The elusive coexistence definition

It is the most overused word in all matters related to coal seam gas in Queensland. The word “coexistence” is being used increasingly by industry and government with regard to the interaction between resource activities and agriculture.

In the legislation that gave the Gasfield Commission its powers it was stated that the purpose of this new statutory body was to facilitate sustainable coexistence. However there was no definition provided of what sustainable coexistence is and I’m unaware of the Gasfield Commission developing any satisfactory definition since.

Cartoon sourced [here] 

In recent months the Qld government has with considerable haste offered for public comment draft amendments to a whole series of different planning policies. A common thread was that the needs of increased resource activity and agriculture were all made possible by coexistence. Again coexistence was not defined.

Also a common thread in these amendments was that there was no provision for the potential for co-existence to not be possible, merely that the development of coexistence criteria will somehow enable coexistence to occur. By not making the allowance for the situation where co-existence is not achievable, the provision is made for resource activities to be able to proceed in all areas.

The reality is that coexistence arrangements are opening doors for exploration and resource extraction. Landowners have never felt any comfort that any such arrangement would allow for full farming production and efficiency. The use of this term provides no legal or compensable protection for landowners

Coexistence infers some kind of mutually beneficially arrangement.  However, farmers are not experiencing the joy of a mutually beneficial arrangement, rather they are facing stress, heartache, loss of time, loss of amenity, impacts on land, business, lifestyle, and fear for the future of underground water impacts, from an industry thrust upon them.

Currently coexistence could be defined as primary producers finding a way to adapt their businesses to accommodate the CSG activities.

Joanne Grainger, Queensland Farmers Federation President wrote in the QFF weekly column in the 19^th September 2013 issue of the Queensland Country Life newspaper

“ QFF agrees that all regulatory frameworks should provide as much certainty as possible to all stakeholders but does not agree with the concept that the outcome of planning and assessment processes should automatically be various forms of coexistence.

The principle does not apply to planning processes in urban areas, where land use conflicts are avoided by separating incompatible land uses, and should not apply to rural areas.

An important principle to follow is that coexistence should be mutually beneficial to all parties and that where this is not the case, it should be pursued.

In fact the outcome in many intensive farming areas should be that in certain areas of agricultural production there are no prospects of coexistence and these areas should be off-limits to any resource activity.”

Photo sourced The Australian

 

The areas that there are no prospects of coexistence and should be off limits to resource activity are:

·         CSG wells, roadways, pipeline and other associated infrastructure on alluvial flood plains that are cropped.

·         where irrigation entitlements to aquifers have been reduced and will be reduced in future often resulting in loss of crops, the notion that resources companies can have unimpeded access to that water is abhorrent

·         where underground water supply for livestock will be lost to CSG activity and there is no viable alternative supply of an equal standard

·         where the quality of the water will be affected by CSG activity

·         high density well heads especially in areas where broadacre cropping and large scale machinery are the lynchpin of efficiency, having to reduce either or both of these will cause a permanent decrease in efficiency

So how should coexistence be defined?  Surely coexistence is either a beneficial or stable interaction between resource proponents and the current land and agricultural resource users. And surely it should be recognised that sometimes coexistence just isn’t possible.

Political climate change

by Viv Forbes

Cartoonist Mark Knights

 

Climate Alarmists Rebuffed in Australian Election.

There was good news and bad news in the election. 

The good news was that the Labor/Green/Independent coalition that had led Australia into the unwinnable war on carbon was decisively rejected. The Labor vote fell to its lowest level for a century, the Green vote fell 3% and the independents who helped create and support this destructive green coalition are no longer in Parliament.

 

The other feature of this campaign was the high public interest in the election and the big dissatisfaction with all major parties. Lots of small single-issue parties were formed and contested the election. Most of these small parties were also opposed to the carbon tax.

And a few of them were smart enough to maintain strict discipline among themselves on how preference votes were directed, ensuring that some of them were elected to the Senate. 

