Tag: coal

Frogs and the Impacts of Coal Mining

Link below to a 6 minute YouTube clip made by James O’Connor and myself in an upland swamp in the Royal National Park.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5AdbMqvxL8

Littlejohn’s tree frog (photo Grant Webster)

Submission to the IPC on Russell Vale UEP 2020

Tom Kristensen, Maianbar NSW

This written submission presents additional material to that put before the IPC via the electronic public hearing. I spoke about frogs and the need for independent scientific studies.

I am writing to oppose the proposal for expanding operations at the Russell Vale colliery. I am concerned that mining subsidence will continue to impact the ecology of the lease area through the draining of surface water and drawdown of groundwater in the upper slopes. These changes will have an adverse effect on Endangered Ecological Communities and raise the risk of catastrophic fire. I am further concerned that the planning process does not allow for adequate investigation of these impacts and that a Special Area set aside for the protection of water quality has now become a place where mining damage is concealed from independent scientific scrutiny.

I am aware that this proposal before the commission is for bordand pillar extraction rather than longwall mining, and that the predicted subsidence and ecological effects are said to be negligible. I have two concerns about the prediction of “negligible effects”. First, it is made despite the acknowledgment that there is more settlement yet to come from the previous longwall mining operations. Second, despite recording subsidence of 1.7 metres under upland swamps, the proponents have been unable to identify ANY previous effect on swamp ecology, guessing instead that changes observed are within natural variation. An alternative interpretation is that the monitoring methodology was insufficient to detect effects.

I have studied the recommendations of the IEPMC and I am not satisfied that the DPIE have paid sufficient regard to ecological issues as addressed in the Planning Secretary’s Final Assessment Report. I am not convinced the Revised UEP will result in only “imperceptible subsidence” as the Department assures us. Nonetheless the department has also recommended an increase in groundwater monitoring with the drilling of extra bores and placement of extra piezometers, recognising an inadequacy of past sampling. This engineering solution is but a single blunt tool to measure ecological outcomes, and it has failed in the past. The pattern of drying after subsidence covers the broader landscape and selective monitoring of sites will only tell a fraction of the story. The proponent has a poor history of identifying changes in the environment and there is no reason to expect a change in outlook; coal-miningcompanies are not in the business of identifying ecological problems.

There are various ways of investigating ecological change in the landscape. I have a belief in field research; carefully tracking the abundance and distribution of plants and animals while noting environmental changes. 

I live in Maianbar inside the Royal National Park south of Sydney, on Dharawal country. I have a degree in ecology from the University of Sydney. I work on a citizen science project,studying frogs by pooling data from recordings made using a smart phone app. Two endangered frogs grab my attention most, the giant burrowing frog and the red-crowned toadlet. One is as large as an apple and the other is as small as a grape. One is a solitary creature filling an entire valley with a wailing trill on a rainy night, while the other is gregarious and chatty whenever there is water to enjoy. The giant burrowing frog has a larger southern range and is listed by both State and Federalgovernments as a threatened species, while the red-crowned toadlet exists in greater numbers; its range is tightly constricted to Sydney sandstone country and it has a State listing as a threatened species. Both frogs are dependent on upland water supplies; but both live principally outside of swamps, both also live within the lease area of the Russell Vale colliery. There is a possible third endangered frog, Littlejohn’s tree frog and a large faunal assemblage including the Giant dragonfly – also a threatened species, but for now I will concentrate on the one frog.

The red crowned toadlet, Psuedophryne australis is a tough little frog that might help us monitor the drying of the environment. It doesn’t cope with urbanization, but left alone, it does very well, coping with the adversity of drought and fire. Similar to the iconic alpine Corroboree frog, also in the genus Psuedophryne, a small dark frog with vivid yellow marking resembling body paint, the red-crowned toadlet wears striking red markings most obvious on the top of head.

After the recent drought ended, the local frogs started calling again, and some have been calling ever since. Red-crowns call day and night, continually advertising the presence of free water. As that water disappears, the calls dial down. The calling is done by the mature males, alerting widely dispersed females and sub adults to the availability of water, essential for reproduction. 

