CONSERVATION areas, prime farming land and horse breeding and winery regions will remain open to coal seam gas and coal mining under a confidential draft plan prepared for the NSW government to manage land use.
Proposed guidelines for determining where and how mining may occur, obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald, also reveal that "highly sensitive habitats" could be mined as long as "offsets" of similar land are provided by a mining company.
The briefing document has been presented to a special reference group convened by Planning Minister Brad Hazzard.
It comes amid an outcry by farmers about development of the government's land use policy.
The NSW Farmers' Association has warned it will walk away from the reference group if the government does not honour a pre-election promise that key areas would be quarantined from mining and exploration activities.
The strategic regional land use policy, released before the election, stated that "agricultural land and other sensitive areas exist in NSW where mining and coal seam gas extraction should not occur".
But the draft guidelines do not provide a process to identify areas that will be exempt from consideration of mining activities.
Instead, they say statewide mapping will identify sensitive lands as either "strategic agricultural land" or as valuable for "biodiversity conservation".
A "gateway process" would then be applied, which "tests whether proposals for mining and petroleum development on strategic land are suitable".
In the case of agricultural land, which includes farming, horse breeding and wineries, applications to mine must provide evidence that it will "not be likely" to result in permanent or long-term loss of the land or "adversely impact" agriculture.
For conservation land, applications must provide evidence that mining will "not be likely" to result in the loss of sensitive habitats.
However, it says mining would only be prohibited "unless significant type and ratio of offsets can be secured".
The process of offsetting land, called Biobanking, has attracted controversy because it potentially allows mining and other development such as housing to take place where it otherwise would not be allowed.
Significantly, the guidelines indicate the government may grant exploration licences to mining companies before the gateway process is applied.
In the case of coal seam gas, this would allow the sinking of wells for pilot production on land which may be found potentially unsuitable under the guidelines once an application to mine is lodged.
Pepe Clarke, the chief executive of the Nature Conservation Council, which is part of the stakeholder reference group, demanded the draft plan be withdrawn.
"Carefully mapping the most important wildlife habitat in the state, only to allow it to be destroyed by mining development, is bizarre and totally unacceptable," he said.
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NSW Farmers’ Association president Fiona Simson said the draft guidelines provided for “business as usual” in NSW.
“It gives mining and coal seam gas companies certainty that they can develop a mine plan, but no certainty to farmers or other agricultural industry,” she said.
However, the chief executive of the eastern division of the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association, Rick Wilkinson, said stakeholders needed to “realise this process will require some tough decisions, some give and take, and a good dose of common sense. No one should see this as a winner-takes-all game.”
Mr Hazzard said he was aware some stakeholders were concerned about the gateway process.
“At this stage, I don’t see the need for them to be as worried as they are,” he said, “because there does have to be some general assessment process done in the first instance to determine what lands get used for what. That’s just common sense.”
James Barlow, whose once tranquil property is now sandwiched between two large coalmining sites, would like the certainty of a guarantee that some arable farmland – such as that of the prosperous Liverpool Plains food bowl in north-west NSW where his Mirrabinda property lies – would not be touched by miners.
“We feel protected that we’re not going to be mined, but it’s still on our doorstep and anything can happen,” the 30-year-old grain farmer said.
“They could come tomorrow and say ‘we want to mine here’ and there’s not much you feel you can do.
“There’s so much power and money, you feel pretty small.”
The property he inherited from his father overlooks the historic Kurrumbede, once home to Dorothea Mackellar and prime
cattle-producing land that was sold to coalminers last year.
News that NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell has abandoned a policy that would see some parcels of land protected from mining is likely to receive a hostile reception from other farmers.
“They’ve got to look at what land is productive and protect it somehow,” Mr Barlow said.
“It’s just common sense and absolutely essential if we’re going to meet the food needs of the
population.”
• Sean Nicholls is The Sydney Morning Herald’s state political editor
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