There was one bad note in the election. Two prominent new small parties, the Palmer United Party (PUP) and the Katter Australia Party (KAP) foolishly directed significant preferences to the ALP and/or Greens ahead of the Liberal/Nationals. This was done partly out of spite, but mainly in a big gamble that did not always pay off.

 

Bob Katter’s largely conservative supporters reacted badly to him “assisting the enemy” and his primary vote fell dramatically. His hold on his own electorate has become marginal. Clive Palmer’s pact with the Greens got less publicity before the election and he did surprisingly well all over Australia. He probably got one Senator elected because of his shady deal with the green devils, but then in another state a Green Senator will probably be elected on Palmer preferences. So we may be stuck for six years with at least one Green senator who should not have been elected. 

Another feature of the election was the minimal support for the anti-coal-seam-gas party.

 

Now we need to make sure the new government dismantles the whole climate industry

 

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How to Untangle the Climate Bureaucracy: Last In, First Out 

Abolishing the Climate Commission is a good start. However there are still seven climate agencies and 33 climate schemes in seven different departments yet to be rooted out. 

What is the best way to unwind this huge un-necessary bureaucratic empire?  

Use the old union maxim – last in, first out. Whatever parliament created in one silly summer afternoon can be unmade just as quickly. 

Don’t merge, don’t reorganise, don’t rebrand – ABOLISH. 

And do it quickly before more damage is done to our economy, our energy supplies and our environment. 

 

And don’t worry about the climate. It will go on doing what it has always done - it will change

 

 

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Abolish the Unreliable Energy Targets 

Killing the carbon tax is not enough to restore sanity to Australia’s energy policies - the Renewable Energy Targets must also be abolished. 

No matter what laws are passed in Parliament, wind/solar power can never supply reliable economical grid power - their fundamental flaws are too numerous. 

Their low energy density means that large areas of land must be blighted to collect a significant quantity of power. 

Moreover, their intermittent supply pattern means that they cannot maintain a predictable electricity supply. 

And even if some magic cheap storage system is invented, the expensive wind/solar generating facilities will remain under-utilised for more than 60% of the time, and up to 30% of any energy stored will be lost in transfers.

Finally, without storage, green power needs full backup from reliable generation plants (which must also operate intermittently). 

Germany is proving that an advanced society cannot survive on wind/solar energy, even with support from French nuclear power, Swedish hydro-power, Russian gas and Polish coal. 

For too long, green dreamers have forced their daft ideas on Australia’s power supply network. We need to employ real power engineers and grown-up energy technology.   

The Renewable Energy Targets should be renamed “Unreliable Energy Targets” and abolished immediately. 

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PRA: Case Study, Changes for expediency

Case study Xstrata Wandoan coal mine lease application; Queensland Coordinator-General, November 2010, reclassification of land types for the advantage of the mining company.

Prepared by Property Rights Australia

Image sourced from Xstrata EIS. The mining lease area covered approximately 30,000 ha with 70 land titles belonging to 42 owners. Each little pink square represents a farming family to be removed, which they nearly all were, for the mine to proceed.  


Agricultural land in Queensland has been classified using the simple classification system called Good Quality Agricultural Land (GQAL)[i] of A, B, C and D class soils.
Class A is top cropping country
Class B is land suitable for cropping and grazing
Class C is grazing only; unsuitable for cropping;
and D is unsuitable for agriculture or reserved for environmental purposes.

This land classification system was developed from decades of work by soil scientists who were unimpeded from any other agenda other than good science. QGAL is clearly defined; it has been used as standard in resolving matters in the courts. It has stood the test of time. 

Property Rights Australia (PRA) is very concerned where policy, legislation, planning schemes and ministerial decisions have been implemented without giving priority to good soil science.  

A very blatant example in recent years is where the Coordinator-General’s department in November 2010 reclassified lands in the Xstrata Wandoan coal mine lease application from A & B to C for the advantage of the mining company. This project was subsequently granted conditional environmental approval in March 2011.

