Statement by Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian 

“We welcome Chris Minns’ election as leader of NSW Labor and look forward to working with the new Labor leadership team to put climate action and the protection of nature at the top of the political agenda. 

“The people want an effective Opposition with a comprehensive set of policies to tackle our most urgent environmental issues and force the government to compete for votes in these vital areas of public policy.  

“We hope that the new Labor leadership team can start a race to the top against the Coalition in the critical areas of koala conservation, climate action and the reform of water and forestry management. 

“Labor has an opportunity and a responsibility to come up with a plan to end native forest logging in a way that supports workers into a sustainable plantation-based industry. 

“And Labor must take up the fight on land clearing, especially terrible proposals that would accelerate the extinction crisis for koalas. 

“The Coalition government is taking strong action on the energy transition and national parks, but is getting wrong on water, koalas, logging and land clearing. 

“The new leader must lead on climate action policies that go beyond a just energy sector transition and includes electric vehicles and agriculture. And end the false choice between jobs and a livable climate.  

“Labor must recommit to supporting a healthy Murray-Darling Basin through better water management and flow targets. 

“It must also show leadership on the pressing issue of native forest logging. Our forests and the wildlife they support are dying because of unsustainable logging.” 

The NSW Government must vigorously prosecute landholders who have harvested floodplain waters illegally, and release all the legal advice it has received on the status of floodplain harvesting over the past two years.

Media reports today reveal that Water Minister Melinda Pavey was told months ago that unlicenced floodplain harvesting was illegal under the Water Management Act but kept that advice secret during critical public debates on the issue. [1]

“The Minister not only kept the advice secret, she failed to act upon that advice by introducing measures to stop the continuing theft of massive volumes of water cross large parts of NSW,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.

“At the same time, she was busy ramming through regulations that transferred billions of dollars’ worth of publicly-owned water to private landholders in the form of floodplain harvesting licences.

“Fortunately, those regulations and licences were overturned by the NSW Legislative Council, by a cross party group including Justin Field, Labor, Greens, Shooters and Animal Justice.

“But with billions of dollars’ worth of water at stake, you can be sure the irrigator lobby is pressing the Nationals to have another crack.

“This whole episode further undermines public confidence in the administration of water and the government’s ability to balance the needs of the environment and the interests of downstream communities against the incessant demands of irrigators.

“That’s why we need to know what the government was told, and when, regarding this critical matter of public interest before any more changes are made to water laws and regulations in NSW.”

Mr Gambian said the legal advice the Minister had kept secret was a critical piece of information that MPs were not given when casting their votes on the Floodplain Harvesting Regulation disallowance.

“The failure to disclose this critical advice was very favourable to the interests of irrigators because the regulation gifted billions of dollars of water to irrigators who were otherwise not entitled to it

“Any licensing of floodplain water take must guarantee an ecologically sustainable water flows right through to the bottom of the system.

“Anything less will have a devastating impact on river health and downstream farmers and communities.

“The law should be enforced and those landholders who have taken water to which they had not right should be prosecuted.”

[1] NSW labels flood-plain harvesting ‘legal’ but internal advice suggests opposite, SMH, 26-5-21

The Nature Conservation Council urges all candidates in the Upper Hunter by-election to put climate change, air quality, the protection of wildlife habitat, and river health at the top of their agendas.

“Climate change is the number-one economic and environmental challenge facing communities of the Upper Hunter and Liverpool Plains, so all candidates need to make clear what they will do for the region on climate,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.

“Any candidate who does not have climate change at the top of their platform is not really representing the true interests of the community.

“All candidates need a plan for meaningful action to cut emissions, and ensure that Hunter communities have a realistic pathway to new economic opportunities in a low carbon economy.

“Change is coming to the Upper Hunter, one way or another. These changes could be very positive, or they could be very negative – it all depends on how our politicians and governments handle it.

“So far, the major parties are putting the Upper Hunter on the road to ruin by refusing to deal frankly with climate change and the decline of the coal industry.

“The coal and electricity generation industries in the Upper Hunter contribute more than any other electorate to climate change in NSW, so it must play a leading role in slashing our state’s emissions.

