The truth as opposed to what Melissa Price says
Today, the misnamed Minister for the Environment, Melissa Price, announced that, on the advice of the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia, she was approving the Adani mine.
That is completely untrue.
On 24 January 2019, the Department of the Environment and Energy (DoEE) requested Geoscience Australia and CSIRO to provide groundwater-related advice on draft management plans provided by Adani Mining Pty Ltd.
They provided their advice on 22 February.
The review found that the modelling used is not suitable to ensure the outcomes sought by the EPBC Act conditions are met. A number of limitations were also identified in the proposed monitoring and management approaches indicating they are not sufficiently robust to monitor and minimise impacts to protected environments.
The following are the answers provided to the specific questions posed by the government.
Q2a. How appropriate is the numerical model scenario selected by the approval holder to inform the Groundwater Management and Monitoring Plan and Rewan Formation Connectivity Research Plan and for incorporation into the Groundwater Dependent Ecosystem Management Plan as required by the conditions of approval?
The SEIS model used by the GMMP is the most conservative of the model scenarios as it predicts the greatest impacts from the mine development in all aquifers. However, being the best choice of available model runs does not mean that this model run is considered to be fit-for-purpose.
Q2b. Are there any other model scenarios put forward by the approval holder that are more appropriate to ensure the outcomes sought by the conditions of approval are met?
The review of the available model scenarios did not identify any other model scenarios put forward by the approval holder that are considered more appropriate. However, this review has identified a number of limitations, which mean that the model is not suitable to ensure the outcomes sought by the conditions of approval are met.
Q3. Are the monitoring and management approaches proposed in the GMMP and GDEMP consistent with the most plausible conceptualisation and sufficiently robust to ensure the outcomes above are met?
The proposed monitoring and management approaches described are consistent with the most plausible conceptualisation of groundwater source to the Doongmabulla Springs complex. However, limitations identified mean that the proposed monitoring and management approaches are not sufficiently robust to ensure the outcomes set out in 2b are met.
The Minister conceded in her media release that there were problems identified by the review.
That advice identified areas of groundwater modelling, monitoring and management that required further work.
That advice recommended a number of actions, which the Company has accepted in full, including:
- A substantial increase of early warning monitoring between the mine and the Doongmabulla Springs using additional deeper bores and an additional bore site to monitor flows
- Tightened corrective action triggers requiring an immediate response to any unexpected groundwater impact
- Commitments to re-run the model addressing all Geoscience Australia and CSIRO concerns within two years of the commencement of coal extraction (noting there are no predicted impacts to nationally protected matters within 15 years).
On Friday, the department called in the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia to give them a verbal briefing on the promises made by Adani. Most unusually, both organisations produced a letter dated the same day saying that the promises addressed some of their concerns whilst “noting that there are still components of that advice that will need to be addressed through the approval of the research plan.”
Suggesting that “Both CSIRO and Geoscience Australia have confirmed the revised plans meet strict scientific requirements” is a real stretch. Reading their actual report shows that many of their concerns remain but they were obviously pressured to write a letter in response on the same day they got a briefing from the department last Friday.
Considering Adani’s loose relationship with the truth in the past, giving approval on the basis of promises is madness.
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24 comments
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John Holmes
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Josephus
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Hotspringer
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Kaye Lee
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pierre wilkinson
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Kaye Lee
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Kaye Lee
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johnyperth
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Michael Taylor
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Ken
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Terence Mills
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Kronomex
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Keith
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Keith
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Kaye Lee
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Ricky Lee
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MöbiusEcko
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Keith
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Kaye Lee
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MöbiusEcko
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tyyrannosauruswenz
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Alan Nosworthy
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Miriam English
Return to home pageAfter the Chinese Govt machinations to impose its will on Australian Chinese media, one could suggest that there is a need for a very careful examination of the interactions of the Indian’s and the Australian Government. The culture they come from is not stranger to political corruption.
While we are at it, why is Australian gas cheaper in Japan or India than in WA where it comes from. What are the effective royalty and tax payments being made on it?
A suitable punishment for those shown to be corrupt would be extended detention on Manus Island. But we should not allow any of the detainees there to mix with them as they may be corrupted.