 

It is important to review what occurred at that time not only to be vigilant in ensuring it doesn't happen again but also to facilitate improved outcomes in future policy and legislation. Throughout 2013 the Qld government has been making changes to many planning laws, the latest being the Darling Downs Regional Plan which makes mention of the Xstrata Wandoan coal mine project on page 17.[ii] 

With any mining or petroleum lease application, a resource company is required to produce an environmental impact statement (EIS)[iii] where a consultancy firm is hired to write a document (best measured in kilograms rather than pages) to shed the best possible light on the project proceeding. The Xstrata Wandoan coal mine addressed quality of soils in the lease application in volume 1, chapter 9.3.6 and land suitability and agricultural lands in chapter 9.3.7.[iv]  

Despite including the pre-existing GQAL mapping as Figure 9-11-V1.3, the EIS provides inconsistent mapping of soil quality in Figure 9-9-V1.3. The EIS states that this second map uses the classification system of Land Suitability Classification for Cropping and Grazing in the Semi-arid Sub-tropics of Queensland (Department of Mines and Energy, 1995). The result is that under GQAL the land was considered to be either, Class A, top cropping country or B, land suitable for cropping and grazing and in the classification system favoured by Xstrata the very same land overnight became either

• Class 3 – suitable land with moderate limitations; land which is moderately suited to a proposed use but which requires significant inputs to ensure sustainable use; or
• Class 4 – marginal land with severe limitations which make it doubtful whether the inputs required to achieve and maintain production outweigh the benefits in the long term.  

The accuracy of the information and the methodology used to reach the conclusions in the relevant chapters within the EIS is questionable and was challenged by those with local knowledge. In response to these submissions the Supplementary EIS (SEIS)[v] spent many pages justifying the obvious anomalies without varying its conclusions. 

The most disappointing aspect about Xstrata Wandoan coal mining lease application was not the information paid for by Xstrata and prepared by consultants but the almost unreserved acceptance of this material in the Coordinator-General’s evaluation report on the EIS.[vi]

In Chapter 5.2.1 - Good quality agricultural land, strategic cropping land and rehabilitation, the Coordinator-General makes the following statements 

The EIS outlined that, under Section 2 and Attachment 2 of the associated SPP 1/92 Planning Guidelines: The Identification of Good Quality Agricultural Land (Department of Primary Industries and Department of Housing, Local Government and Planning Queensland 1993), Class A, B and C agricultural land in the former

Taroom Shire does comprise GQAL [emphasis added] 

The Taroom Shire Planning Scheme classified the MLA areas as GQAL—Classes A, B and C. The land suitability assessment undertaken in the EIS and SEIS, however, concluded that Class 3 and Class 4 land suitability—which approximates to GQAL Agricultural Land Class C—occurred on the MLA areas. Therefore, indications are that the MLA areas are unlikely to be classified as strategic cropping land.  

It beggars belief that the Coordinator-General could accept without question the downgrading of this land classification by the party with an economic interest in having it downgraded, without considering the possible cost to Queensland agriculture and the past production history of that land. 

PRA strongly believes land classifications must be based on established science and the production history of that land. No benefit to the immediate community or the citizens of Queensland can be identified in altering soil classifications for the expediency of the resource sector, as in the Xstrata Wandoan coal mine where A and B GQAL was changed to C class. Nor should it be the case where a process could be influenced so as C and D class land could be changed to A and B to stop a resource project.

 

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[i] http://www.dsdip.qld.gov.au/resources/policy/plng-guide-identif-ag-land.pdf

 

[ii] http://www.dsdip.qld.gov.au/resources/plan/darling-downs/draft-darling-downs-regional-plan.pdf

 

[iii] http://www.dsdip.qld.gov.au/assessments-and-approvals/environmental-impact-statement-eis.html

 

[iv] http://www.wandoancoal.com.au/EN/PublicationsandMedia/Pages/VolumeOneEIS.aspx

 

[v] http://www.wandoancoal.com.au/EN/PublicationsandMedia/Pages/VolumeOne.aspx

 

[vi] http://www.dsdip.qld.gov.au/resources/project/wandoan-coal-project/coordinator-general-report.pdf

 

 

 

 

Author calls for Royal Commission into 'political capture by mining'

By John Mikkelsen

(First published at On Line Opinion at http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=15482&page=1 )

Mining captures politics. Governments change, but the politics and administrative procedures surrounding mining and resource developments don't.

