Media Release 28.2.2014

The Maules Creek Community Council has written a letter of complaint to the Professional Conduct Committee of the Australian Ecological Consultants Association (ECA) in relation to the Maules Creek coal mine biodiversity offsets.

The offsets properties in question were part of a package put together by Cumberland Ecology in order for Whitehaven coal to get state and federal approval for its controversial mine.

The offsets have been disputed by four reports, the last of which found that of the areas independently surveyed only 5% of the offsets are in fact the Critically Endangered Ecological Community “Box Gum Woodland”.

“This is just wrong. How can we allow anybody to reasonably claim that the Leard State Forest will be protected by the offset properties when we can only be 5% confident in the offsets?” said local farmer, birdwatcher and Council spokesperson, Roselyn Druce.

“We have written to the society to seek redress for the information provided on behalf of the mine proponent Whitehaven coal. I have seen the offset properties in question and anyone can see that these properties will never compensate for the destruction of the old growth habitat in the Leard State Forest” she said.

“It is a matter of deep regret and personal distress to the ecological society members with whom I have met to see what is going on.”

“We are putting the professional body on notice that this kind of thing will not be tolerated. The work carried out by ecologists in the name of science is negatively impacting our environment and our community” said local beef producer and Council member Alistair Todd.

“We expect the Ecological Consultant Society to act to protect the reputation of its current members and make a clear public statement in relation to this complaint, outlining what steps it will take to remedy our matter” he said.

“Even now the company is clearing the forest and building its mine while the Minister is sitting on his hands, failing to act on the likely breach of the federal approval conditions.”

Attachment 1 – Letter of Complaint to Ecological Consultants Association

Atten: Martin Denny​​​​​​​​

 Professional Conduct Committee

Ecological Consultants Association

39 Platt Street Waratah, NSW 2298

Re: Maules Creek Coal Mine

 Dear Mr Denny;

Maules Creek Community Council is a community based organisation whose mission is to educate and inform the community and to liase with government, companies and other community groups about issues relevant to the Maules Creek community

We are writing to make a formal complaint about the Environmental Assessments prepared by Cumberland Ecology for the Maules Creek Coal Mine, specifically in relation to a proposed offsets package to offset the destruction of the Leard State forest for open cut coal mining.

A new report that examines the proposed offsets adjacent to the Mt Kaputar National Park prepared by Dr John Hunter says:

 “It is the inescapable conclusion based on the sampling of 68 sites within the areas of alleged White Box CEEC mapped by Cumberland Ecology that the extent of the CEEC is vastly overstated and perusal of the data collected within other mapped units that the other vegetation types are equally poorly circumscribed and mapped. Based on the results reviewed herein, the on-ground extent of this critically endangered ecological community is approximately 2- 5% of the area mapped as such by Cumberland Ecology but that some small isolated occurrences may occur within other mapped units. However these additional patches are unlikely to increase the amount of CEEC appreciably.”

It is also the opinion of the author that “any remnant of White box CEEC found at/or near the altitudinal limit of this community (approximately 800-1000 m a.s.l.) will not be representative of the CEEC as found in and around Maules Creek at 300-400 m a.s.l. What minor areas of CEEC that may occur within the designated offset are not likely to contain the same species composition as the White Box CEEC community that may be cleared in Leard State Forest.”

The offset package proposed by the proponent of this mine was crucial to the company being able to secure approval for the clearing of 544ha of this critically endangered community. This report follows three other investigations and reports into the matter and a federal investigation that has not either been finalised or reported, despite 12 months having elapsed since the investigation was commenced.

It appears that the information supplied to the state and federal governments by Cumberland Ecology on behalf of the mine proponent is questionable. We believe that the Society’s Code of Conduct (Point 3) has been breached. It states “Members will be personally accountable for the validity of all work that they carry out or direct.”

Detailed analysis by qualified experts disputing the assessments made by Cumberland Ecology has been available since March 2013: it appears likely that Cumberland Ecology has provided incorrect information which ultimately will enable the clearing of a large area of a nationally critically endangered ecological community as well as habitat for a number of nationally threatened species.

We ask the Ecological Consultants Association to investigate this matter and to inform us of what action will be taken if is it is found that they have breached the Ecological Consultants Association Code of Conduct.

The environmental stakes are very high for the Leard State Forest and the fauna and flora contained within, as well as for the community around the forest who rely on the ecosystem services it provides.

