A Bill about to be re-introduced into NSW parliament would allow mining companies to use the Threatened Species Conservation Act to mine in protected areas.

The Hunter Community Environment Centre has been tracking the development of the so-called “Biobanking” scheme for over a year, and says that the current draft of the Bill has granted unprecedented favours for the property development and mining industries. The amended Bill has been widely criticised by environmentalists.

“If you make your land a biobank site, with the good intention to protect the environment, the State Government and mining industry can conspire to open cut the protected area without needing to ask your consent to break the conservation agreement,” said Georgina Woods, spokesperson for the HCEC.

The Biobanking scheme was intended to encourage private landholders to protect biodiversity, because it is widely acknowledged that public land alone will not provide sufficient habitat to ensure biodiversity persistence. But the Bill has recently been amended by the Government to include provision that agreements that protect the biodiversity values of biobank sites may be changed or cancelled without the consent of the landholder, if someone wants to mine the site.

“The State Government has to demonstrate a commitment to protecting biodiversity from mining and urban sprawl, or we will continue to go lose species. We are seeing unique species of wildlife disappear at a tremendous rate, yet urban landclearing continues.”

“No areas of vulnerable or irreplaceable biodiversity values are safe from the mining industry. Two months ago, 300 ha of remnant woodland, some of the endangered Grassy Box community was clear felled for an open cut coal mine near Boggabri. A further two thousand hectares of remnant woodlands are earmarked for destruction for coal mines in the Upper Hunter.”

“It’s about time that mining companies join the twenty-first century, where good corporate citizenship means genuine care for biodiversity and the environment.”

The Biobanking Bill is due to be reintroduced into NSW parliament this week.