically exempt from coal seam gas exploration and mining – it must be assessed by the gateway panel against any proposed coal seam gas development application. This panel does not have the power to reject any development proposal and can only recommend further studies or modifications to the application under consideration.

Legislation has been drafted which makes it mandatory that the estimated economic significance to the state is to take precedence over environmental, agricultural or social considerations when a coal seam gas development application is being considered. 

In addition, the NSW Government has failed to implement a process to refer CSG projects to a federal scientific committee that considers water quality issues.

No Northern Rivers agricultural land appears to be is within an identified critical industry cluster.

A limited amount of land on the NSW North Coast has been identified as subject to exclusion zones, as it has been classified by the NSW Government as future residential growth land.

None of the smallest rural villages appear to be formally in exclusion zones at this stage (with the exception of part of Goonengerry in Byron Local Government Area found to meet village criteria for exemption) and State Environmental Planning Policy (Mining, Petroleum Production and Extractive Industries) Amendment (Coal Seam Gas) 2013 is yet to passed by the NSW Parliament.

Metgasco Limited’s plans for an estimated 1,000 gas wells in the Casino district may be affected by these recent NSW Government announcements. This exploration, mining and production company has itself revised down its gas reserve potential by 20 per cent in anticipation of new legislation and industry regulations.

Whether the company's attempt in the Casino area to classify tight gas (which is highly likely to require fracking) as conventional gas survives scrutiny, should one or more local residents take any development consent to court, remains to be seen.

Metgasco’s ordinary share price has never fully recovered from the combined effects of the market’s knowledge of widespread community opposition to its commercial plan for the region, its cessation of mining activity and loss this year of yet another potential farm-in partner. 

The market is again reacting with a 12.5 per cent fall in Metgasco's share price holding at close of business on 4 October.

UPDATE:

In apparent anticipation of the foreshadowed changes to land use policy, in 2012  Macquarie Energy, a subsidiary of Dart Energy, said it would move to the Northern Rivers region of NSW, where it holds exploration licences that cover Byron Bay, Ballina and Lismore and surrounding rural areas.

* Dart Energy advised in September 2013  that the transfer of Petroleum Exploration Licence 445 (PEL445) from Arrow Energy has been completed. PEL445 is a sizeable licence, covering 7,076km² of the Clarence-Moreton Basin, in northern New South Wales

* According to the government, the exclusion zones leave 90 per cent of the state's energy resources untouched...

Laughing at Abbott supporters

* Found on Twitter