We attach the report from Dr Hunter for your confidential perusal for the purposes of investigating this complaint and look forward to hearing your response.

Yours sincerely

Roselyn Druce

MCCC Inc

12.02.2014

5)      Endorsing and promoting the construction of the MAC Village on flood prone land where previous applications had been consistently denied.

Media Release 14th January 2014, 3.30pm

The NSW Government has shut-down Leard State Forest in north-western NSW, in an attempt to prevent the local community and their supporters scrutinising the actions of Whitehaven coal as it moves the bulldozers in to the sensitive location.

The NSW Forestry Corporation has this morning declared Leard State Forest a prohibited area, and told community members and protestors that they must vacate the locality.  Only coal miners will have legal access to the site.

However, the long-standing protest camp at the locality has effectively avoided the move on order, after proving that they were not camped on State Forest land and the closure order did not apply to them.

“This is an unprecedented step by the NSW Government – they have effectively handed over this important public forest, Leard State Forest, to the coal miners, and now they are trying to lock the public out so that the destruction of this priceless environmental area can go on unobserved” said Phil Spark, spokesperson with the Northern Inland Council for the Environment.

“The Forestry Corporation gave us an ultimatum to pack up the long-standing protest camp this morning within 12 hours, but we have since confirmed that we are not on State Forest land and they have no power to evict us.

“We see the closure of the State Forest today as a case of privatisation by stealth – the coal miners are being handed our public forests for free and the NSW Government is colluding with Whitehaven Coal to prevent scrutiny of their activities.

“This action today adds to the cloud of secrecy surrounding the mine – with important documents being withheld and the progress of a Federal investigation being kept under wraps.

“The lock-out can only add to the grave concerns of the Gomeroi Traditional Owners that their sacred sites are at risk and proper cultural processes are not been followed by Whitehaven.

“The public are not the only ones being evicted from Leard State Forest today – endangered species like the Koala and Long-eared Bat will be driven out of the area if the Whitehaven bulldozers are given free rein to clear the bush for an open-cut coal mine.

“With this action today, the NSW Government is treating the coal mining industry like a protected species, while they provide open season for the big miners on the endangered animals of Leard State Forest” he said.

Northern Inland Council for the Environment v Minister for Environment (Maules Creek and Boggabri Mine Cases)

The Northern Inland Council for the Environment (NICE) is challenging Commonwealth approvals for two coal mines in the Leard State Forest near Boggabri. One is the proposed new Maules Creek mine, owned by Whitehaven, the other is an expansion of the existing Boggabri Mine, owned by Idemitsu.

If they go ahead, the proposals will result in the clearing of over 600 hectares of the critically endangered Box Gum Woodland, as well as loss of habitat for the Swift Parrot, the Regent Honeyeater and the Greater Long-eared Bat, and the endangered plant species Tylophera linearis .

A key ground of challenge is that the Commonwealth Minister for Environment breached the EPBC Act by allowing his decision to be influenced by the release of commercially sensitive correspondence by the NSW government.

The two approvals also rely heavily on offsets to compensate for significant impacts on endangered communities and threatened species. NICE will argue that the Minister made a legal error by not requiring independent verification of the offsets before the approval was granted. NICE will also argue that the Minister failed to take into account approved conservation advices for listed threatened species and ecological communities.

These two cases were commenced on 18 July 2013.

The EDO is grateful for the assistance of barristers Sarah Pritchard SC and Craig Lenehan who are acting as counsel for NICE.

More casework info. 

Well it took no time at all for the O’Farrell government to react to the Warkworth and Maules Creek legal challenges from coal mine affected communities.

Both cases involve the biodiversity offsets required by state and federal planning authorities. Rather than work within the existing framework the O’Farrell Government has announced sweeping changes to biodiversity offsets that turn a potential hurdle for proponents into a windfall gain for the state.

Unbelievably the NSW Environment Minister, Robin Parker, green washed the new plans as a “Boost for Biodiversity, New fund to support the environment”.

She went on to say “a new biodiversity offsets fund would be established to enable major projects to contribute money, rather than locating and purchasing sites themselves” and “the NSW government remains committed to streamlining approvals processes to reduce red tape, and reduce both the cost and time required to gain approval.”

