Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of my most enjoyable days when I was a New South Wales MP was when farmers from Liverpool Plains, Gloucester and the Upper Hunter bussed to Sydney to protest on Macquarie Street in support of my bill to ban mining on agricultural land. A highlight of that protest in support of the Greens bill was that farmers lined up their produce beside the parliamentary gates. It was impressive in diversity and a reminder of what we stand to lose if we do not protect our farming land and the water resources they rely on.

I was reminded of that event on a recent trip to the Pilliga State Forest and the Leard State Forest in north-west New South Wales, where a number of controversial mining projects are currently being pushed forward. This region is traditionally a farming one, producing cotton, beef and wheat, as well as a range of specialist vegetable and fruit crops. I saw grapes, olives and honey being produced. The rich volcanic soil makes it ideal for a range of agricultural produce. This land and the hard work of farmers contributes approximately $332 million to gross domestic production annually, but that is under threat.

Over the years the region has felt the encroachment of the mining industry. In 2006 the Boggabri and Tarrawonga mines began operation. Now the coal industry's appetite has grown as both mines are in the process of expanding and a new mine at Maules Creek has been approved. The three mines will increase coal production from the region fivefold, to 23 million tonnes per annum, and will make a major contribution to our climate change footprint. The mines sit in the Leard State Forest. This is a unique area and I recommend people visit. The forest is the largest remnant of forest left on the Liverpool Plains and is home to several endangered ecological communities, including the critically endangered white box gum woodland and 34 threatened species, which include the regent honeyeater, the spotted quoll and the koala. I have been lucky to see a koala in the area and I hope to see the regent honeyeater and the spotted quoll.

The biodiversity impacts of mining in the region are dramatic. Out of the 1,500 hectares of the box gum woodland that remains, 1,100 hectares would be cleared if these projects continue. Farmers are not allowed to clear this woodland, but the mining industry can. That is just another example that shows how the mining industry is given so much assistance in many forms by government. So we need to ask: how has this occurred? Whitehaven Coal, the Maules Creek mine proponent, has proposed to offset the woodland. Offsets have been riddled with controversy. The use of offsets is the basis for the approval of a project like this. There is another report about this project that found that the dominant vegetation mapped out by Whitehaven does not even contain white box, but still that approval went through on the basis of inaccurate information. Because of this, it is highly questionable that the offset woodland will produce the quantity of nectar required to support threatened species, such as the swift parrot and regent honeyeater.

I am a keen birdwatcher. I have not seen the swift parrot. It is an amazing bird that migrates from Tasmania and stops at various woodland gum forests, particularly in New South Wales and some in Queensland. It is quite an amazing migratory bird. The regent honeyeater is absolutely exquisite. It is black and yellow with scalloped wings. Again, the habitat of these birds is under threat.

There has been a further independent review of the offsets, which the federal government and Whitehaven are refusing to release. That document should be available to the public. This is despite a recent court decision recognising that the forest could be cleared without sufficient offsets in place. All this again shows how broken the offset system is. I would question that it ever really worked. It has been used as a justification for projects that are highly environmentally destructive.

In addition, the mine could drop the water table by between five and seven metres. Understandably, the community are alarmed. The systems in place to protect the community, the land and the water have failed. Activists and community members have lobbied the New South Wales and federal governments, but their concerns are falling on deaf ears. They have taken the mine to court and essentially lost because the laws around offsets are inadequate, like so many of the laws are inadequate for concerned communities.

I recently visited the area and joined the protestors. There have been many protestors at a camp for over 500 days. I arrived at the local farmer's land where people were camping late on a Monday night. I knew there was considerable opposition, but I was surprised to see more than 100 people camping out. A number of the local farmers visited us. There were local people and also people from Queensland and across New South Wales. It was most impressive.

There were people like Bill Ryan and his son, Colin. This is a very impressive father and son team. Bill is 91 years of age, legally blind and a Kokoda veteran. Together with Colin, concern over the rampant growth of the coal industry and the damage it is doing to both the environment and communities has led the two to spend much of their time supporting campaigns like this one to save the Leard, and they have been arrested for their efforts. This is real direct action—not subsidising corporations to reduce their footprints, which is what they should be doing anyway—by taking time out from their lives, their families and their jobs, and sometimes even putting their liberty at risk to prevent the damage that the industry is causing.

The following day I visited the Pilliga, just on the other side of the Kamilaroi highway. I met many community members who were protesting for the first time. The Pilliga is the site of a massive coal seam gas project for gas giant Santos. Local farmers are again concerned about the potential for water contamination from this site. At the Pilliga there were about 30 locals, most of whom had never been to a protest before. There was a mix of teachers, farmers, local business owners and young locals, all of whom were deeply concerned. Some of the women were keen bushwalkers, who knew the forest—as we know, often called scrub in a fond way. It has been listed nationally as one of 15 biodiversity hot spots and it could become an industrial landscape if this project is allowed to proceed.

While the company emphasises the jobs that the mines are supposed to bring, one farmer I spoke to listed a number of local businesses that have closed down. As the mining kicks in it gets harder for the small local businesses to find workers. Jobs with these businesses in town would last much longer than the ones in the mining industry.

The protest was held at the camp and it has been building. I have heard in recent days that people have been locked onto machinery as the company tries to move the operations to extend the drilling it is undertaking. The many people I met out at Leard State Forest and Pilliga would say that these operations are very damaging. The types of jobs they are creating—the fly in-fly out jobs, with their destruction of local communities—are not providing a secure future and are not providing real jobs that will last and bring benefits to all.

Instead of investing in handouts for the mining companies we clearly should be investing in renewable industries. That is a question I was asked time and time again when people found out that I was a politician. They asked what was happening in Canberra with the climate change plans. They would say to me: why aren't we supporting local jobs and businesses? That is where we should be building a diversified economy rather than this one industry that is destroying valuable agricultural land that we simply cannot lose any more of.

Overall, my sense of the region is that it is a community that is feeling hemmed in by these industries. But they are coming out in strength. They are showing their resilience and they are not backing down. I would like to relay this to my colleagues, my fellow parliamentarians, in this place: this is real direct action on climate change. I commend all of the community members, the environmentalists, the visitors, the grey nomads and the many other people who are showing real community spirit, real leadership, on this most crucial issue.