The life cycle of a frog begins in water with an egg mass and then tadpoles start a race against time to produce legs and venture onto land. Red-crowns live in rudimentary burrows, which makes them a little cocky; unlike other more common frogs that fall silent as you approach, the red-crowns keep calling. Living in a burrow affords protection from predators and also protects them from desiccation. They also lay their eggs under shelter, giving their tadpoles that same protection. This ability to inhabit a burrow means these frogs can live in drier conditions, but it also means they need to site the breeding nests in a place that will be occasionally wet, so the common location is upstream where the water flow is not too heavy after rain. Red crowns are mostly found in the drainage lines that go on to form the creeks downstream.

If you were thirsty and looking for water you could do worse than listen out for red-crowns calling; the more reliable the water hole, the louder and more animated the calling will be. Ina large group, each frog takes a slightly different part and helpsbuild a distinct orchestral piece. As the water dries out after rain, only the most enduring water holes remain audible in the landscape. Usually these water holes will have a solid rock bottom; and often they are covered over with fallen debris and quite hidden from view.

Because they croak so readily, red-crowns are easily surveyed.Their changing calling patterns may provide valuable insight into the availability of water to a wider range of animals. Other frogs, small mammals, birds and reptiles will also drink and hunt from these hidden water holes. While the sound of frogs calling might reveal hidden water in the landscape, the lack of calls may reveal missing water. If frogs are unable to complete their breeding cycle due to insufficient surface water they will no longer be able to persist in the long-term. Mining related cracking depletes surface water and increases the rate at which ponds go dry. If rainfall no longer brings on the croaking of toadlets, that might reveal something of the condition of a landscape that is no longer periodically wet enough to support these hardy frogs.

Mining-induced cracking may be simulating drought conditions for our Endangered Ecological Communities; we may be running an unmonitored experiment. Cracking in upland sections of bush is off the radar compared to cracking of open creek beds. Cracking under the soil can go unnoticed. Disruptions in upland drainage lines may not be obvious sincewater is not normally visible in this environment. Monitoring of groundwater in swamps will miss effects that are felt in the drier slopes surrounding the swamps. The lack of water is not just a problem for the persistence of threatened species; it is an existential problem for people.

As a member of the Rural Fire Service I have seen the consequences of uncontrolled wildfire first hand. These extreme fire events, as witnessed only last summer, are not of the same class as bushfires; crown fires exceed tree canopy heights by multiples, fire propagates in unforeseen directions, and unique cloud formations draw winds in that feed the conflagration. After the fire has finished, the recovery response of vegetation is often crippled; stands of gum trees that would once have sprouted with vivid epi-cormic growth remain dead, shrubs that would have re-sprouted from the base remain dead, and seeds that would have germinated have been incinerated. Animals are likewise obliterated. This catastrophic damage does not account for the entire fire ground, there are still islands of green and larger burnt areas that will fully recover, but there are also the dead zones. The extent of these areas is determined by fuel factors and weather conditions. Where there is sufficient groundwater the vegetation will hold higher moisture content and burn with less intensity. Water retained in the environment is the best preventative for fire damage.

There are important questions to be answered about ecology and the disruption of water supply by coal mining in the protected Special Areas. I would ask the Panel to consider facilitating access to this lease area by ecologists other than those hired by the proponent. I propose further study of red-crowned toadlets as an indicator species for the drying environment. The protection afforded by Special Area status should not be used to shield mining operators who can make the unimpeachable claim that they are having a “negligible effect” on the environment. If we don’t look we wont see, and if we don’t listen for the frogs we wont hear them either.