“It is not fair to expect people in this region to carry the burden of that alone, which is why we are calling on the NSW Government to establish a Community and Industry Transition Fund and Transition Authority.”

Mr Gambian said candidates must also advocate strongly to improve very poor air quality in some parts of the electorate, and support measures to reverse the decline in native bushland and species under threat from logging and land clearing for mines, farming and urban development.

The Nature Conservation Council calls on all candidates to support the following measures:

Support communities

• Use coal royalties to create a multi-billion-dollar Community and Industry Support Fund.
• Establish a Community and Industry Support Authority to collaborate with workers, communities, and industry on Community and Industry Support Plans tailored to different coal communities.

End the expansion of coal and gas

• Stop releasing farmland and wildlife habitat for coal and gas developments.
  Rescind the recent release of land around Rylstone and Wollar for coal exploration.
• Stop issuing coal and gas exploration and mining licences in the Upper Hunter, Liverpool Plains and Central West.
• Ban new coal mines and gas fields.

Improve local air quality

• Set air quality standards in line with world’s best practice and improve air quality monitoring.
• Implement an air-pollution reduction strategy across NSW to improve air quality by slashing emissions.
• Reduce emissions from coal-fired power stations by installing readily available technology, updating pollution licences and improving monitoring.

Protect, restore and reconnect wildlife habitat

• End native-forest logging, a key driver of the decline of koalas and other forest wildlife.
• Stop land-clearing for mining, agriculture and urban development.
• Create a network of revegetated wildlife corridors through the Hunter and Liverpool Plains.
• End the use of biodiversity offsets, except in exceptional circumstances.
• Ban the burning of native forests for electricity and reject the proposed recommissioning of Redbank Power Station to burn forest biomass.

Restore rivers and wetlands

• Mandate environmental flows to keep our rivers healthy.
• Tighten the water-use monitoring regime to end water theft and give certainty to all water users.
• Enforce the law regarding floodplain harvesting, and ensure all floodplain harvesting regulations guarantee sustainable water flow for river health and downstream communities.
• No new dams.

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW is the peak conservation organisation for NSW, representing more than 160 local, regional, state-wide environment organisations.

The NSW Government should protect water supplies, farmland, communities and wildlife in the Far West by immediately ruling out the development of an industrial gas field in the region, according to the NSW Nature Conservation Council.

The government this year resurrected plans to let big fossil fuel companies drill gas wells across millions of hectares of grazing land stretching from Tibooburra in the north to Hillston in the south. [1]

Farmers have reacted angrily to the proposal and the failure of the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment to consult adequately. [2]

“The development of a gas mining industry in the Far West will waste millions of litres of water this region just can’t spare,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.

“Gas mining in the west will require fracking, a process that uses vast amounts of water and chemicals to crack the rock to make the gas flow.

“The fossil fuel industry’s own figures show fracking requires about 15 million litres on average for each well, which is enough to fill six Olympic-sized swimming pools. [3]

“If this proposal goes ahead, there could be several hundred wells dotted across the Far West requiring possibly billions of litres of precious water.

“We proudly stand with local farmers and Traditional Owners who utterly oppose fracking on their land.

“It is a cruel irony that gas mining is being contemplated in a region that is already suffering the effects of climate change.

“Burning the gas will add CO2 to the atmosphere when the rest of the world is urgently trying to eliminate its CO2 emissions.”

Mr Gambian said an industrial gasfield would not only be bad for the climate, it would have significant on-the-ground impacts.

“Industrial gas fields are criss-crossed with roads that are bulldozed to give installation and maintenance crews access,” he said.

“In major gas fields, hundreds of kilometres of roads cut through wildlife habitat and grazing land and trigger erosion.

“Habitat fragmentation is a key threat endangering the survival of many unique rangeland species, including the plains wanderer.”

The gas field exploration areas announced by the government cover the Broken Hill Complex and Murray Darling Depression bioregions.

The Broken Hill Complex bioregion is home to 51 vulnerable species, 30 endangered species, one critically endangered species, one endangered population and one endangered ecological community. [4]

The Murray Darling Depression bioregion is home to 67 vulnerable species, 39 endangered species, 6 critically endangered species, 2 endangered populations and 5 endangered ecological communities.

