Craig Thomson (Dobell, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a private member's bill that is quite specific in its intent. It is about protecting the water supply of the Central Coast. There is the real prospect that there will be a mine built under the water catchment area on the Central Coast. The clauses of this private member's bill prohibit the exportation of coal or a coal licence for any mines that are in the catchment area defined by the Wyong Shire Council as the water catchment, valleys and district as at 18 March 2013. The water catchment area is a major water resource, as you would probably know, Madam Deputy Speaker, because we did rely on the Hunter water supply, for many years, being piped down to the Central Coast, as our water supply reached levels of just less than 10 per cent. Out water catchment area is the resource for over 300,000 people who live on the Central Coast.

The Wallarah 2 mine will be directly beneath the flood plain at the junction of both main river systems where the major flow-through of the aquifers is. The river systems are primarily aquifer fed, and damage to the aquifers from subsidence will result in a loss of water catchment. The mine's own data on their new application states—and there is a good deal of debate about whether these figures are understated—that there will be a loss of 79 million litres of water a day, which far exceeds the annual rainfall and capability to recharge the aquifers.

During the time that there has been this exploration lease, the mining company has never got its hands dirty with on-ground exploration. In its previous application, the water information was based on an extrapolation of data from the Hunter region, in the southern coalfields, of models to fit what it believes would be the scenario for the Wyong water catchment district.

The Keneally government commissioned a water study to be done by Sinclair Knight Mertz. The hydrogeologist Ray Evans determined in his report that a minimum study of two years should be carried out in the water catchment area, and further recommendations were that all old bores—more than 200 of them—be reactivated to accurately quantify data for a proper baseline before any consideration of mining be approved. This has not been done.

Wyong Shire Council and Gosford council engaged groundwater expert Professor Pells to undertake a study of the proposed mine impact on the water catchment district with the previous application. Professor Pells teaches mine-water management at the University of New South Wales and to the mining industry, and has BHP and Xstrata as clients. He said that the data provided by the proponent of this mine was able to prove that the aquifers would drop 200 metres due to depressurisation from introducing atmospheric pressure into the underground workings. Professor Pells was further able to prove that it would take at least 200 years for the aquifers to recover, if at all, leaving the Central Coast without its major water catchment area.

There is a long history to this mine. After years of campaigning—particularly by the anti-coal Australian Coal Alliance headed by Alan Hayes of the Central Coast—the previous planning minister, Tony Kelly, eventually and finally, in the dying days of the previous Labor government, rejected the application for the mine based on 'uncertainty around the ability of the project to meet acceptable water quality outcomes'. He also said:

… the project is not consistent with the principles of ecological sustainable development, including the precautionary principle, and as a consequence is not considered to be in the public interest.

That is what the community thought was the end of this matter. The government had had its reports, had made a decision and had said it was not going ahead with the mine.

What made us even more sure that the mine was not going ahead were the words of the then opposition leader, Barry O'Farrell. He made it absolutely clear that if his government were elected there would be no coalmine. In fact, he attended a large rally and signed documents. He said, 'No coalmine in the water catchment district.' The Liberal Party ran an election campaign based on this promise. Barry O'Farrell, along with other Liberal candidates, donned the community's 'Water not coal' T-shirts and waved the 'Water not coal' placards to gain votes.

The minister for energy, Chris Hartcher, said on the ABC that no Liberal candidate would have been elected if they had not opposed the Wallarah 2 mine. He was absolutely specific about what he said and his commitment to the people of the Central Coast—one that they relied on when they went to the ballot box and one that they have been relying on for the last two years in relation to that commitment. He said, 'No ifs, no buts'—a guarantee that there will not be a mine under the water catchment area of the Central Coast.

It is with some concern then that I had to bring this bill to this place, because quite simply it appears that the bucket of money that is associated with coalmining has had its effects on the O'Farrell government. The links are not pretty. Liberal Party lobbyist Nick di Girolamo has connections with the Obeid family, which we learnt about at ICAC; in fact, he was lent $3 million to buy shares in Australian Water Holdings. His only client is the proponent for this mine, and he has been having meetings with the Liberal Party government. What have we found? We have found that there has been a change of heart. It seems that the state Liberal government is happy to line up with mining interests, happy to go back and betray the people of the Central Coast for the royalties that may come from this particular mine. It is a shocking state of affairs. What we had at the last election was both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party saying, 'There will be no mine.' The current government and the incoming government both committed that there would be no mine. Here we are, two years after the last election—almost 2½ years after the previous government said there would be no mine—and the current state government is entertaining the prospect of there being a mine that will affect the water catchment area of the Central Coast.

The Central Coast's water supply got down to 10 per cent. It is now up to 57 per cent, which is fantastic news; it has not been that high in 20 years. One of the reasons it is that high is that the Rudd-Gillard government built a water pipe which funnelled water from the low catchment dam up to the high storage dam, and that has been extremely successful. This dam also goes through the valleys where this proposed mine is to be. It would be subject to subsidence. Not only would we see water being drained away because of the mine; the very infrastructure that the Labor government put in place to ensure that the Central Coast was drought-proofed would also be damaged.

This is not an issue about jobs. The business community on the Central Coast are united with the rest of the community on the Central Coast. They say that there will be more jobs lost through building this coalmine in urban areas, going underneath the water catchment area of the Central Coast, than jobs created by this mine. This bill is about making sure that the Central Coast community get what was promised to them. This bill is to make sure that Central Coast people do not have the insecurity of having the most basic thing—their water supply—jeopardised, threatened, put at risk because of greedy mining companies. This is an opportunity for all members in this place to say who they line up with. Do they choose the community that is universally opposed to this mine or do they choose the friends of Eddie Obeid, the friends of Liberal Party fundraisers and the mining interests over the community? That is the choice that this bill puts before this place. I urge all members here to support this bill and to support the people of the Central Coast. (Time expired)

Bill read a first time.

Sharon Grierson (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 41(c), the second reading will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.