Activists have welcomed the announcement on July 6 that the NSW Coalition government has decided to buy back a coal seam gas (CSG) petroleum exploration licence from AGL that covers Sydney’s water catchment.
“It is a big win,” said Jess Moore, spokesperson for Stop CSG Illawarra. The anti-CSG group, with significant community involvement, has been campaigning for four years to protect the water catchment.
“This now means that all CSG licences in our drinking water catchment are gone. These licences should never have been issued in the first place.”
PEL 2 covers 668,102 hectares, stretching from the Illawarra and Southern Highlands, over Western Sydney, up to Wisemans Ferry. It was first issued under the John Fahey Coalition government in 1993 and renewed twice, first by Labor’s Eddie Obeid and again by Ian Macdonald.
“Community opposition to CSG and the campaign to protect land and water delivered this outcome”, Moore continued.
“But we’re not done.
“Let’s not forget that a ‘buy back’ means we are paying and, until we have permanent legislation banning CSG from the catchment, we may still have to fight a licence in the same area again.”
Before the 2011 NSW election, then-Coalition opposition leader Barry O’Farrell promised that, if elected, he would ban mining in NSW drinking water catchment areas with his famous “No ifs, no buts” rhetoric. It didn’t happen, and the anti-CSG movement began growing seriously across NSW.
This put pressure on the Baird government, which lost ground in this year’s election because people were fed up with the government’s lack of action on protecting agricultural land and water from the demands of the CSG industry. It initiated a “review” of CSG licensing, and made public money available for a CSG licence buy-back scheme. Several licences, including PEL 463, which covered the Sydney metropolitan area, were bought back before this year’s state election.
Moore said that if the Baird government were serious about securing Sydney’s drinking water supply, it would announce a ban.
“We need permanent protection of our drinking water," she said. "Otherwise, new licences can be issued that put our drinking water at risk.
“The legislation must change, and communities across NSW will fight until it does. A ban on CSG in drinking water catchment areas is simply common sense.
“We also need to know just how much of our tax dollars are being spent on buying back these licences — essentially a correction of the mistakes of past governments — because that’s money not being spent on schools and hospitals. There is provision under the Petroleum (Onshore) Act 1991 to cancel without compensation,”.
AGL’s July 6 announcement on the ASX website says it is divesting “non-core and under performing gas assets and activities”. It will surrender PEL 4 and PEL 267 in the Hunter Valley.
However, it will retain its licence for the Gloucester Gas Project, despite waste water disposal problems, and the Camden Gas Project in south west Sydney, despite multiple leaks and its proximity to houses and schools. It has, however, announced it will not proceed with the Northern expansion of the Camden project, on hold since February 2013.
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