That's the smoking gun claim by the author of a controversial new book just distributed to every Queensland State Parliamentarian.

While focussing on the Sunshine State, Road to Exploitation by Alec Lucke, has a broader message for all resource-rich states and territories, as well as the newly elected Coalition Federal Government.

Shock findings of the ICAC mining inquiry, which recommended criminal charges against former NSW Labor ministers Eddie Obede and Ian Macdonald, probably contributed to Labor's decisive defeat. But that could be the tip of an iceberg of shady deals transcending state borders.

Disgraced former Queensland Labor Minister Gordon Nuttall is currently serving two seven year sentences after losing an appeal following his conviction on a total 36 counts of receiving secret commissions worth almost $360,000 from coal mining executives Harold Shand and the late Ken Talbot between 2002 and 2005. But was he a scapegoat, as he claimed?

Earlier this year, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman supported calls by Lock the Gate Alliance's Drew Hutton for a Crime and Misconduct Commission investigation into serious allegations by former public servants that they had been pressured by the former Bligh administration to approve environmental impact statements for two massive coal seam gas projects in the Surat Basin without adequate time to study the implications.

Where there's smoke, there's usually fire, and Lucke has gone a step further by calling for a Royal Commission into "political capture by mining".

 

Road to Exploitation follows years of pains-taking research by the long-term environmental activist and former Mt Larcom farmer. The rural community is on the outskirts of the expanding industrial hub of Gladstone, home to more than $100 billion in new resource projects. These include a new coal terminal project on Wiggins Island, three liquified natural gas plants under construction on Curtis Island and a fourth just approved by the Newman State Government.

The book, encompassing administrative procedures from the Bjelke-Petersen era through to today, is being distributed in parliament by Gladstone Independent, Liz Cunningham.

It has already penetrated some international markets and Lucke wants each of the 89 State MP's to read it.

He says an examination of the judicial structure and restoration of a properly constituted Upper House in Queensland is also needed, to restore political accountability. 



 

"The distribution of Road to Exploitation to Queensland parliamentarians is my personal contribution to this debate," Lucke says.

"The book authenticates not only landholders' concerns about unacceptable impacts upon their strategic cropping land and aquifers by coal and coal seam gas (CSG), but also concerns about damage to Gladstone Harbour's ecology.

"The contents justify the title, and demonstrate this principle: Capture executive government in Queensland and the regulatory and administrative processes are captured as well".
 

Lucke, who is now living in northern NSW, says he wants politicians to be confronted by examples of "sweetheart deals' entered into by the Queensland Cabinet over the years.

"The legacy described is a direct consequence of generations of brutal and reckless indifference by politicians.

"My accompanying message to them is, 'Please read with an open mind and then act according to your conscience.'

"Backbenchers need to understand and be properly informed that in Queensland, Executive Government has unbridled powers. Cabinet in multiple instances, operated in a vacuum without proper environmental assessment or consideration of risk analysis, with terrible consequences," Lucke says.

The book serves as both an historical record and a 'precautionary manual'. In addition to the current environmental concerns, it delves back to Mt Larcom district's pioneering era, the later development of limestone mining at the East End Mine in the 1970's and the formation of the East End Mine Action Group of which Lucke is a long-term member..

"The East End Mine / Regulating Agencies dispute continues with the interests of the Gladstone industrial model and a mine privately owned by the world's largest cement company placed ahead of other stakeholders, the district's progress and the environment," Lucke claims.

(The claim relating to the Gladstone industrial model seems to be borne out by a 'freeze' on development in the small Mt Larcom township because it is near the Gladstone State Development Area, set aside for major industrial expansion).

Mrs Cunningham told state parliament that issues covered by the book relate to the viability of farming pursuits and affects on farming families from mining projects.

