There appears to be a rift between the New South Wales state government coalition partners over the government’s draft plan to regulate mining in the state.
The National Party, the junior coalition partner, has called for better protection for agricultural land, a move that puts it at odds with the major member of the government, the Liberal Party.
In a submission to the public consultation process, the NSW Nationals are calling for the permanent quarantining of agricultural land from mining and extraction in the state’s regional land use policy.
The Nationals also want the draft aquifer interference policy and the Coal Seam Gas (CSG) Exploration Draft Code of Practice beefed up, and the buffer zone for open cut mines widened from two to five kilometres.
Farmers and environmentalists are upset at the draft plan of the Liberal Premier Barry O’Farrell’s government, announced in March, which classified one million hectares in the New England region and 400,000 hectares of the Upper Hunter as high-value agricultural land.
However, major mining and exploration, including CSG proposals, will not be banned in areas set aside as prime agricultural land.
NSW Nationals chairperson Christine Ferguson said she hoped the party’s submission would “assist the government in strengthening the policy even further”.
“We suggest that these recommendations will strengthen the policy even more and hope that they are given favourable consideration by the government,” Ms Ferguson said.
The Nationals’ push for changes to the policy coincides with Planning Minister Brad Hazzard’s criticism of farmers, who he said were “almost irrelevant” in the consultation process because of their opposition to the draft plan.
The NSW Farmers Association will tomorrow hold a protest outside state parliament in Sydney, which it says will attract thousands of people angry about the government’s approach to controversial coal seam gas exploration.
Association president Fiona Simson said the government had failed to deliver on its election commitment to protect land and water resources by quarantining some areas from mining, and the draft plan “pulled up short on delivery”.
“We have worked consistently with the (coalition) for the past three years in the development of their draft policy, which is one of the reasons we are so disappointed in what has actually come out of those negotiations, and one of the reasons why we have had to take such a strong stand,” Ms Simson said.
“We have been fully engaged in the process, and we certainly want further meaningful negotiations to have the outcome that was firstly promised and secondly that the community expects of the government.”
Ms Simson said while the consultation process had succeeded in getting stakeholders around the table, it had “failed in its outcome”.
“We have certainly been spoken to, but we are not sure how well the government has listened,” she said.
Speaking on ABC Radio, Mr Hazzard accused farmers of an “unusual game of simply trying to stop anything”.
“I think that is particularly unproductive, and it’s reaching the stage where the farmers are becoming, through their association, almost irrelevant to the process,” Mr Hazzard said.
“They should buy relevancy, and get back in there and take part in the process instead of just sniping from the sidelines.”
The NSW Labor Party opposition said that by criticising farmers who did not agree with its land-use policy, the government had undermined the consultation process.
“NSW cannot have a senior O’Farrell government minister attacking one side of the equation just because he doesn’t like what they have to say,” Labor’s primary industries spokesman Steve Whan said.