Yep, it’s about the approval not the environment and this signal to the coal industry makes a mockery of two years of negotiations around the controversial Strategic Regional Land Use Policy (SRLUP) by conservationists, farmers  and miners.

The SRLUP required the development of an existing biodiversity offsets database and the identification of priority areas in order to improve the biodiversity outcomes of highly destructive projects such as those in state forests such as Leard and Pilliga. It went on to require practical initiatives such as regional air quality monitoring and health standards for incremental and cumulative dust impacts, none of which have seen the light of day.

A year or two on it seems the main purpose of the SRLUP was to weaken landholder protections and provide certainty of mining developments via a range of measures such as the infamous Gateway Process. Scratching offsets as an impediment to land access is the next logical step for the mining juggernaut.

This latest announcement from the Environment Minister goes even further by making it cheaper for the miners as it says “offset calculations [can] be discounted where significant social and economic benefits accrue to NSW as a result of a proposal”. The Ministers so called “Boost” is so one sided, there is question as who in fact wrote this media release.

It is all reminiscent of the former Labor administration as new exploration areas are facilitated while money changes hands.  The NSW LNP government has tried it’s best to sideline communities such as Bulga and Maules Creek in order to get on with a process that is anything but transparent. When big money is involved certain people can’t help themselves and one wonders how long until ICAC makes new rounds of the corridors in Macquarie St.

Previously, the policy required consent authorities to evaluate and compare the relative public benefits of proposed coal mines against other land uses in the vicinity of the proposed mine. It required them to consider and create conditions to avoid or mitigate impacts of mining developments on water resources and biodiversity.

According to Lock the Gate, the changes effectively mean that a system already weighted in favour of coal companies by virtue of their political influence, would make that imbalance a formal part of the consent process.

“The radical changes being proposed by NSW Government make all other considerations subordinate to the inexorable might of the mining industry. It is difficult not to see this as a slap in the face for small communities like Bulga and Camberwell, who have been forced to take mining projects to court as they grapple against the bullying might of the coal industry, with the complicity of our state government.

“All other land uses whether it be farming, quiet enjoyment or amenity must be relegated to second class considerations to the money-making potential of the proposed mine. We will be making strenuous objections to this policy, and encouraging all of our members to do the same.

Media Release, 8th July 2013
ABORIGINAL WORKERS WALK OFF THE JOB – WHITEHAVEN IN PROTEST AT MAULES CREEK COAL MINE

Over fifty Gomeroi Traditional Owners, Senior Elders, Elders, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community members and families have formed a picket line at Whitehaven Coal near Gunnedah in north-west NSW this morning amid a stop work action in protest of the Maules Creek Coal Mine and the incomplete and disrespectful cultural heritage process.

Whitehaven announced last week that they had obtained all extra approvals needed to commence construction on the Maules Creek Coal Mine. Traditional Owners are unhappy at the failure of Whitehaven to conduct rigorous cultural heritage surveys or to properly consult them about the mine plans, joining local farmers and environmentalists in opposing the mine.

“Our people who were working for Whitehaven Coal have walked off the job and we are determined to fight this Maules Creek mine until they show respect to the Gomeroi people and our culture,” said Gomeroi Traditional Owner Stephen Talbot.

“It is with a great deal of stress and concern that the Gomeroi Traditional people, Local Aboriginal Land Council Community and Aboriginal Community members have had to walk off the cultural heritage salvage program at the Whitehaven Maules Creek Mine.

“Whitehaven have shown no respect for Aboriginal cultural heritage or our people. Even today, they lied to our Elders about work progress. We are standing up for our Elders and for our children today.

“The Maules Creek mine will clear more than 4,000 acres of culturally significant forest, artefacts and cultural values that we have not even been allowed to assess properly yet. We have only been able to walk 0.05% of the mine site.

“The forest contains cultural heritage sites, food sources, and totems of our people, and most of them will be permanently destroyed by the planned mine.

“There hasn’t been a proper consultation process, the management plan is flawed and we don’t believe that our people have been treated with proper respect or that our concerns about the destruction of cultural heritage have been addressed.

“We are seeking an urgent intervention to stop all works until the mine management comes to the table to discuss and rectify our concerns and comes to a mutually acceptable resolution on the management and conservation of our culture and heritage.

“We will be back at Boggabri Park tomorrow morning in larger numbers and with ever more of our Elders to show our determination to stop this destruction of our cultural heritage by the Whitehaven Coal mine,” he said.

