Sunset at Maules Creek, on Phil Laird’s farm, December 2012
Update: Rod’s piece in the SMH got quite a bit of attention.
Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek Mine has been in the news this week, after anti-coal activist, Jonothan Moylan, sent a hoax email to the media, claiming that ANZ was withdrawing support from the project. Several media outlets ran with the story and Whitehaven’s share price was temporarily affected.
The story is still unfolding, with ASIC investigating Moylan’s actions and Greens politicians publicly endorsing the hoax. We’ll write more about it once the dust settles, but for today I will repost some files related to our work on the Maules Creek project.
In all of these documents, our main point is that planning processes in Australia don’t ask the question “Is this project in the public interest?”. This most important question should be asked at the start of the process, not in an obscure appendix of an environmental impact statement. Economic assessment commissioned by project proponents should be subject to close scrutiny by the public service and the media, not just by groups like us and the Maules Creek Community Council.
Here is the original economic assessment of the mine, by Gillespie Economics:
Gillespie Economics 2011 Maules Creek Economic Assessment
Here is our initial review:
Ecolarge Sep 2011 Maules Creek Submission
Our review was highly critical of Gillespie Economics’ assessment. So much so that the mine proponents then commissioned the Australian National University’s Professor Jeff Bennett to conduct a separate review of the Gillespie Economics assessment. Here it is:
Bennett 2011 Review of economic assessment
The proponents’ response to submissions is a little large to post, but here is a hyperlink.
We responded to this response, both in a blog post and with a more detailed report:
Ecolarge Dec 2011 response to submissions
One more blog post relating to the Planning and Assessment Commission’s approval and their dismissal of environmental economic assessment as “crude”.
