Luis Feliu
A National Party Tweed shire councillor has come under fire from local campaigners against coal-seam gas (CSG) for ‘cosying up’ to the mining lobby by inviting Metgasco’s chief executive to its Christmas bash later this month instead of listening to locals’ concerns.
The attack comes as the northern rivers mining company said it was unlikely to take up any offer from the state government to buy back its licence for the region under a new CSG ‘reset’ policy announced yesterday.
It also follows accusations by NSW opposition leader John Robertson yesterday that premier Mike Baird had ‘rolled out the red carpet for unrestrained CSG mining across NSW’ and was ‘squarely on the side of the industry and not local communities’.
NSW Labor yesterday joined a chorus of critics of the government’s new CSG promises if it is re-elected, responding by announcing its own policy which allows CSG mining and exploration in some parts of the state, but not in sensitive areas such as water catchments, national parks and residential areas.
Lock the Tweed spokesman Michael McNamara said Cr Youngblutt ‘taking advice from Metgasco’s Peter Henderson says more about Phil than it does about the presence of CSG in the Tweed’.
Local media recently reported that Cr Youngblutt had invited Mr Henderson to address the Murwillumbah National Party branch Christmas dinner on 26 November.
‘Cr Youngblutt would be better off listening to the people he is elected to represent than the CEO of a company desperate to impose its activities on an unwilling region,’ Mr McNamara told Echonetdaily.
‘In the Tweed Shire, communities covered by a currently active Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL445), owned by Dart Energy, have expressed their opposition to CSG and other unconventional gas developments in no uncertain terms.
He said the opposition to gasfield development was reflected in the big turnout of up to 10,000 people at the recent march in Lismore to declare the whole northern rivers ‘Gasfield Free’.
‘I have, on numerous occasions, publicly challenged the companies and organisations interested in exploring for unconventional gas (including CSG) in the Tweed Shire to relinquish their licences or applications if, as claimed by some local Nationals, there is no viable gas here in the Tweed Shire.”
‘None of them have taken up that challenge. They are still hovering – and that says it all.
Impacts elsewhere
‘The other part of it that Cr Youngblutt and some other local Nationals just don’t get is that residents of the Tweed Shire are concerned about the impacts of unconventional gas developments across the northern rivers, across NSW and across Australia, not just the impact in the Tweed.
‘Tweed Shire residents are concerned about the impacts on Gloucester, Camden, Sydney’s water supply and the Pilliga from a rapid expansion of drilling and fracking activity.
‘They are concerned that governments at state and federal level are more concerned to develop the gas reserves than to expedite a move to renewable fuel sources.
‘Cr Youngblutt needs to listen to local residents and their concerns rather than the wishes and aspirations of the prophets of profit like Peter Henderson,’ Mr McNamara said.
The councillor told APN Media that Mr Henderson ‘will speak about why the Tweed’s topography made CSG mining in the region unviable’.
Cr Youngblutt said he extended the invitation to Mr Henderson after the mining executive contacted him to ‘endorse his reported comments made in the council that CSG was not a threat to the Tweed’.
The 80-year-old Cr Youngblutt at a recent council meeting opposed a move to erect ‘gasfield-free’ signs around the shire, saying the state’s chief geologist had said CSG mining was not a threat to the region.
Meanwhile, Metgasco’s Mr Henderson told the ABC that his company was unlikely to take up any licence buyback offer from the state government, saying it ‘spent too much time and money in the region to walk away now’.
Mr Henderson told ABC that many Metgasco shareholders would probably not be pleased with a buyback as the company had operated for 20 years and spent $120 million ‘to establish significant gas reserves’.
The NSW Farmers Association said such existing licences and developments approved under the current regime ‘remain a hurdle for the government’ and that it was ‘important that further activities only be approved on these sites if they satisfy the new data collection monitoring and transparency requirements’.
Association president Fiona Simson said the association was pleased the government was supporting all 16 recommendations from the Chief Scientist’s report on CSG in NSW and ‘eagerly awaited further details around its implementation.
Risk assessment
‘Our association is also pleased the government has plans to implement a new strategic release framework from 1 July 2015,’ Ms Simson said.
‘This will include upfront assessment on all exploration licence areas plus an analysis on whether areas of the state are actually appropriate to be explored in the first place. The strategic release framework has the potential to deliver what NSW Farmers has been advocating on for some time – that is a proper, upfront assessment of the risks associated with any land areas being released for exploration and production.’
Ms Simson said the association also welcomed the state government’s ‘consideration of farmers and their communities and that they would be able to share in the benefits of gas development in NSW.
‘Whilst compensation was not a panacea, it was vital those people who hosted extractive industries also share in the rewards.
‘No amount of compensation can ever make up for permanent damage to our agricultural land and water,’ she said.
State Labor says the Liberal/National government’s plan ‘will let rip’ on CSG mining in NSW ‘without the necessary safeguards to ensure the protection of agricultural land and drinking water’.
Opposition leader Mr Robertson said the coalition’s plan ‘does nothing to restrict CSG mining within existing license areas, provides no new protections for drinking water, farmlands and natural areas, and fails to implement all of the Chief Scientist’s recommendations’.
‘Mike Baird has today signalled his support for the reckless expansion of this industry before it is safe to proceed – regardless of the cost to our precious drinking water, our environment and our farms.
‘The science is still not in on CSG. The government must implement all of the Chief Scientist’s recommendations before any further development of the industry is allowed to occur,’ he said.
Labor, if elected, plans to impose a moratorim on all CSG activity ‘until the industry is proven to be safe, until we have mapped the aquifers, until we understand the impacts that have been highlighted by Chief Scientist in her report, this work needs to happen before CSG is allowed to proceed’.
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