References
[1] There are two exploration areas: one between Wilcannia, Cobar, Ivanhoe and Hillston in geological formations called the Neckarboo and Yathong-Ivanhoe troughs; the other is between Broken Hill, Wilcannia and Tibooburra in geological formations call the Bancannia and Pondie Range troughs. 
[2] Upset at snub in submission time for Far West gas tilt, The Land, 3/3/21
[3] How much water does hydraulic fracturing use?, American Petroleum Institute. “The average fracking job uses roughly 4 million gallons of water per well …” 4 million gallons is 15 million litres.)
[4] NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, Habitat area search Search by region | NSW Environment, Energy and Science

The NSW Government’s decision to abandon engineering works that would have dried out Menindee Lakes is a win for the ecosystems, communities and businesses that rely on the lakes for their survival. [1]

“Minister Pavey deserves credit for listening to the local community, which has always opposed starving Menindee Lakes of water just to give more to irrigators at the top of the system,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.

“Now the government needs to ensure enough water actually makes it all the way down the river some the lakes can fill rather than be syphoned off into private dams hundreds of kilometres upstream.

“That means buying back water licences, limiting floodplain harvesting to ecologically sustainable levels, and delivering cultural water so the Traditional Owners can continue their cultural practices.”

Scrapping the Menindee Lakes engineering works was a key demand of the Darling-Baaka River Delegation that came to Sydney earlier this week to lobby for improved river health. 

The delegation comprised landholders and Indigenous leaders from around Menindee Lakes and other parts of the Far West. 

Other demands that are yet to be met include:

• Keeping the river running along its whole length by slashing water extraction for irrigation to ecologically sustainable levels that are realistic about the effects of climate change.
• Limiting floodwater harvesting to ecologically sustainable levels by strictly limiting the issuing of new licences.  
• Listing the Menindee Lakes under the Ramsar Convention for wetlands of international significance.
• Putting Indigenous water needs ahead of irrigation industry demands.  

“Water policy is complex, but the problem is simple. There are too many straws in the glass —  too much water is being taken from the floodplains and rivers,” Mr Gambian said.  

“Today’s announcement is a great step forward, but a lot more needs to be done to stop the Darling-Baaka River dying.

“There is a very serious risk the government will issue licences for floodplain harvesting that take yet more water from the river, its ecosystems and the downstream users.

“We call on Minister Pavey must ensure volumes agreed in floodplain harvesting licences are measurable and ecologically sustainable. 

“The Darling-Baaka needs the small and medium flows to keep the system alive and connected.

”This means extraction for irrigation should only occur when connectivity from the top of the river system to the confluence with the Murray, is guaranteed.” 

References

[1] Pavey says Menindee water-savings project discussions suspended, The Land, 18-3-21

[2] Darling-Baaka River delegation puts water back on the political agenda, NCC, 16-3-21

A delegation of landholders, Indigenous leaders and recreational river users from the Far West has come 1000km to Sydney to urge the NSW Government to urgently address mismanagement of the Darling-Baaka River and Menindee Lakes. 

Since the death of millions of fish in Menindee Lakes in 2019, the plight of the Darling-Baaka River, the lakes and the ecosystems, communities and economies that rely on them have slipped off the political and media agenda. But the problems highlighted two years ago are unresolved and new threats are emerging.

Darling-Baaka River Water Delegation has come to Sydney to put the spotlight back on the issue and prompt the government to restore the health of the river and hope for river people. The delegation’s key demands are spelt out in the Darling-Baaka River Action Plan (attached) and  include:

• Keeping the river running along its whole length by slashing water extraction for irrigation to ecologically sustainable levels that are realistic about the effects of climate change.
• Limiting floodwater harvesting to ecologically sustainable levels by strictly limiting the issuing of new licences.  
• Keeping Menindee Lakes and the Great Anabranch alive. Abandon engineering works that will reduce their ecological, economic and community value, and list them under the Ramsar Convention.
• Putting Indigenous water needs ahead of irrigation industry demands.  