Red-crowned toadlet (photos: Grant Webster)
Continue reading Frogs and the Impacts of Coal Mining

Dharawal National Park

THE COAL STORY

Research/art collaboration with Joanna Bradley

NO IFS NO BUTS

Dharawal National Park was declared in March 2012 by the newly elected Liberal-National state government led by Barry O’Farrell who had campaigned on the promise of ending mining in the water catchment. “no ifs, no buts”. Today Dharwal remains a place of wild beauty with deep tree-filled valleys sloping down to glittering creeks and pools, all part of the intact geology remaining after millions of years of sedimentation and erosion. Inside the Dharawal story, is a new chapter, a small handkerchief dropped into the plot of deep time. On the map the park is uniformly green except for oddly shaped pale patches that remain under the care and control of other parties, at the bottom a coffin-shaped section denotes a firing range. Another conspicuous remnant sits in the very middle of the park with its own access road. On this land, behind a cyclone wire fence and signs warning of explosive gas is the entrance to the defunct North Cliff colliery, the rusting gantry tower looming over a large concrete slab that seals the mine like a tomb. From under the edge of the slab the unceasing hissing of sulphurous escaping methane gas can be heard.

North Cliff gantry site in the middle of Dharawal National park, circled, is part of the West Cliff mine

SPECIAL AREAS

In the late nineteenth century large ‘Special Areas’ of bushland had been set aside to secure clean water for the growing cities of Sydney and Wollongong. Dharawal covers the O’Hares Creek and Stokes Creek catchments and sits between the Woronora Special Area and the larger Metropolitan Special Area. In 1927 this area was declared a water catchment, but by 1978 it was decided no more dams would be built and the protected catchment status was no longer needed, the land might be excised from the Special Areas and better used for mining and recreation. Underground coal mining was already underway in Dharawal but ongoing mining would now occur in an area known as State Conservation Area, while the area not yet mined was known as Nature Reserve. The juggling of permissible land use was glossing over the fact that mining inside the Special Area water catchments had always been illegal, Special Area status prohibits any activity that results in damage to the catchment. The change in planning priorities from protecting water to protecting mining is explained by the increasing wealth and influence of the coal lobby in politics.

The Special Areas set aside for the collection of clean drinking water. Mining damage goes unnoticed when entry by foot attracts a $44,000 fine.

MOUNTAINS OF COAL

In the 1970’s longwall coal mining technology allowed for a tripling of underground coal extraction over traditional tunneling methods. Up to 90 percent of an entire coal seam could be bought to the surface. One downside was a dramatic increase in subsidence damage above the enormous subterranean voids, up to 4km long and 300 m wide. These panels ranked side by side undermining the entire landscape. The new money to be made from mountains of coal called for new deals done between coal companies, planning regulators and politicians, but the scale of the surface damage would prove a challenge to gaining approval as community groups sprang up to oppose the scale of the destruction. Unpaid activists attempted to battle corporate interests with unlimited capital.

The lure of easy money quickly set up a rolling series of corruption scandals that engulfed successive Labor state governments and paved the way for the O’Farrell opposition. Once in power O’Farrell would need to differentiate his government from the outgoing Labor power-brokers heading into court and into gaol. Coal had become suspect political property. Dharawal was offered to the wider electorate as a token of good faith. Environmentalists had fought hard to protect the area and the promise to declare Dharawal had helped deliver local Liberal candidates record large swings in marginal seats. But after Dharawal was delivered, the promise of no further mining in the catchment (no if’s no buts) evaporated. A tacit arrangement emerged between Labor and Liberal-Nationals that meant no future coal project would achieve prominence by parliamentary debate. The production of coal accelerated, approvals ticked over.. In June of 2020 the Greens would be gagged from addressing a petition of 10600 signatures presented to parliament protesting mining under the Woronora reservoir. All speakers spoke in favour of mining including Lee Evans the local Liberal who had campaigned with O’Farrell on the issue. Also keen to allow mining under the reservoir was the water minister and her Labor shadow. By 2022 mining consent become the exclusive domain of the planning minister.

Coal mining leases in the Special Areas. Dharawal is pockmarked with exploratory holes, indicating intense investigation .

