NSW government sources acknowledge Upper Mooki Landcare group has strong case and Chinese state-owned company could have to restart approval process

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The $1.2bn Shenhua coalmine faces a significant setback after local landholders launched a legal challenge to the New South Wales government approval process over whether it properly considered the impact of the mine on the local koala population.

The Upper Mooki Landcare group has challenged the approval given to the Shenhua Watermark mine project, specifically whether the open-cut mine on the Liverpool Plains would place a viable population of koalas at risk of extinction.



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NSW government sources acknowledged the landcare group had a strong case and suggested there was a high chance that Shenhua could lose at the NSW land and environment court, which could mean the Chinese state-owned company would have to start the approval process again.

Shenhua Watermark project manager Paul Jackson said he stood by the company’s environmental assessments and he would not speculate on the outcome.

“As the matter is currently being considered by the court it would not be appropriate for the company to speculate on outcomes until a decision has been handed down,” Jackson said.

If the court rules against Shenhua, it would be a bigger setback to the Watermark mine than the recent federal court decision on the Adani Carmichael mine because it could send the company back to the beginning of the approval process.

Earlier this month, the federal court found the minister failed to take into account the Carmichael mine’s impact on two vulnerable species, the yakka skink and the ornamental snake.



That decision saw the Abbott government announce amendments to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), which seek to limit who can challenge large resource projects, with a view to reducing “green lawfare” by environmental groups. The amendment is now before a Senate committee.



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On the first day of the hearing in Sydney on Monday, the Baird government announced it was changing its mining policy which places economic significance above social and environmental factor.

It will repeal regulation 12AA, introduced by the NSW Coalition government two years ago, which required consent authorities to consider “the relative significance of the resource and the economic benefits of developing the resource” to the state and the region.



The Baird government has faced fierce opposition to the Shenhua project by local farmers and environmental groups on social and environmental grounds.

The regulation change is effective from Wednesday because it does not need to go through the parliament. The challenge to the Shenhua case concludes on Thursday.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Local famers attend tractor convoy from Gunnedah to Breeza as part of day of action in opposition to Shenhua Watermark coalmine. Photograph: Kate Ausburn/PR

Planning minister Rob Stokes said the change was necessary to “restore the balance” between the environment and the economy in the consideration of resource projects. It is understood the 12AA regulation change only cleared NSW cabinet on Friday.



“A crucial pillar of our planning system is that decision makers consider environmental impacts on both the natural and built environments, and social and economic impacts, in their assessment of development applications,” Stokes said.



“As with all development, it is critical that there is a balanced consideration of all impacts of developments on local communities, broader regions and the state.”



The regulation repeal could change the dynamics in the assessments of other controversial NSW resource projects, such as Rio Tinto’s Mount Thorley Warkworth mine, Anglo American’s Drayton South mine and Centennial’s Springvale mine.

Shenhua needs to clear 847 hectares of habitat to go ahead with the project which is expected to deliver 268m tonnes of coal over 30 years.

Jackson said Shenhua, which has spent $700m on the project thus far, stood by its plans to “translocate” 262 koalas over the life of the mine and re-establish and rehabilitate habitat for the animals.



“The [koala] population estimate in Shenhua’s management plan corresponds with the independent study previously conducted for the Gunnedah koala plan of management commissioned by Gunnedah shire council, and the management plan has also been agreed to by the NSW office of environment and heritage,” said Jackson.



“The company commissioned leading experts to study the local koala population and habitat in developing management and revegetation plans and has committed to preserving 8,000 hectares of preferred koala habitat in both the onsite offset areas and via additional land holdings.”



Heather Ranclaud, a local beef and egg farmer and spokesperson for the Upper Mooki Landcare group said the mine would push the koala population “to extinction”.

“We are pursuing legal action because there are still so many unanswered questions about the viability of Shenhua’s proposed koala plan and it seems at this point the plan does not guarantee the survival of the estimated 262 koalas currently living where Shenhua wants to put its mine,” said Ranclaud.

“The planning and assessment commission [PAC] admitted the Gunnedah koala population has already been hit hard by drought and heatwaves, with an estimated 70 per cent reduction in numbers from 2009.

“Shenhua is relying on dubious offset plans and says koalas will either be encouraged to move or ‘translocated’. Experts scrutinising the company’s ‘plans’ have damned the approach. Even Shenhua itself has acknowledged the destruction of important habitat for fauna, and that translocations have failed in the past.”