The delegation is meeting MPs from all sides of politics, and will urge them to support the following key actions:

1. Enforce laws that require Indigenous cultural, drinking and environmental water be delivered ahead of irrigation water.
2. Install gauges at Wilcannia and Menindee to ensure promised water flows are actually delivered.
3. Nominate Menindee Lakes as a wetland of international significance under the Ramsar Convention.  
4. Scrap the engineering works planned at Menindee Lakes that will limit the amount of water getting to the lakes and make the lakes empty faster than they do now.
5. Stop irrigators at the top of the basin pumping if and when the river stops flowing along its whole length.
6. Support voluntary water licence buybacks to reduce the amount of water extracted for irrigation. 
7. Limit the issuing of floodplain harvesting licences to ecologically sustainable levels.
8. Order the removal of illegal private dams, channels and levies that are trapping floodwaters and preventing water getting to wetlands, watering floodplains, recharging aquifers.

The delegation includes: 

• Uncle Badger Bates, a Barkandji Elder from Wilcannia on the Darling-Baaka River. (Attending via Zoom due to COVID-19).
• Derek Hardman, CEO of the Barkandji Native Title group. (Attending via Zoom due to COVID-19).
• Rob McBride, owns Tolarno Station near Menindee Lakes, one of the biggest sheep farms in the world. 
• Julie McClure, co-owner of Kallara Station, a sheep property.
• Don Stewart, Treasurer of the Darling River Action Group, based in Broken Hill.

All delegates are available for interviews.

Sydney Water is planning to destroy a patch of urban bushland and a sandstone cliff previously earmarked as part of Wolli Creek Regional Park, Earlwood, to build a sewage odour control facility up to 14m high.

The land is the eastern gateway to the park and marks the start of a 4.5km nature walk through the largest remnant of Sydney sandstone vegetation left between Sydney Harbour and Botany Bay.

“It’s a totally unnecessary desecration,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.

“The odour control unit could be built on another block of land nearby, which would avoid all the horrendous visual impacts of this proposal.”

Wolli Creek Regional Park was established on land previously reserved for the M5 motorway. It was protected as a nature and recreation reserve after decades of campaigning by the local community and the Wolli Creek Preservation Society.

“More than 300 hectares of precious urban bushland is lost every year in Sydney, [1] often for infrastructure like this odour control unit,” Mr Gambian said.

“We can’t go on like this forever or there will be nothing left. That means we can’t always take the easy option when planning critical infrastructure like this.”

While the block of bushland is relatively small – just 120sq/m – it occupies a very prominent place at the start of the 4.5km walking track that is used by thousands of people every year.

“The COVID-19 experience has shown us how precious and irreplaceable bushland and open space in our cities is,” Mr Gambian said.

“The government’s own National Parks and Wildlife Service’s promotes Wolli Creek Regional Park as a ‘precious pocket of bushland in Sydney’. [2]

“We accept that the OCU is a necessary piece of state Infrastructure, but there is an alternative site.”

NCC and the Wolli Creek Preservation Society are calling on Water Minister Melinda Pavey to direct Sydney Water to reconsider its plans and find an alternative with much less impact on an iconic nature reserve.

The groups have set up a petition that will be presented to the minister soon. 

REFERENCES

[1] See sheet two of the NSW Woody Vegetation Change 2017-18 spreadsheet, vegetation loss for the Greater Sydney Local Land Services Area over 10 years.

[2] NPWS website, Wolli Creek Regional Park, 2021.

BACKGROUND 

For a more detailed description of the proposal, its impacts and alternatives, visit the Wolli Creek Preservation Society webpage here.  

PETITION

To Water Minister Melinda Pavey

We, the undersigned, call on you to intervene on Sydney Water’s planned location for a sewage Odour Control Unit (OCU), a large, intrusive piece of industrial infrastructure, at the eastern gateway to the Wolli Creek valley and across the popular Two Valley Trail.

We value highly the Wolli valley, its bushland and its heritage. Our objection is not to the OCU itself but to the insensitive and unnecessary location of the unit when there are better alternatives.