DEPARTMENTAL RESTRUCTURING

In the decade following the Dharawal declaration the Liberal-National government moved to restructure the planning process. The Independent Commision Against Corruption, the ICAC, that was largely responsible for uncovering coal corruption was set on a path of downsizing and underfunding. The Sydney Catchment Authority was disbanded with key proponents sidelined. The Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water was abolished. The Office of Environment and Heritage was disbanded. The Ministry of Environment was subsumed into an expanded Department of Planning Industry and Environment with ultimate control resting with the senior Planning minister. The Minister of the Environment no longer had a department to minister over. Environmental protections would be morphed into an offset methodology that put a price on everything and protected nothing. Dharawal was a turning point of sorts, but by no means a rejection of mining in the water catchment.

North Cliff portal with surrounding exploration drilling sites indicated by outlined circles. Like a game of battleships more misses than hits might indicate a losing game.

GAS OUTBURSTS

The history of mining in Dharawal illustrates an example of regulatory capture by mining interests; land set aside for water was reclaimed for mining, then used as a political offset to conceal other large mining operations in the Special Areas. The pivot over Dharawal may have also added to the bottom line of the miner. Mining leases are a gamble, not all operations are profitable. The profitability of the mining operation was in question while large compensation was demanded to relinquish the mining lease. The declaration of Dharawal National Park followed 30 years of stop-start longwall mining in the area that produced erratic volumes of coal under hazardous conditions, ongoing underground gas outbursts resulting in long recurring periods of evacuation of the mine while dangerous gases were ventilated. Making gassy mines safe requires expensive drilling to install gas ranges to tap off the gas. Dealing with that gas presents another problem, large vent towers with fans are needed. The gas itself represent a carbon emissions liability.

Mining disasters with large loss of life are not unprecedented, in 1979 14 miners were killed in a gas explosion in the nearby Appin mine owned by the same corporation. Another death in 1994 had occurred at NorthCliff illustrating the grim possibilities of continuing to work a gassy mine. The Dharawal coal reserves were problematic, gas outbursts threatened smooth production and hazards to life threatened regulatory oversight. When the Dharawal reserves were “sterilised” the coal companies had secured a route to planning approval to extend the operation of other less problematic mines inside the Special Areas. As well as an assured future in other parts of the Special Areas the relinquishment set out undisclosed compensation payments for unrealised economic potential and return on exploration costs and lease fees.

Coal is part of the steel-making supply chain. Land undermined and de-watered for coal is also core habitat for koalas

HIDDEN LIABILITIES

Coal leases grow over time as mines expand and permissions are negotiated. Adjoining leases can be consolidated and regularly change ownership. With each change in legal status can come rebranding and commercial arrangements that are held in-confidence for new and extended periods. Past liabilities for remediation or compensation can easily pass into the nether world of buried mining deals.

The economic gains from coal mining in the Illawarra are largely realised as corporate profits on export sales. 90% of the coal leaves on ships loaded from Port Kembla. Transportation costs mean that the closest coal to the port is also the most profitable. The cost of road infrastructure required to transport Dharawal coal was another problem for the miners to weigh up when deciding on whether to strike a deal and relinquish this lease area. Other leases owned by the same corporation would easily meet market needs.

The commercial value of the Dharawal lease was known only to the miner. Factors including the extent and quality of the coal that could be recovered, the cost of recovery and the cost of transportation of coal and disposal of waste, would all weight into the compensation cost incurred by the incoming Premier. Given that the miner was able to set the price, it would be reasonable to assume the compensation package was sufficient. The final cost of compensation remains hidden, but elements were laid out in publicly available documents. By responding to the premiers request to declare a national park the miner was able to produce a list of 9.5 million dollars worth of exploration costs, adjusted for inflation. Added to this are the refunded lease fees and loss of projected earnings.

SECRECY

Mining projects are subject to assessment by government through a “planning approval” process. To gain approval the miner is required to submit an Environmental Assessment Report which answers a set criteria laid out by the Departmental Secretary, who enacts the will of the Minister. So long as such questions are answered, approval might be expected. Answers might be modified if need be, but approval is the desired end point of the approval process. The negotiations take place between the miner and the department and out of the public eye.

Special Areas list of prohibitions does include bushwalking but does not include coal mining. Everything that happens within the Special Area is a secret from the public view.

