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Protect our Land and Water

Anyone who eats will be affected if we don’t protect our natural resources

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3 Our story

4 What was promised?

5 What’s at risk?

6 Get involved!

8 Contact us

OUR LAND OUR WATER

OUR FUTURE

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Protect our Land and Water

Before the 2011 state election, the NSW Liberals and Nationals promised to deliver certainty for business, and protect our precious agricultural land and water resources from extractive industries. Protect our Land and Water is a NSW Farmers campaign seeking sensible, planned and sustainable management of our land and water resources. The campaign has brought together a broad group of supporters - ranging from our most iconic rural industries to leading environmental groups.

Together, we want Premier O’Farrell to deliver on his promises, namely:• genuine upfront planning that does

not subject our most productive and sensitive areas to the risks and uncertainty of exploration;

• independent protection for water right across the state that applies before mining and coal seam gas activities interfere with those resources.

What we are seeking is not radical. We are simply seeking limits on where extractive industries can and can’t go – by identifying and protecting a small fraction of the state’s productive lands and high risk environments. We also believe that sustainable water use by communities and industry should not be put at risk through dangerous mining and Coal Seam Gas activities without proper assessment.

This brochure outlines how the NSW Government’s current draft proposals will break their election promises, what this means for iconic industries in NSW, and how you can be involved in standing up for the long term interests of NSW.

Our Storyyour

Find out more from the NSW Farmers’ President.

“This campaign is about our future and our right to protect this area - to protect our drinking water, our food and our future.

Coal seam gas mining threatens all of these things. So when it comes to our drinking water, first and foremost, there is the water that they have to draw out of the coal seam to access the gas.”Fiona Simpson President, NSW Farmers Association

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What was promised?Beginning in 2009, NSW Farmers negotiated the Strategic Regional Land Use Policy with the then Shadow Minister for Primary Industries & Energy, the Hon. Duncan Gay MLC and the NSW Minerals Council.

The policy was endorsed by shadow cabinet and announced as a NSW Liberals and Nationals policy in Tamworth on 16 February 2011 by the Hon. Duncan Gay, member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson, the Hon. George Souris, and the Hon. Kevin Humphries. The key features of the policy are summarised here.

Protection

The Coalition promised to identify and protect water resources and strategic agricultural land ahead of granting exploration licences. This was through two main mechanisms; switching on aquifer interference approvals; and strategic regional land use plans.

Certainty

Regional Land Use Plans were meant to identify areas of the state where mining

and coal seam gas extraction could not occur. Identifying these areas would give communities certainty about how their region can be expected to change over time.

Independence

Assessment and approval of activities which might damage water and agricultural land was to be the responsibility of the NSW Office of Water, and Office of Food Security respectively. This was to place detailed scientific assessment at the heart of decision making which would protect those assets from extractive industries without compromise.

Property rights

A key component of the Coalition’s election platform was to recognise the basic property rights of landholders through reforms to mining, petroleum, and just terms compensation legislation. This would ensure equitable compensation for impacts on land, water and capital improvements.

“The Government needs to ensure equitable compensation for impacts on land, water and capital improvements.”#ourlandourwater

Currently, more than 100% of the land area of NSW is covered cumulatively by applications and titles for minerals, coal and/or CSG exploration or production (given that many regions have multiple layers of applications and titles).

Many people’s homes and businesses are covered by exploration licences without their knowledge. Much of this area earmarked for minerals, coal and CSG exploration and production overlaps the state’s most productive and strategically important land resources. Massive leases now affect communities from Tooraweenah to Taree, from Byron Bay to Boggabri, from the Shoalhaven to St Peters in Sydney.

By allowing potentially damaging exploration to continue in these areas unchecked, the NSW Government is failing to mitigate the risks to our food bowl posed by mining and coal seam gas exploration activities.

Food security

Demand for food is set to increase by 70% by 2050 as the global population rises to around 9.1 billion people (United Nations, How to Feed the World in 2050). Already our region is home to two thirds of the world’s hungry people. This makes farmers in NSW well placed to improve the livelihoods of some of our closest neighbours by investing in new technology to produce more food and fibre from the same amount of land. Already the average Australian farmer grows enough food to feed 600 people every year, 450 of whom live outside Australia (Australian Farm Institute, 2009). Australian farmers produce almost 93% of Australia’s daily domestic food supply and export 60% (in volume) of total agricultural production (PMSEIC 2010). If we lose our food bowls to mining and CSG, or the precious land and water resources we rely on for sustainable farming

practices are adversely affected by mining/CSG activities, we are stifling our ability to contribute to the food security challenge.

Jobs and investment

Agriculture is also big business. In NSW alone agriculture is a $9 billion industry with over 70,000 full time employees (three times that of the mining and coal seam gas sector) (ABS 2007). Nationally, food production underpins some 12% of gross domestic product and as a state; NSW is the biggest contributor to that figure, with 32.1% of the total number of farms in Australia (ABS 2009). By failing to deliver certainty to farm businesses across the state, the NSW Government will damage investment in agriculture which will impact on our ability to meet future food security challenges.

What’s at risk?If we lose our food bowls to mining and CSG, we are stifling our ability to contribute to the

food security challenge.

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Get involved!The eight week consultation period for the regional land use plans and aquifer interference policy has now ended.

There are three simple steps you can take to participate in the campaign, we appreciate any time you can spend taking any or all of these.

Make a submission

Consistent feedback from the community can’t be ignored. The formal submission period has now closed. Thank you to everyone who lodged submissions via our online submission-builder. More than 400 submissions were lodged via this tool, which will greatly assist in communicating to the NSW Government the need for strong land and water protections right across the state. We will be providing an online submission-builder again when the next drafts are released (eg next stage of the Aquifer Interference Policy; draft regional plans for other parts of the state)

Most campaign supporters have lodged submission in response to the draft documents. Click here for a copy of NSW

Farmers’ detailed submission.For information on how to lodge more detailed submissions, including uploading attachments, please click here to be taken to the Department of Planning website. Contact your local member

Even though the formal public consultation period has now ended, it is still important to ensure your local member has this issue high on his or her priority list. Call, write or visit your local member to confirm your support for genuine land and water protection, and to ask what they are doing to ensure Premier O’Farrell’s commitments are met. Click here to visit the Electoral Commission’s electorate finder to help you contact your local MP. You should make sure your local MP knows the extent of proposed exploration in her or his electorate. Use our electorate maps to demonstrate the current titles in your area.

For more information on calling, writing or visiting a Member of Parliament you

can read our ‘Communicating with policy makers’ guides here.

Go public!

Call talkback radio, write a letter to the editor, talk to your friends, and get active on Facebook and Twitter. Share your concerns about the O’Farrell Government’s failure to protect future generations in the most public way you feel comfortable. Talk to your friends around the state and make sure they’re aware of how these proposals affect them. Raising awareness is one of the most important steps you can take because in the long term this issue affects everyone – some people just don’t know it yet.

Writing to your local MP Calling your local MP Visiting your local MP

Tips for effective advocacy

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Protect our Land and Water

1 May 2012 - Protect Our Land and Water rally

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Contact UsNSW Farmers’ Member Service CentreTelephone: 1300 794 000 E-mail: emailus@nswfarmers.org.auTo contact campaign supporters, please use the links below.

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