NSW Premier Baird, Energy & Resources Minister Roberts and local MPs Gulaptis, George and Page are spinning the Northern Rivers a dishonest unconventional gas tale

This is the advertisement which appeared in local newspapers this month spinning the pro-coal seam gas line that the NSW Baird Government and National Party MPs in North Coast electorates would like us to believe.

The NSW Gas Plan is the government’s new strategic framework to protect our water and environment while delivering vital gas supplies for the state.

Our water resources are protected through the most comprehensive regulatory controls for the gas industry in the nation.

The NSW government has introduced important protections, including an Aquifer Interference Policy, code of practice for well integrity and fracture stimulation and banned the use of harmful volatile organic compounds, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX chemicals), and evaporation ponds.

The NSW Gas Plan is the next step. It outlines the path to achieving a world class system to protect our water, environment, critical agricultural land and communities.

The NSW government has adopted all the recommendations by the independent NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, Professor Mary O’Kane, to ensure the new regulatory framework for the gas industry is based on science and is world’s best practice.

This new science-based regulatory framework adopts a strong compliance and enforcement regime, enhanced environmental monitoring, improved protections and benefits for landholders and communities.

The NSW Gas Plan introduces a new strategic release framework, which is a system that puts the government back in control of the release of title areas for exploration. 

This will allow the government to identify the most appropriate areas for exploration through a careful examination of economic, environmental and social factors with community consultation conducted up-front. 

Exploration for gas will be done on our terms.

The Environment Protection Authority, Office of Coal Seam Gas and the NSW Office of Water all monitor and supervise gas operations to ensure companies comply with the high engineering and environmental standards which now apply in NSW.

The independent Environment Protection Authority (EPA) will be proactive and fearless in its new role as the lead regulator for compliance and enforcement of conditions of approval for gas activities.

A project to provide baseline information about the state’s groundwater has been started by the government. The Groundwater Baseline Project is mapping and gathering data on the water used by agriculture, industry and mining.

This will ensure we have the critical data to ensure the use of our water is sustainable and available for future generations, while ensuring any changes to our water supplies are detected early.

The first areas to be analysed are the Gunnedah, Gloucester and Clarence Moreton basins. More information on these and other water projects are available from water.nsw.gov.au 

The NSW Gas Plan signals a new era for the gas industry and NSW. 

The government’s new science based regulatory framework protects our precious water and environment, ensures communities have a voice and we have a world-class regime to secure vital gas supplies for the state’s manufacturers, businesses and households that rely on gas every day.

For more information, please visit gasplan.nsw.gov.au

This is the reality for the Northern Rivers – under the NSW Gas Plan coal seam gas exploration tenements cover most of its land mass and span all its major river systems.

NSW Government Trade & Investment: Energy & Resources mapping as of 8 January 2015
Click on map to enlarge

The state government’s pro-coal seam gas advertisement states that; This new science-based regulatory framework adopts a strong compliance and enforcement regime, enhanced environmental monitoring, improved protections and benefits for landholders and communities. Actually there is no new science-based regulatory framework in place. This is something the Baird Government says it will start to put in place at an as yet unspecified time, which may possibly be in the second half of 2015.

It asserts Exploration for gas will be done on our terms as though this is a new and innovative stance. Mineral and petroleum mining within the state has always been done on the government of the day’s terms. The government’s right to decide is found in the NSW Constitution and state legislation, particularly the Mining Act 1992.

It goes on to say that the NSW government has adopted all the recommendations by the independent NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer. In fact the current NSW Gas Plan clearly shows it has not. 

In particular it has not fully explained the rationale/need for CSG extraction beyond a cursory attempt to talk about non-existent gas shortages and, the advertisement avoids that issue entirely.

The Baird Government’s gas plan certainly doesn’t fully encompass this recommendation in the NSW Chief Scientist’s September 2014 Final Report of the Independent Review of Coal Seam Gas Activities in NSW:

Recommendation 3

That Government investigate as a priority a range of practical measures for implementation (or extension of current measures) to allow affected communities to have strengthened protections and benefits including fair and appropriate:

• land access arrangements, including land valuation and compensation for landholders

• compensation for other local residents impacted (above threshold levels) by extraction activities

• funding (derived from the fees and levies paid by CSG companies) for local councils to enable them to fund, in a transparent manner, infrastructure and repairs required as a consequence of the CSG industry.

Nor is there any adequate mention of this:

Recommendation 4

That the full cost to Government of the regulation and support of the CSG industry be covered by the fees, levies, royalties and taxes paid by industry, and an annual statement be made by Government on this matter as part of the Budget process.

In fact where the gas plan briefly speaks of royalties, it does so in terms of ensuring that these are favourable to the advancement of the commercial interests of mining companies.

As for the recommended appropriate and proportionate penalties for non-compliance, apart from one 21-word 'motherhood' sentiment, the concept of penalties is missing in action.