TRANSPARENCY

One part of planning approval is designed to appear transparent; the process of public inquiry that is conducted to answer the suspicion of secret deals made against the public interest.

In order to gain planning permission to mine a larger parcel of land the miner was eventually subject to an inquiry in 2010 under a Planning Assessment Commission, or PAC, formed within the Department of Planning. The proposed project was known as the Bulli Seam Operation and would see the extraction of coal over 30 years from 136 longwall panels. As well as natural bushland areas, 222 swamps of natural significance, water catchment for Cataract dam, and large tracts of housing and public roads would be impacted. The PAC process would be a turning point for a range of reasons.

The BSO PAC inquiry was open to public submissions, but met in private with various interested government agencies. Also included in the process were a small number of unpaid community voices selected under the banner of a Community Consultative Committee, or CCC. This group would become specialised advocates to counter the almost inevitable planning approval. The public inquiry process devolved to a battle of expertise that soon became a game played behind closed doors. As it transpired the BSO was overturned, but whether this was a result of grassroots opposition or pressure from other quarters is unclear. Given the weight of submissions against the proposal and reading the political tea leaves the PAC ruled that the proponent’s evidence was misleading, unreliable, untrustworthy, and of insufficient rigor to grant approval. None were more surprised than members of the CCC who had assumed they had just been registering a protest to the inevitable progress of mining. The finding of the PAC gave Barry O’Farrell the trigger to declare Dharawal.

DIVESTMENT

In 2012 the Big Australian BHP/Billiton were the largest miner in the Southern coalfields, they had recently divested the steel mill in Port Kembla and BHP operating through its subsidiary Illawarra Coal chose this time to divest from coal assets. An increasing tide of investor concern about coal emissions and climate change had meant that coal assets were damaging the brand. BHP had to avoid the appearance of a major corporation denying climate change and holding onto the risk of stranded assets. A new specialised company South32 was created to take on the BHP coal assets and weather whatever public disapproval might arise. In this way the Big Australian was able to wash its hands of a problematic coal operation while at the same time reaping a corporate profit. South32 continue to mine inside the Special Areas and operate the Appin and Dendrobium mines. South32 are skilled in putting in aggressive plans for coal extraction that discounts all opposition.

Mining under protected wilderness area has a huge impact on biodiversity. The Giant Dragonfly lived in the upland swamps that are drained by coal mining.

REMEDIATION

When the Dharawal park was declared in 2012 it carried the promise that protection extended to the core of the earth, this concealed the fact that mining activity had already nibbled into the area. Longwalls have been carved out under a large northeast section of the park. Large driveways lead from the Northcliff mine to other parts. Despite the win in saving Dharawal the land bears the scars of extensive mining activity. Coal mining begins with exploration leases which permit the building of roads, drilling of holes and seismic blasting. Before coal can be removed infrastructure must be built. Large areas are cleared at the pithead for storing bulk coal and processing. Mine waste and coal wash might make up as much as 20% of the ‘run of mill’ material coming to the surface. All this material has to be stored or transported. Settling ponds and waste heaps further extend the land claimed by the mine. Some surface impacts are subject to remediation requirements enforced by the regulator to varying degrees of success. There are other impacts that can never be reversed, the cracks that can never be filled, the aquifers that will never recharge and the gas that will continue to hiss out of the fractured ground. By on-selling problematic assets corporations also pass on the liabilities to smaller aggressive operators who have no public image to protect. BHP gave birth to South32 who were able to connect with Bluescope, another BHP offshoot, to overthrow the Independent Planning Commission. By lining up all major party politicians the Dendrobium mine was declared State Significant Infrastructure, and all objections overlooked. Such is the legacy of BHP decarbonising; coal mines are now synonymous with infrastructure and miners take open control of planning approval. The bright green future beckons.