Thank you Kaye as always. Adani and any coal mega mines in the Galilee Basin are madness. Create new jobs in Queensland, in non fossil fuel projects or in the care/health sector, but not in land destroying polluting dinosaur industries.
Expected no better from the LNP, only hope Labor, Queensland and Federal, puts a stop to this madness.
At Senate estimates hearings last week, the environment department said Adani had submitted additional information on 15 March following the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia report.
Officials said this additional information was not sent back to CSIRO or Geoscience Australia for review, nor has it been publicly released.
just another example of a corrupt misgovernment totally obsessed with satisfying their mates to the detriment of everyone and everything else
just call it Pro Mo and put the country out of your pain
then wait for a federal ICAC
will there ever be an accounting for these clowns beyond the court of Murdoch? or even before it?
meanwhile Michaelia and KathyJ remain free of blame, or at least criminal charges
Re Kathy Jackson: an email from the Victorian Fraud and Extortion Squad was received by witnesses in the upcoming trial of former secretary of the Health Services Union (HSU) and Coalition pin-up girl, Kathy Jackson.
The email was to explain that, on 3 December 2017, Jackson’s defence informed the court that her legal aid application had been rejected – yet again – and that they will once again appeal the decision via an independent review of the legal aid application.
According to the email:
This process has complicated the process and the scheduled 19 February 2019 court trial start has been cancelled. The office of Public Prosecutions has now informed … that the 29 April 2019 is another possible start date for the trial. This will depend on whether a judge is available to hear the trial starting on this date.
https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/shock-jocks-and-kathy-i-fought-the-law-jackson,12210
Looks like “We got ourselves a convoy. 10 4 Big Daddy Come on”….or whatever those truckers say…..
“Overview
Our plans are well advanced for this public showdown with the coal mining industry and its political backers. In the run-up to the federal election, the global mining giant looks set to start its colossal Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland.
We look forward to you joining us. Almost 2000 people have inquired about joining the convoy. It is a community commitment – an act of defiance for the future of our planet. A peaceful protest against Gautam Adani’s mine.
We will depart from Hobart on April 17, sailing on the Spirit of Tasmania that evening. We will pick up convoy participants at designated locations along the way, including Hobart, Melbourne, Albury, Sydney, Coffs Harbour, Mullumbimby, Brisbane, Yeppoon, Airlie Beach, Mackay, the Galilee Basin and Canberra. We will be holding rallies in these places along the way.”
Culminating Sunday 5th May 2019 in a Rally for Climate in Canberra
Check out itinerary here for rallies in your area
https://www.bobbrown.org.au/stopadaniconvoy?fbclid=IwAR3JmWz-xb5sXiIaAk8h_eG3Cams0px67nzbuPCg-e1Wr6c4G_WC-W8QkAw
I wonder when she was intimated by her own party so close to the federal election is the reason why she has made this decision!!??
I think the same thing, johny.
Once again the ScoMo Government is telling porky pies
Last night I watched in amazement and disbelief as the Liberal Party shock-jocks and muppets elevated their attacks on Electric Vehicles which the whole of the developed world is transitioning to as we endeavour to clean up our planet : well perhaps not the whole world as the Liberla party want to denigrate and dismiss the science.
The Liberal party media spinners incredibly chose Michaelia Cash to launch their full frontal attack on EV’s and in the process have made Australia an international laughing stock.
Have a look https://twitter.com/Qldaah/status/1115440195879313408
One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and landed in Michaelia’s hair !
Lies and scare campaigns is all the LNP has left in it’s electioneering barrel.
Should Adani begin mining in the Carmichael Basin, then other mines can be expected to be promoted by Rhinehart and Palmer.
Over the years people in countries other than Australia have paid the ultimate price created through fossil fuel emissions. That is not taking into account the deaths and costs created by climate change.
Apparently the LNP do not believe enough people are dying or have poor health through the emissions of fossil fuels:
https://qz.com/568450/fossil-fuels-kill-more-people-every-year-than-wars-murders-and-traffic-accidents-combined/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/pollution/
The LNP politicians clearly couldn’t give a stuff about their own children, grand children, or young people generally.
Scientific Reports from CSIRO and GeoScience Australia rejected the science presented by Adani in February 2019, the whole situation has quite an odour.
More details about the science that “supports” Price’s decision.
