CAROONA landholders are convinced Shenhua’s big land buy-up – a reported $213 million for 43 Gunnedah farms so far – is aimed at persuading the NSW Government it must get the green light for its coal mine because of its massive investment.
Shenhua Watermark, a subsidiary of Chinese coal giant Shenhua, which is hoping to mine coal to fire its 55 power stations in China, has already paid $300 million for its exploration licence, with promises of more than double that amount to come.
Shenhua company representatives did not return calls from The Land this week.
But Shenhua Watermark project director, Joe Clayton, said on radio that criticism of the company was unwarranted, as it had contributed substantially to State coffers and had invested $550 million to date.
Caroona Coal Action Group chairman, Sandy Blomfield, is among those who believe the company is seeking to pressure the Government to approve the project by pointing to the amount it has invested.
Reports in other media revealing some of the properties purchased changed hands for 10 times their previous sale price – including $5.2 million for a 594-hectare property that last sold in 2002 for $376,000 and $9.2 million for a 535ha farm that sold for $500,000 in 1993 – were on the mark, Mr Blomfield said.
“We’ve known about these purchases and the figures being reported are accurate,” he said.
NSW Farmers Association vice-president, Fiona Simson, said the Shenhua spending spree highlighted flaws in Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) laws.
“These purchases are flying under the radar – even though Shenhua has spent a total of $214 million, to trigger a FIRB look into it, it would have to be $231 million in one transaction,” she said.
“We are selling agricultural land off to foreign entities just to produce coal.
“We are in favour of a register of foreign investment in agricultural land; it is very hard to find information.”
Federal Opposition agriculture spokesman, John Cobb, said it was essential for the Federal Govern-
ment to gather information to analyse the extent and impact of foreign ownership in Australian agriculture.
“It is because of the difficulty of monitoring purchases of small parcels of land that we put guidelines forward to the Parliament,” he said.
“Had the Prime Minister and the Minister acted on this months ago we would not be in this predicament.
“Under Labor, Australia has seen a 10-fold increase in foreign investment in the past three years.
“There has been a marked change in the activity by foreign companies from investment in agriculture to ownership and control of supply lines.
“To let a Chinese government controlled company take control of some of our richest food growing areas, let alone without triggering consideration by the FIRB, is too great a risk.”
Meanwhile, NSW Resources and Energy Minister, Chris Hartcher, faced intense questioning from landholders on the Liverpool Plains on Tuesday in meetings with both the Caroona Community Consul-
tative Committee (CCC) and the Watermark CCC.
Mr Blomfield said Mr Hartcher had given an undertaking that unless the Government had a guarantee water would not be contaminated, mining activities would not proceed.
“He said despite the level of investment these companies had put in, they were still prepared to say no,” Mr Blomfield said.
“He was questioned extensively at both meetings on the fact the companies have put a lot of money in to date, and he was most emphatic that would not be taken into consideration.
“We have just got to hope he honours what he said.”
Email a friend