Moonscape

Koala Offsets

What’s a koala worth? Just suppose you were responsible for looking after koala habitat, but you decided to gather royalties from the land by leasing it out to mine coal, koalas would be moved on. Is there a price you could charge the mine operator to compensate for the death of the dispossessed koalas? As it so happens there is such a scheme in New South Wales and prices start as low as $345. Bargain! This is the ‘spot price’ of a single ‘species credit’, an IOU for a dead koala, or part there-of. It’s a win-win, the miner makes money from coal and the government picks up a little extra cash for dead koalas. And where do you go to get your dead koala dispensation? The DPIE – Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. Note that ‘Environment’ is subordinate to Planning and Industry. There is a senior planning minister and there is a junior environment minister but only the senior minister has control of a department. (EDIT: DPIE was changed to DPE under Matt Kean and then DCCEEW under Penny Sharpe)

The price of threatened species on the biobank spot market.

The history is dry but it is important; through the evolution of management structures patterns emerge; intractable environmental problems are smoothed over while the need for planning consent is promoted. One constant is the word ‘biodiversity’, it encompasses the idea of ‘nature’ – and all the drawers full of stuff in the natural history museum, the mineral specimens, the bugs and bird pelts, and all that footage in David Attenborough’s back room. There is the stuff we admire and there is the stuff we use to get rich by turning into other stuff; koalas into coats, logs into timber, coal into steam, ore into metal. The trick is to protect the diversity of the natural world and simultaneously extract value from it. The problem is that all this stuff is tangled together; the birds need the bugs, and the koalas need the trees, and the trees need the rocks, and so on. Managing biodiversity might be seen as a project of ‘sustainability’, keeping things as they are, or it might be an exercise in accountancy, moving assets around to maximum advantage, like opening an offset savings account.

There develops a list of negatives that attach to offset methodology, ways in which offsets are inadequate and ways in which the offset process can be corrupted. These weaknesses could be addressed over time or they could develop further, in NSW the weaknesses have proliferated. The Nature Conservation Council released a report in 2016,

Paradise Lost, the weakening and widening of NSW biodiversity offsetting schemes, 2005 – 2016.

screenshot of the biodiversity calculator

1. Switching New for Old

The idea of the biodiversity offset was developed in the USA in the 1970s as a way to recreate natural settings. One section of river could be dammed and developed for urban expansion after the river was diverted into nearby farmland. If the newly established river banks were properly replanted it would be an adequate offset for the missing original section of river. To the casual observer this is a marvellous trick, a sleight of hand where a coin can disappear from the hand to reappear behind your ear. With skill it seems possible to produce something new that is just as good as that which has disappeared. The reality is that the new river is an artifice, it is redirection, like the magic trick it relies on a lapse in attention, you may not notice that which has gone missing. Once large trees have been removed it may seem that the young saplings are a reasonable replacement. The assumption is that everqything important will be transported along with the conceptual urge to recreate. In NSW the recent decision to clear koala habitat to allow for an expanding quarry site is justified by providing nearby offset land, yet to be planted with koala feed trees.

2. The Unseen Losses

The example of redirecting a river is one type of active intervention where the water might heal the landscape. Aquatic plants and animals can move with the water to inhabit the new offset site. The water itself  will draw life to relocate. Some features will be left behind, the stream bed, the roots of ancient trees, the animals that burrow in these roots perhaps an ideal habitat for particular rare species like a platypus. Other environmental factors might flow from diverting water, the turbidity and salinity might increase. It would take a particularly dedicated level of scrutiny to assess these possibilities and to monitor the changes over time. Perhaps the expense of close scrutiny is not the first priority of those seeking development consent. Mining destroys ancient underground rivers that are home to fragile undiscovered subterranean animals known as the  stygofauna and troglofauna, it might be convenient to destroy these unseen life forms without first looking for them. 

3. Switching Near and Far

Another scenario, besides the moveable river, common in NSW is the clearing of land for housing development. Here an offset site may be another block of land that is not adjacent to the development site. Koalas are victim to this type of offset planning, trees that are felled in an area with enough forest to support a viable koala colony cannot be offset by other trees that are not connected to that area. The ‘connectivity’ value of a particular site can’t be offset by a similar disconnected site. Fragmented landscapes occur over large scales and they die a death of a thousand cuts. Smaller blocks have greater edge effects . Koalas are nomadic and capable of crossing open ground to find fresh trees, but they are also extremely vulnerable to dog attack and car strike. Fragmented landscapes are criss-crossed with roads and fences, urbanisation brings disruption and danger.