Hopefully we will have a real Minister for the Environment after May.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/09/adani-coalmine-scientific-reviews-appear-to-give-queensland-trigger-to-block-project
The Queensland Department of Environment and Science, the state approval authority, had not had access to the Geoscience Australia and CSIRO reports until 30 minutes prior to the federal government’s announcement on Tuesday despite the federal government having had the report for over six weeks.
Information sharing is NOT this government’s best thing.
Disappointing that Shorten & Palaszczuk won’t oppose the mine either. Our political system (our human psyche?) appears incapable of acting on climate change. The primitive brain that the majority of voters use can’t deal with a threat that is more than a stone’s throw away.
This decision by the government to approve one environmental item for the Adani mine has nothing to do with intimidation, nor the backlash from those north of Brisbane and everything to do with politics, specifically to get Labor.
As with nearly everything this government has done since getting into power, the public resources at its disposal are being used to undermine and attack the opposition. It spends more time and effort doing this than it does governing the country. Barely a sentence goes by without them attacking Labor in one way or another.
The Drum this week discussed the reasoning behind this approval, with several more approvals still needed that are all State-based, which just happens to be a Labor state. This Federal government approval is an attack against Federal Labor, and it will ramp up in the election campaign proper, where they will ask what is Labor going to do with Adani if it gets elected?
So far Shorten has been equivocating on what Labor will do, but he will be forced to make a decision on it before polling day.
Stefan Rahmstorf put the Adani coal mine and extensions to old coal mines in perspective.
Had adaptation and mitigation began in 2000 then the costs of tackling climate change would have been far lower.
Now with the state of the Arctic, we are getting much closer to an extremely dangerous tipping point.
Sea ice level is at a record low for the period, in other years it has kicked back; but, should weather patterns be something like what was experienced in 2012, an ice free Arctic Ocean is extremely likely. Ice volume, ice thickness, and sea ice extent are all down.
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2533.0;attach=118418;image
The huge cavern recently discovered under the Thwaites glacier in the Antarctic is a further concern. The Thwaites glacier virtually acts as a stopper for other major glaciers in the Pine Island area.
I know everyone would like Bill to say the mine cannot go ahead because it would have a devastating impact on climate change but, as things stand, that could open us up to legal action from Adani which, in my opinion, is what they are hoping for. They have been unsuccessful in securing funding, the Queensland government has stood firm about no public money being handed over, and the long term prospects for the coal market are not good so they may just be trying to recoup some of their outlay on a stranded asset by suing us.
Labor has been given legal advice about the possibility that approvals can be revisited/revoked on the basis of new information eg the coral bleaching on the GBR. It ain’t a done deal yet.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/25/labor-given-new-legal-advice-that-it-could-revoke-adani-approvals
Kaye Lee, Geraldine Doogue on The Drum stated she had extensively researched the economic viability and funding for the Adani mine and no matter which way she looked at it, that mine cannot get funding unless it is from the Federal government, and it will never be financially viable.
She said on that grounds alone, pushing aside the environmental argument, it will never go ahead.
But how do you convince the Northern Queenslanders of that?
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I wish I could remember when/where I read about this – apparently Adani doesn’t really expect the mine to ever open, the shenanigans are all about making Abbot Point lease investment($1.83B) look more viable on their books. Much money spent on its expansion by Adani. I have noticed that they announce the ground breaking every six months or so, but nothing ever happens.
M.Echo asks “how will we convince the north queenslanders of that”
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/adani-lets-talk-about-the-bigger-picture,12569
as of 2011 N. Qld derived 40% of our power needs from renewables
http://www.athertontablelandnetguide.com/economy/green-energy.html
180Mw wind farm at mount emerald has since come online. The Kidston energy hub is well under way
80Mw solar farm has started public consultation after getting provisional approval from local government.
http://www.athertonsolar.com.au/
With all this in the mad katters electorate the north is well on the way to 100% renewable energy
Once again it is the loudly vocal 10% that advocate for the Adani disaster.
Nothing to be gained by tarring all troppo queenslanders with the tag of redneck rural rube.
Alan Nosworthy, thanks for that info. It is reassuring, especially in the light of traitorous QLD government announcing their intentions to welcome Adani’s disastrous Carmichael mine.