Lock The Gate Alliance has questioned the double standards on law enforcement applied to mining giants and community members, after news today that Jonathon Moylan has been charged by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).

In January this year Moylan sent out a press release, appearing to be from ANZ, announcing that the bank had withdrawn a $1.2 billion loan to Whitehaven Coal. The ANZ loan to Whitehaven Coal is to fund the new Maules Ck coal mine near Gunnedah in NSW.

Moylan is charged with breaching section 1041E of the Corporations Act and faces 10 years in jail and a fine of up to $495,000.

“Today, young Jonathon Moylan has felt the full force of the law – something that multi-national mining giants rarely feel in this country” said Drew Hutton, President of Lock The Gate Alliance.

“In fact, it has been alleged that Whitehaven Coal provided false and misleading information to the Federal Government in order to get their Maules Ck mine approved, but there has been no action taken against them.

“In contrast, Jonathon Moylan has today been charged with breaching section 1041E of the Corporations Act and faces 10 years in jail and a fine of up to $495,000.

“We are asking ASIC to reconsider their decision and withdraw the prosecution – the penalty is clearly disproportionate to the offence and Mr Moylan has apologised to anyone affected by his actions.

“Whether you agree with his actions or not, Mr Moylan’s intent was obviously just to tell the world about the plight of the people and environments at risk from this massive coal mine.

“Moylan’s action focussed the nation’s attention on how the proposed Whitehaven coal mine will destroy thousands of hectares of Leard State Forest, threaten water resources and rip apart the farming community of Maules Creek.

“It seems extraordinary that this young man now faces a decade in prison while Whitehaven Coal is forging full steam ahead with its plans to destroy the amazing Leard State Forest, despite strong evidence to suggest their approval was based on false information” he said.

Moylan will appear before Downing Centre Local Court on July 23.

Information or comment: Drew Hutton 0428 487 110

Background on Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek open-cut coal mine proposal

· Public land: Most of the mine falls within Leard State Forest, a public forest managed by the state government, which is home to hundreds of native wildlife species.

· Groundwater impacts: Environmental Impact Assessment report predicts that impacts on groundwater resources will last more than 1,000 years, including a 5-7 kilometres depressurisation zone.

· Dust pollution: Open cut mine operations at Maules Creek will drop thousands of tonnes of dust on local communities, threatening the health of farming families.

· Community: Land purchases for mining development and offsets, combined with impacts on local livelihoods and quality of life, are contributing to rapid population decline in the area.

· Environment: 2,000+ hectares of native vegetation would be cleared, including 544 hectares of critically endangered woodland.

Media Release 14.5.2013

A recent review by an Independent Soil Scientist identifies massive costs could be incurred by farmers to “prove” their land is Biophysical Strategic Agricultural Land (BSAL) under the controversial land use Gateway Process. The review was written in response to farmers requests to analyse another round of “tough new regulations” for coal seam gas instigated by the coalition government.

“The latest BSAL interim protocol introduced by the state government in late April and being advocated by the Nationals Leader Andrew Stoner is simply another loophole to allow gas companies to come on to any farmland  in NSW, prime, strategic or otherwise” said Gurley Farmer Penny Blatchford.

“The review shows that in the case study of PEL 470 near Gurley, many, many soil samples need to be taken to prove up BSAL and the cost of sampling and testing would run into the millions of dollars.”

“The community is led to believe that the coalition is protecting farmers and farmland however the gateway process has no power to say no and there is no farming land that is off limits to CSG in NSW”.

The BSAL protocol ignores the important function of grazing land in a healthy catchment and in the economics of the North West of NSW.

“The Nationals need to recognize that 95% of farmers who they claim as supporters don’t want CSG on their land or road and this is being borne out in survey after survey in the North West” said Maules Creek grazier Phil Laird.

“The career politicians in the National Party like Andrew Stoner, are adding further uncertainty, cost and mental stress on landholders in the region. We manage our land for the long term not just for the current generation.”

“It’s pretty simple, we don’t want CSG, it is dangerous to our ground water and soil and there are alternatives sources of gas in Bass Strait. Why risk our food and fibre producing land and the viability of our agricultural businesses for a few short term dollars?”

Review of BSAL Protocol Report from Soil Futures Pty Ltd available:

https://maulescreek.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Review-BSAL-Protocol_Final.pdf