Why are politicians wringing their hands and shrugging their shoulders while a giant coal mine threatens one of the most fertile farming areas anywhere in the world? Are our leaders genuinely helpless and unable to protect the Liverpool Plains from the proposed Shenhua coal mine, or is it all an act?



Barnaby Joyce says he opposes Shenhua mine 'as minister', contradicting Abbott Read more

Federal agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce told ABC News this week:

As the minister for agriculture, as peculiar as that may seem, I have no authority over [it]. Everything that I could do, which was to get the environment minister fully engaged in further assessment, I have done.

NSW premier Mike Baird said just prior to the March State election:

I do not support any mining activity on the black soil of the Liverpool Plains – that is my position. We have established, very clearly, an independent process. That independent process is determined by experts [and] they have determined that it should proceed.

It’s been very convenient for politicians to express their concern about the project, but point to arms-length processes as an excuse for inaction.



The truth is that there are many things either the state or federal government could have done to stop this coal mine, but they have chosen not to.

This either represents a failure of our political system, or more cynically, politicians wanting to broadcast one message to the public while facilitating the approval of this mine in private.

During the 2011 NSW election the Coalition released a strategic regional land use policy that aimed to restore the balance between mining and agriculture – partly as a response to concerns about mining and gas on the Liverpool Plains. The document stated:

A key part of the strategic land use planning process will be to identify strategic agricultural land and associated water and ensure that it is protected from the impacts of development.

Actions taken after the election fell well short of fulfilling this commitment. Loopholes were inserted and commitments weakened, delayed or dropped.



Meanwhile former Nationals leader and deputy premier Andrew Stoner met with the Shenhua coal company and asked that a letter be drafted to the planning minister. It stated that the mine “should not be held up by the yet to be completed Namoi Water Study” and that he “believes the project is of state significant [sic] and is a high priority and in light of this should be progressed along the assessment path as quickly as possible”.



Governments are not powerless and can change strategies. If the National party genuinely had influence or cared, here are some of the actions they could have taken:

The NSW rural lands state environment planning policy 2008 enables the state government to identify and protect “state significant agricultural land”. The Liverpool Plains could have been listed in schedule two, protecting it from mining.



The government downgraded its promised aquifer interference regime from a binding regulation to a mere policy – much to the despair of the NSW Irrigators Council who released a media statement entitled “water unprotected from mining and CSG.” A strong regulation would prevent mines such as Shenhua from being allowed to adversely interfere with the ground water.



The strategic regional land use policy could have mapped the entire Liverpool Plains area as strategic land, and the “gateway assessment panel” set up by this policy could have been given the power to reject planning applications on this basis. However, the government failed to put a “gate” in the gateway process – with the panel forced to provide either an approval or conditional approval.



The Liverpool Plains, as a key farming area, could have been designated as a critical industry cluster, and regulations put in place to protect such a cluster from mining.



The government could have negotiated a buy-back of the exploration licence, as it is currently doing with coal seam gas exploration licences. Or Shenhua’s exploration licence could have been cancelled for breaches of conditions that created “significant risk” in 2012.

And it is always open to the government to pass specific legislation to protect an area from mining.



Barnaby Joyce is right to criticise disgraced former NSW Labor Minister Ian Macdonald for granting the mining exploration licence back in 2008. However, there is no reason he and his state National Party colleagues could not act to correct Macdonald’s mistake. The truth is they chose not to act.