The Liberal-Nationals broadly-worded Gas Plan also appears to deliberately avoid this statement contained in the Chief Scientist’s Independent Review:

There is a need to understand better the nature of risk of pollution or other potential short- or long-term environmental damage from CSG and related operations, and the capacity and cost of mitigation and/or remediation and whether there are adequate financial mechanisms in place to deal with these issues. This requires an investigation of insurance and environmental risk coverage, security deposits, and the possibility of establishing an environmental rehabilitation fund. Doing this is essential to ensure that

the costs and impacts from this industry are not a burden for the community.

A promise of community consultation conducted up-front is found in the advertisement, but the Gas Plan itself is silent about how and when this will occur in any instance.

The one thing I can say with certainty about the Baird Government’s intentions towards the Northern Rivers region is that its Gas Plan is nothing more than a document without force of law. It is a public statement of intent vaguely promising a fair go, which was obviously written with the March 2015 state election in mind.

* The Daily Examiner image courtesy of Yuraygir Coast and Range Alliance

The strange maths of the Abbott Government is beginning to be noticed

Letter to the editor in The Sydney Morning Herald 29 December 2014:

According to the Herald, there were 62,000 illegal overstayers in Australia in 2014. In 2012-2013, overstayers included 44,800 visitors and 10,720 students, with the largest numbers from China, Malaysia, the USA and Great Britain.

According to the Refugee Council the total number of "boat people" in 2001-2013 was 38,593, of whom 18,119 arrived in 2012-2013. So much for being "swamped by boat people" from Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.

Imre Bokor Armidale 

Choppy waters ahead as report, newspaper article and letter concerning a Clarence River study all differ in detail

It seems that the difference between the 504 test sites identified in the UNSW Water Research Laboratory 211-page report on Clarence riverbank vulnerability and the 252 sites implied in the newspaper article raised some local eyebrows, but it was this paragraph which appeared to elevate the blood pressure of one particular reader who perhaps was remembering that the Clarence River is over 300 km long:

 While the study found there were sections of the river in those areas where management of activities was warranted, the majority of the river was suitable for water skiing and wakeboarding for vessels making up to 150 passes of the river a day.

The irate reader himself also had trouble with the number of sections in the 37 km study area. Though to be fair it appears he may be using the locally recognised distinctions between stretches of the river between Rogan's Bridge and Ulmarra.

The study has a contentious history with Seelands residents - see here and here.

The report

UNSW Water Research Laboratory (WRL) Report: Riverbank Vulnerability Assessment using a Decision Support System: Clarence River (Rogans Bridge to Ulmarra) - excerpts:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

The newspaper article

The Daily Examiner 30 December 2014:

The controversial activity of wakeboarding is generally suitable for the Clarence River between Ulmarra and Seelands, says the draft of a university report released this month.

The University of NSW Water Research Laboratory study, Riverbank Vulnerability Assessment Using a Decision Support System: Rogans Bridge to Ulmarra, looks at the effect of water activities on the river on riverbank health.

While the study found there were sections of the river in those areas where management of activities was warranted, the majority of the river was suitable for water skiing and wakeboarding for vessels making up to 150 passes of the river a day.

Data collection for the report was concluded in May.

To study the effects of erosion on the banks and three river islands, the 37km stretch of river and Susan, Elizabeth and Peanut islands were divided into 84 sections and each section had six test points - three on each bank.

The erosive potential for each section was broken into five categories: highly resistant, moderately resistant, mildly resistant, moderately erosive and highly erosive.

These categories were used to come up with the decision support system (DSS) ratings: allow, monitor and manage.

The study also found riverbanks were generally more vulnerable to erosion at mid-low tide and high tide. It also looked at the effect of wind waves.

The Clarence Valley Council, the NSW North Coast Local Land Services (LLS) and NSW Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) funded the report.

The Maritime Management Centre (MMC) in Transport for NSW is now seeking feedback on the report, to help inform the development of a draft management plan for the area.

One readers response

The Daily Examiner 5 January 2015:

Confidence eroded

I refer to the DEX article "Report finds wakeboarding 'generally suitable' on Clarence" (30/12).

Your readers should be made aware that this article is factually incorrect and displays a level of irresponsible journalism that has negative effects beyond the continuing reduction of the credibility of this newspaper.

The riverbank erosion study did not find the "majority" of the river was suitable for wakeboarding.

The UNSW Water Research Laboratory study examined only three relatively small sections of the navigable river and therefore could not and did not draw any conclusions on suitability of wakeboarding for the "majority" of the river.

In the limited study areas, about one third of the riverbank studied was assessed as requiring "immediate enforceable no wash zones" (i.e. no slow-tow wakeboarding) to prevent further riverbank erosion; another third was assessed as requiring zoning to prevent wakeboarding within 100 metres of the riverbank; and for the rest there was a requirement to monitor riverbank erosion and conduct small areas of remedial protection works.

To report the study results as finding wakeboarding "generally suitable" on the Clarence is a nonsense and a significantly irresponsible action.

As a result of this misleading article, and the lack of effective action by CVC and RMS, the river between Rogan Bridge and Moleville Rock that was identified as particularly vulnerable to excessive wash is inundated by slow-tow wake boats and the significant (according to WRL) riverbank erosion and damage is continuing.

At the recent WRL study presentation Professor Glamore stated "blind Freddie" could see the riverbank from Rogan Bridge to Moleville Rock was extremely vulnerable to wash erosion.

