Jeremy Buckingham MLC | Coal Mining, Coal Seam Gas, Media

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Time to clean up the mining industry’s community consultative committees

Posted on 11 April 2014 by maxphillips
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MEDIA RELEASE - 11 April 2014

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The Greens NSW spokesperson on mining, Jeremy Buckingham, today called on the government to reform the regulations around mining community consultative committees (CCC) after it was revealed that one woman, Margaret Macdonald-Hill was employed as the independent chair of 15 different CCCs by seven different mining companies and that her payments have not been disclosed.

Gary West, former Nationals MP, former mining minister and current Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) member and Northern Joint Regional Planning Panel (JRPP) member also chairs the Integra Vale CCC, the Ulan coal CCC, Moorlaben coal CCC, and the BHP Caroona CCC for undisclosed sums.

The Department of Planning Guidelines for CCCs make it clear that payments to the ‘independent chair’ should be disclosed on the website:

“If such fees or expenses are paid, then the company should indicate that this is occurring on the company’s website, so that the broader community remains fully informed.”

“I cannot find a single instance where a resource company has publicly declared the payments to the ‘independent chair’ of their CCC.  These companies are in breach of the planning department’s rules,” said Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham.

“Undeclared payments directly from the mining company undermine the independence of the chair and the community’s confidence in the CCC.  The current system means that the community often perceives the ‘independent chair’ as simply a stooge of the mining company.

“The regulations should be changed so that the ‘independent chair’ is appointed and paid by the government, not by the mining companies.   The chair’s payment should be publicly disclosed by the government.

“The Greens want reform of the CCCs because communities have lost all faith in them and see them more as a facade on consultation that simply does the companies bidding and ties up the community.

“It’s an outrageous conflict of interest that former Nationals MP Gary West can be paid by coal companies to chair CCCs, and then also have a role as a decision maker with the PAC and JRPP.  Gary West is notoriously pro-coal and was on the PAC that approved the controversial Maules Creek coal mine.

“The government must clean up with part of the mining sector.  The people of NSW are sick of corruption and cronyism.  The Greens will continue our push for clean politics,” he said.

Contact: Max Phillips - 9230 2202 or 0419 444 916

1 Comments For This Post

  1. Trevor Acfield Says:

    Well done Jeremy and others. A good expose. How are these community consultations. It gives the impression that they are holding lots of meetings with community groups, such as Rotary, Community environment groups, local businesses, CWA etc and a wide variety of groups and gleaning over their comments and suggestions to come back with a final position. But no such thing. They are a smokescreen. WE need govt to get serious about consultations. While there was some ethic behind community consultations, it appears much worse than I thought. It used to be that they were just another hoop to jump through, but now industry has taken the bull by the horns and manipulated them totally to their advantage.

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