4. The Liability of Responsibility

Offsetting is best defended where it is used to protect and remediate sites that have unrecognised biodiversity values that are very similar to the development site. This is the ‘like-for-like’ exchange. Taking the example of woodland forest, it’s possible for farmland to revert to woodland over time. Even though it had been cleared for grazing there exists a seed bank within the soil, rare and endangered plants may resume their place in the understory. Given the passage of decades large trees may grow, and the cleared farmland earmarked for housing may now have high biodiversity value. Clearing that land for a second time might be in breach of conservation laws, and the property speculator may feel aggrieved that a real estate investment had been thwarted by the unwanted regrowth. One solution for the wary landholder is to continually keep the land cleared so that it never attracts unwanted attention, another solution is to make revegetated land available as an offset to another development. This is the crux of recent squabbling within the NSW government, land gaining value for housing development is also land supporting koala populations.

5. Halving of Assets

Take a moment to recognise the planning paradox of awarding offset credits to landholders with valuable biodiversity assets; that value is only realised if there is a market demand for the credits, meaning a similar area of land with similar assets will be cleared. This is the mathematics of decline, one block is saved when another is cleared. In accounting terms this is known as a net loss. Notice how easily the economic parlance of assets and values becomes attached to environmental attributes, and appreciate how the apprehension of damage can drive those values; increasing scarcity creates value. The concept of biobanking incentivises scarcity. When koalas are relatively common there is no incentive to protect them, by the time they are endangered their value as a tradable commodity will not protect them.

6. Temporary Perpetual Stewardship

Stepping back again, let’s also recognise the inevitable question, what happens when the offset block is required for another housing estate? In theory the ‘stewardship’ of offset land is a responsibility carried ‘in perpetuity’, – for ever and ever. In practice the offset steward is given a modest upfront payment that shortly dwindles to a pittance. Perhaps there is money to build a fence to protect a koala colony, but that fence will not be maintained. Small stewardship fees will disappear while the profits offered by development will remain a continual lure to alter the stewardship agreement. We can guess that ‘perpetual’ stewardship is highly unlikely and is more accurately described as ‘temporary’. The use and abuse of language to support the illusory benefits of offset methodology is revealing; positive outcomes are assumed to flow from positive language.

7. Avoidance of Avoidance

Offsetting is presented as a measure of last resort. The planning mantra is that offsetting should only be used as the last resort after reasonable attempts have been made to avoid doing damage, or repairing any damage done. Avoid, Mitigate, Offset. In reality the temptation to slip through to the offset mechanism is irresistible. If avoiding an adverse impact is seen to affect the profitability of a project that alone is reason to skip the avoidance requirement. Mitigation of damage is only considered necessary where it can be demonstrated to be cost effective, and making good irreparable damage is a fruitless promise best put to one side. Some effort will be made towards cosmetic remediation – a strip of trees along a roadside or ridge line to create the appearance of forest, or cracks filled in a stream bed to give the impression of an intact watercourse. These measures are designed for the corporate prestige rather than environmental benefit. By far the cheapest approach to gaining consent is to promise offsets. Offsets are preferred because they deliver the highest profits, the only reason to abandon offsets is again where the cost becomes prohibitive, but where the proponent controls the assessment process the costs are also managed.

8. The Cost of Consulting

 The BAM – Biodiversity Assessment Methodology is entirely transparent, all the information is online. It has been designed so that any landholder can engage. Like a tax return the integrity of homework may be subject to audit, or not. For those developers  seeking a smooth path to development  consent there are offset consultants who will work to drive down your biodiversity assessment costs. Like any accountant there are fees to be paid for handling the paperwork and delivering the lowest return. Like taxation law, the BOP – Biodiversity Offset Policy is full of detail that can be used to the advantage of the developer and against the environment.  These consultancies employ ecologists, people who may have hoped to protect biodiversity are now paid by clients to reduce that responsibility.