However what the professor did not understand was that being blind to the legitimate concerns of the community (which have now been scientifically validated) is apparently part of the job descriptions for DEX, CVC and RMS personnel.

What DEX should be investigating is why CVC has not taken any effective action and why RMS refuses to implement immediate boat wash restrictions as recommended by the WRL study.

John Griffith,

Seelands

Ever wondered what is included in Tony Abbott's Direct Action plan?

Australian voters have been hearing about Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s greenhouse gas emissions policy for some years now.

This appears to be the core of the opt-in Direct Action Plan:

The Emissions Reduction Fund is the centrepiece of the Government’s Direct Action Plan….

The Emissions Reduction Fund will provide incentives for businesses, not punish them…..

The Emissions Reduction Fund will focus on lowest-cost emissions reductions…..

Emissions reduction methods will set out the rules for estimating emissions reductions from different activities.

the Emissions Reduction Fund has three elements:

            crediting emissions reductions

            purchasing emissions reductions, and

            safeguarding emissions reductions…..

The safeguard mechanism will apply at the facility level rather than the company level and will be restricted to facilities with direct emissions of 100 000 tonnes of CO2-e a year or more. This approach will make the mechanism highly efficient by covering approximately 52 per cent of Australia’s emissions while limiting the number of covered businesses to around 130….

The Government will work with businesses to establish a flexible framework for complying with the safeguard in the unlikely event of baselines being exceeded…..

A menu of methods will be available so that businesses can easily participate in the Emissions Reduction Fund using the methods that best suit their specific projects…..

As occurs under the Carbon Farming Initiative, Australian Carbon Credit Units will constitute personal property with legal title registered on the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units. This will provide certainty for businesses and ensure that emissions reductions are credible. It will also give businesses the flexibility to sell their credits into the Emissions Reduction Fund or to use them in other ways, such as in voluntary offset programmes…. [Abbott Government Emissions Reduction Fund White Paper 2014]

As befits any Abbott Government policy, the Direct Action plan is still rather vague on precise detail.

However, this hilarious little anti-burping, anti-farting kill-em-early-and-kill-em-plenty management plan is apparently being considered for absorption into the Emissions Reduction Fund:

Herd management projects

(1) For paragraph 106(1)(a) of the Act, this determination applies to an emissions avoidance offsets project which can reasonably be expected to avoid emissions from cattle by any of the following:

(a) reducing the average number of days from birth to slaughter in the herd;

(b) reducing the average age of the herd;

(c) reducing the number of animals in the herd.

Greatest area of need for people with disability left unmet by Abbott Government according to the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations

Media Release 6 Jan 2015:

‘Greatest area of need for people with disability left unmet by Government’ said Matthew Wright, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) and spokesperson for the disability peaks.

Responding to claims in The Australian newspaper by Minister for Social Services, Scott Morrison that the new peaks funding ‘supports the area of greatest need’, Matthew Wright said “The department has cut or not provided funding to the highest population groups of people with disability in Australia’.

Both the NDIS quarterly report and Disability Support Pension (DSP) statistics show consistently that intellectual disability, autism (also the fastest growing disability), mental illness and physical disability are the four most prevalent types of disability.

‘All of these groups including the National Council on Intellectual Disability, Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (A4), and Physical Disability Australia have not been funded as part of this process’.

Bob Buckley, Convenor of A4 said “No other disability organisation at the national level has any effective track record of representation or advocacy across the full spectrum of people living with autism.  People with some of the worst disability outcomes are again left without funded support.”

Support to over 200,000 Australians with a disability will be ceased as part of the process, and any protection from adverse action for the most vulnerable Australians will be lost’.

“Intellectual disability is consistently one of the top three primary conditions in DSP and NDIS data” said Mark Pattison, CEO of National Council on Intellectual Disability.

We are still urgently seeking a meeting with Minister Scott Morrison, said Matthew Wright. 

The disability peaks support the push for a Senate Inquiry into the process that has led to people with disability being left without essential support.

Please direct all media enquiries to Mr Matthew Wright on 0428 608 861. 

Even Liberal Party rank and file detest Tony Abbott

Letter to the Editor in The Sydney Morning Herald on 24 December 2014:

Tony Abbott will never learn. His harsh and inhumane policies on refugees, young people, the unemployed and so on have already (and deservedly) earned him acute unpopularity. Now he appoints his henchman Morrison to apply his blowtorch to all social welfare recipients.

One thing he can be sure of – he heads a one-term government. The untrustworthy Bill Shorten, of all people, is destined to become our next prime minister by absolute default.

Having once been NSW and federal president of the Liberal  Party I have to say shame on you Abbott, Morrison and Hockey. You three may get your just desserts. But in the process you will have dumped on the entire Liberal Party community.

John Valder 

Bayview

Lapse in taste by News Corp

Hot on the heels of News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch's December 2014 callous tweet comes The Guardian 9 January 2015 report of this exercise in bad taste:  

News Corp Australia’s most popular magazine insert has advertised for fashion interns by using a photo of a young woman dressed in underwear on all fours on a bed.