Negotiating the regulatory maze requires careful assessment, with the changes reflecting measures outlined in the NSW Government’s Strategic Regional Land Use Policy.

The SRLUP was finalised in September after an extensive consultation process, with the draft legislative amendments placed on public exhibition for comment before mid-December.

It aims to address possible land use conflicts and provide a balance between agriculture, CSG and further resource development in regional areas.

The critical elements of the SRLUP are strategic regional land use plans for the Upper Hunter and New England North West regions, which identify Strategic Agricultural Land, and introduce a “Gateway Process” for CSG proposals that could impact upon identified SAL.

SAL is identified as “highly valuable agricultural land” that has either unique natural resource characteristics, such as soil and water resources (termed as biophysical SAL), and/or forms part of a critical industry cluster such as equine and viticulture industries in the Upper Hunter.

Where a proposed CSG project requires a new or extended petroleum production lease and is located on SAL the “Gateway Process” is triggered, requiring additional assessment prior to lodging a development application.

However, the legislative amendments require all proposed CSG and resource projects to complete a site-specific verification process to determine if they are located on SAL, regardless of the SAL mapping identified within the Upper Hunter and New England North West strategic regional land use plans.

In accordance with the Gateway Process, an independent panel of experts (Gateway Panel) will then assess how a proposed CSG project will impact upon SAL.

The Gateway Panel is required to take advice from federal and state government agencies including the Independent Expert Scientific Committee and the NSW Minister for Primary Industries in relation to aquifer impacts.

Based upon the Gateway Panel’s assessment, a Gateway Certificate will be granted for a project either unconditionally, if it can be demonstrated that the proposed development meets the Gateway criteria relating to agricultural and water impacts (or socio economic criteria for critical industry clusters); or conditionally, if it cannot be demonstrated that the proposed development meets the Gateway criteria.

Regarding the latter, the Gateway Certificate in these circumstances will outline the requirements that must be addressed during the assessment of the subsequent development application and by the Planning Assessment Commission in determining a project.

This may include the requirement for additional studies and amendments to the proposed project to avoid or reduce potential impacts.

With the aim of achieving balance between protection of agricultural land and the development of the NSW State’s CSG resources, the SRLUP legislative amendments create an additional level of assessment process.

This is considered to increase assessment duplication and the potential for conflicting views across different regulatory and determining bodies both during the Gateway Process and subsequent assessment processes in the determination of a CSG project.

To illustrate this point further, the implementation of the SRLUP legislative amendments will result in a proposed CSG production project being subject to three assessment processes within the NSW legislative system.

This comprises a Gateway Process assessment by an independent state-appointed Gateway Panel – with advice provided by the federal Independent Expert Scientific Committee and further government agencies; a State Significant Development application assessment by the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure; and a Planning Assessment Commission assessment and determination by an independent State appointed expert panel.

Each assessment process will require liaison and referral with multiple government agencies and be subject to statutory consultation periods.

There also is likely to be a federal assessment and determination process for CSG projects in NSW, which will be required to run concurrently to the NSW planning system.

While many of the stakeholder submissions have shown support in the aim of the SRLUP to provide for the sustainable management of natural resources and resolve potential land use conflicts, there continues to be divergent views and uncertainty as to how the legislative amendments to implement the SRLUP will operate in practice.

This is reflected in the stakeholder submissions throughout the consultation process.

Primarily, the concerns of the CSG industry proponents are the risk of duplication, inefficiency and uncertainty in what is considered to be an already heavily regulated assessment process.

Todd Robinson is an associate environmental planner with Golder Associates.