"It highlights, too, the interaction between rural and urban Queensland, the interaction between business people and these farming communities.

"I would certainly recommend Members spend more than a few minutes reading this book".

Amen to that. While all resource companies and politicians can't be tarred with the same brush, his claims are serious enough to warrant some consideration.

 

UPDATE #1

Road to Exploitation by Alec Lucke  can be ordered by going to the following link at Amazon

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Arctic Ice Confounds Costly Computers

by Viv Forbes

Six years ago, the British BBC reported dolefully that climate models predicted the disappearance of Arctic Sea ice by 2013. This was supported by Al Gore, Australia’s ABC and all the usual alarmists.
 

Image sourced from [here]
 

Unfortunately for them, Arctic ice now stretches in a continuous sheet from Canada to Russia and twenty yachts that planned to publicise this year’s ice-free Arctic are now stuck in the ice.

 

Arctic ice comes and goes, continually confounding costly computer models.

 

Gillard’s carbon tax, Rudd’s emissions trading scheme, Abbott’s direct climate action and the Greens’ energy targets will have no effect on it.

 

 

Image source from [here]

 

For those who would like to read more: 

The original BBC scare-mongering:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7139797.stm 

Recent report on how the Arctic ice cap has grown 60% in a year:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415191/Global-cooling-Arctic-ice-caps-grows-60-global-warming-predictions.html 

And the Northern Hemisphere snow cover. No alarming losses here:

http://www.climate4you.com/SnowCover.htm#Northern%20hemisphere%20weekly%20snow%20cover%20since%201966

 

**********

 

Jennifer Marohasy also has a post about the artic sea ice area

Arctic Sea Ice Back

 

Perhaps it isn't the area but the thickness. From Bishop Hill

Long-term trends in sea ice

 

If you really want a lot of reading Anthony Watts keeps a detail record complete with data and all those graphs that everyone seems to like.
Sea Ice Page 

 

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BOB KATTER is DELUSIONAL!!!!

Well poor old Bob is blaming LNP advertising for the severe loss of his support base!!!!.

He is so delusional that he cannot see that his support base left him after the last Federal election - for many - those of us who are a bit quicker on the uptake left him years ago.

He thinks they left him after LNP's advertising during the campaign and is trying to blame that for his dismal result in 2013.

That is how out of touch with the electorate Bob Katter is and what I have been saying for some time on this and other forums. 

Now people on another forum of which I was a member previously may realise I was not talking through my hat (or they may have thought worse things - lol).

Anyway this picture of Bob is on the front page of the "Tablelander" this morning.  I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it. 

This is the real Bob Katter.  :-) :-)

In case you think I am enjoying this result, you sure are not wrong!! 

Post politics jokes and elclectic thoughts

The federal election is now over, it's time to lighten up a bit. This is a post for you to place jokes and eclectic thoughts. It's open to all subjects, not just politics. In fact the less politics the better.


We haven't had a post like since JESTS JOKES AND JOLLITY by JAN (nothing serious allowed) and Jan's one rule was to comment nothing that will make us frown.






To start off I'm copying this comment by Peter from the Open Thread.
Some little gems that I came across.

We hang petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
~Aesop, Greek slave & fable author

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.
~Plato, ancient Greek Philosopher

Politicians are the same all over.
They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.
~Nikita Khrushchev, Russian Soviet politician

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.
~Quoted in 'Clarence Darrow for the Defense' by Irving Stone.

Politicians are people who when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.
~John Quinton, American actor/writer

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.
~Oscar Ameringer, "the Mark Twain of American Socialism."

I offered my opponents a deal:
"if they stop telling lies about me, I’ll stop telling the truth about them"
~Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952..

A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.
~Texas Guinan. 19th century American businessman

I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be
left to the politicians.
~Charles de Gaulle, French general & politician

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city…
it might be better to change the locks.
~Doug Larson (English middle-distance runner who won gold medals at the 1924
Olympic Games in Paris, 1902-1981)