9. Compliance and Corporate Culture 

Offset planning provides a theoretical pathway for responsible development, but it can be instructive to see how the planning process plays out in reality. Large corporations have the political and financial resources to extract maximum advantage by ‘gaming the system”. With a coal mining project the timeline begins with establishing a mining lease., either on crown land or private property. This initial step carries the potential for corruption with the windfall profits to be made from assigning mining rights. With exploration begins the flow of revenue to the government and also begins the environmental destruction; roads are built, holes are drilled, explosions set off underground. The commercial arrangement develops where the mining company pays the DPIE to accept its own assessment of the damage to be done. The unseemly haggling to minimise the declared damage and drive down the cost of offsets will carry on for years up until such time as the mine is no longer profitable. When the flow of money dries up the cost of the damage becomes an unfunded problem for the future.

10. Adaptive Management

Planning approval to proceed with a mining project is subject to conditions of consent including a negotiated offset package. Each threatened species and threatened community will have an individual tally of required species credits based on formulas that have been assessed and calculated by offset consultants working for the proponent. The ‘retirement’ of those offsets may be decided in time on review of ‘performance criteria’ subject to ongoing monitoring and ‘adaptive management’. For instance, a drained upland swamp may be deemed to retain some biodiversity value and only subject to partial offsets. A Koala may be found wandering the carpark looking for missing trees and taken as proof that impacts are not so bad after all.

11. Capture of Conservationists

When site-based offsets are recognised as an impossible task in a finite world of dwindling biodiversity assetts the time comes to offer up cash to the Biodiversity Consevation Fund. The species credits have a dollar value for this precise purpose; to provide developers  an escape from the real world of conservation. Those conservation biologists not working in the offset consultancy industry are now caught in the net  of seeking funding that derives from development. Naturally the discretion of funding approval may be linked to the interests of the source of that funding.

12. Buying Bureaucrats  

The arcane intricacies of Biodiversity Offset Policy BOP gives power to a small number of closely involved players with sufficient knowledge to navigate the system. The career path of those involved may begin within government and proceed to contracts outside government in consultancy work or other business positions in land development. In truth it is never clear on whose behalf the public servant is working while seeking to smooth the planning process. Legislative obstacles that are impediments to cash flow affect the motivation of government employees and enterprise, the issue of conflict of interest becomes very murky as consultants re-enter the employ of government while also working in the private sector. The distinction between service in the public and private sectors is lost.

13. Limitless Power

 By exerting control and capture of all parts of the planning process; removing antithetical government agencies, replacing legislation, defunding political opposition  – the planning minister has control of a monolithic structure that yields only to political instruction. The entire organisation is entirely transparent, except when it isn’t. The appointment of experts onto panels of Enquiry, the appointment of Commissioners onto public panels, the appointment of judges into the Land and Environment Court – all these political decisions direct the process and the outcome. 

Conclusion

Some of the preceding guff may help explain the decision by the DPIE to sanction mining in the Sydney water catchment, while justifying the destruction as a net benefit to both water and biodiversity resources. The 39 species credits that attach specifically to koalas – from the clearing of 28 hectares and the de-watering of 940 hectares of koala habitat – will bring in the princely sum of $29,055, payable after further challenge by the proponent South 32. None of this reflects on the good standing of BHP, the Big Australian who acquired the mining lease, secured planning permission and then divested the assert to offset damage to their corporate reputation. Green washing and aspirational offsetting allow the semblance of conservation, while the reality is that the destruction continues unabated. Time to call a spade a spade and offload an offset methodology built and maintained by developers. Offsetting does contain the germ of a good idea, to make the best of a bad situation, but it is now no more than having your cake and eating it too.

the price of a koala species credit from the NSW biobank

Afterword

The IPC, Independent Planning Commission, were required to review the DPIE sponsored plan by South32 to expand the Dendrobium coal mine, and they rejected the proposal. The use of offsets had finally exceeded the capacity of forgiveness for bullshit. Until… Mark Latham conspired with Labor to wedge the planning minister, but that’s another story.

Male koala from Gippsland Victoria Jan2025