Our urban bushland areas are where we walk, rest and play. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the popularity of the 4.5km walking track through the Wolli Creek valley has soared to 250 per cent of its pre-COVID level.

Residents of the surrounding suburbs and Greater Sydney have flocked to quality local recreation and environmental experiences.

Sydney Water’s proposal locates the OCU at the entry to the Two Valley Trail, cutting into a natural sandstone cliff-face and destroying bushland.

It will also be an ugly intrusion too close to a state heritage-listed aqueduct.

This plan will ruin forever the striking entry point to the visitor’s experience of this unique place and seriously damage Sydney Water‘s reputation for environmentally sensitive works.

Minister, it does not have to be this way. There is a suitable alternative site nearby.

Sydney Water and the NSW Government can adopt the alternative, abandon a plan that would severely mar the start of the Two Valley Trail and the nearby heritage aqueduct, keep the bush that the local community has advocated to protect for 30 years, and complete the Wolli Creek Regional Park, promised 20 years ago.

The NSW Government is putting town water supplies and fish stocks on the Darling-Baaka River at risk by telling irrigators at the top of the system they can take river water virtually at will.

Water Minister Melinda Pavey and the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment have in recent days advised irrigators in the Barwon River catchment, including the Gwydir and Namoi sub-catchments, that there is ample water and to take what they want.     

“The Minister should not let big irrigators at the top of the system syphon off this precious water for private profit,” NCC Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.  

“These rains may be the last chance for many months to top up town water supplies, like those at Collarenebri, and replenish billabongs and other wetlands, like the Menindee Lakes.  

“This water should be used for the common good and for the health of the river itself. 

“Significant rainfall this month in the northern basin could flush the Barwon and Darling-Baaka river systems for the first time in months and replenish town water supplies, which would be an absolute godsend this close to Christmas.

“But that is being put at risk by the department and the minister urging big irrigators to take what they want from the first flows. 

“The ICAC report found the department had failed to strike the right balance between the needs of irrigators, towns and the environment.

“This shows that the department has still not mended its ways. However, this does present an opportunity for department to show that it is taking on board the advice of the state’s top anti-corruption watchdog.

“As we are told by BOM, there will be more rain events likely over the summer months, and if we are not sharing the welcome rains right across the state, then the Government will be acting outside of the legislation. There are too many straws in the glass and it must stop now. 

“We urge Minister Pavey to immediately impose an embargo on irrigation take in all tributaries of the Barwon-Darling-Baaka, to ensure town water supplies downstream, environmental recovery and connectivity of the river right through to the confluence in Wentworth.”

The government has told landholders in the Gwydir to seek their own legal advice before diverting and capturing floodwaters that are likely to spill over the river’s banks in coming days. 

The Department of Planning, Industry and Environment issued a statement at 6.30pm yesterday saying: 

There are reports of heavy rain in the Gwydir region which could lead to overland flows.  

Due to the disallowance of the government’s regulation amendment, which temporarily exempted certain floodplain works from licencing requirements, any landholder considering floodplain harvesting during this event may wish to seek their own legal counsel. [1] 

“Water authorities have basically abdicated their responsibility saying they don’t know what the rules are and advising landholders to get their own legal advice on whether to divert and capture floodwaters in private dams or not,” said Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian.  

"The NSW Parliament recently disallowed floodplain harvesting regulations and the Crown Solicitor told the government the practice was probably illegal under the Water Management Act unless a landholder has development consent and a water access licence, which many don’t. [2]  

"The government may have been annoyed at the disallowance of their regulation, but that does not mean they can ignore the parliament's decision and let irrigators choose their own adventure.   

“The department should actively protect flood waters from illegal capture so water can reach the Darling-Baaka River, which has stopped flowing at Bourke and is a puddle at Wilcannia. 

"Water that does not reach our rivers is just as important as water that gets sucked out of our rivers by irrigation pumps."  

 
REFERENCES 

[1] https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/water/news/flood-event-in-gwydir-valley 

[2] Floodplain harvesting likely illegal under NSW water management act, crown solicitor warns, The Guardian, 8-12-20