Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and relates to the national partnership agreement with the New South Wales government on coal seam gas and large coal mining developments. Given that the New South Wales government has now established its so-called strategic land use and aquifer interference policies, where do these policies fit within the national partnership agreement and the protocols and milestones associated with that agreement?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for New England for the question. The member for New England was involved in the negotiations right from the beginning on the establishment of the independent expert scientific committee. As members would know who have dealt with the water area—in particular, the member for Wentworth—there is a great level of complexity when you are dealing with underground water as to the extent to which you have connectivity to both surface water and underground water often in very different areas. The science on this requires significantly more work and, for that reason, an independent committee was established and extraordinarily well funded.

I find it extraordinary that those opposite would view the campaigns on coal seam gas and concerns about water as being run purely by GetUp. If they met one or two farmers they might take a broader view. The member for New England knows too well the concerns in the lead-up to the New South Wales election about wanting to determine whether or not prime agricultural land was to be protected in some way. We eventually had the announcement of a policy from the New South Wales government—one of the governments that had signed up to use the independent expert committee. Both farmers groups and conservation groups have complained fairly strongly that it has fallen a long way short of the expectations that they had. There is some additional land which arguably has been set aside for agricultural use in the Hunter, and some in new England as well, but it is way short of the expectations that were given in advance of the election.

The part of the process that New South Wales has announced will interact with the independent expert scientific committee is what is known as their gateway process. The gateway process used to have an exceptional circumstances clause but that clause is now gone. So all large coal and coal seam gas projects in New South Wales will have to go through the gateway process. It involves an expert panel and it is at that point that the independent expert scientific committee will plug its information into the New South Wales process. So there is a direct pathway for the national partnerships that were established and expected.

The states involved on national partnerships at the moment are Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. It is largely irrelevant to Tasmania; Western Australia has refused to be part of it; and the Northern Territory is still in negotiations. Ultimately what is behind all of this is to acknowledge that, on underground water, we potentially have very serious environmental and agricultural issues at stake. It is not enough to simply expect decisions to be made on data which has not been fully research. Rather—and the member for New England has been entirely involved with this——it is better to make sure that the scientific work is done, that it is done independently, and that it is well funded. (Time expired)

Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. Given the minister's answer in relation to the so-called gateway process, which I believe does not have any legislative backing, does that process and the associated protocols meet with the guidelines that were expressed in the national partnerships agreement?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for New England for the question and his ongoing interest in the issue. My officials are still working through what the New South Wales media statements of last week will fully mean in a legislative sense. What they have done is announce the different parts of it. They have referred, for example, to a commissioner, a gateway process and a large number of processes. But on the details of the legislative underpinnings and how that will interact with the national partnerships agreements, it is fair to say the jury is still out.