Environmental groups and farmers have criticised proposed amendments to Queensland’s planning laws that they say will make the regulation of coal seam gas “even weaker” and “abandon responsibility” for sinking farmland.
The Environmental Defenders Office and Lock the Gate made the comments in a joint submission in response to draft amendments to two key pieces of state legislation regulating the management of CSG-induced subsidence – when the extraction of gas underground causes the ground above to sink.
EDO’s managing lawyer, Revel Pointon, said the draft amendments to the Regional Planning Interest (RPI) and Mineral and Energy Resources Common Provision (MERCP) 2014 acts would further water down already “weak” legislation.
“Just after the government recognises that subsidence might pose a significant risk to our best agricultural land, they are now amending legislation to remove the requirement to actually assess that risk,” Pointon said.
The RPI Act was established in part to provide greater protections to priority agricultural areas from industries such as CSG. But under the draft legislation, subsidence, one of the most contentious impacts of CSG extraction, will be removed from that assessment process and instead assessed under the MERCP Act.
“They’re stripping the ability for farmers to protect their land,” Pointon said.
In its own submission to the state government, the peak farming body Agforce Queensland said it was supportive of the proposed introduction of a new subsidence impact framework but “strongly disagrees” with the removal of CSG-induced subsidence impacts from the RPI Act.
Liza Balmain runs a cotton and mixed grain farm 200km west of Brisbane and has been a staunch opponent to CSG expansion in the area for almost a decade, hosting the independent senator David Pocock, environmental and legal experts, and farmers at a meeting in opposition to Arrow Energy’s Surat gas project this year. She also made a submission on the proposed amendments.
“To remove the assessment of subsidence from the RPI Act is removing that barrier to Arrow Energy’s advancements on the Darling Downs,” Balmain said.
Some farmers who have allowed gas wells on their properties say they have experienced subsidence but it has not affected their operations. Gas wells from Arrow Energy are scattered throughout Ian Hayllor’s cotton and grain fields. He allowed them in exchange for compensation.
Hayllor says decade-old gas wells on neighbouring properties have caused his fields to subside.
“The surface has stayed exactly the same the whole place has just dropped 50mm,” he said. “I wouldn’t even know it happened without looking at the data.”
A spokesperson from the Queensland department of infrastructure, local government and planning said the department was reviewing more than 370 submissions.
“The proposed amendments aim to promote a more consistent and transparent assessment framework,” the spokesperson said.
“In line with recommendations from the GasFields Commission Queensland, the proposed subsidence management framework identifies a pathway to assess potential subsidence impacts using a science-based risk assessment process.”
Dr Madeline Taylor from Macquarie University said the Queensland government had a long history of “piecemeal” and “reactive” regulation of the gas industry.
“We’ve come up with a co-existence regulatory approach of let’s regulate now and think about how we manage the impacts later,” Taylor said. “It’s a learning by doing approach.
“What’s fundamentally missing in Queensland is an authority made up of agricultural experts and landowners themselves.”
A spokesperson from Arrow Energy said the company was “committed to genuine coexistence with landholders” and “welcomed the opportunity to participate in the government’s consultation process”.
