THE NSW Government should investigate a total ban on mining under the Liverpool Plains food bowl and other areas where floodplains or aquifers are crucial to growing food, a parliamentary inquiry in Canberra has found.
"As the driest inhabited continent on earth, with only an estimated six per cent of arable land across Australia, the preservation of these productive lands and finite water systems is clearly of national significance," the Senate's select committee on agriculture, which has been studying food production nationwide, reported.
The committee, chaired by the Liberal senator Bill Heffernan, also expressed concern about gas exploration and drilling in the Gunnedah Basin, saying it could damage aquifers connected to the Great Artesian Basin, among others.
"The importance of water security was emphasised during the inquiry," it reported.
"The committee notes that the NSW Mining Act does not explicitly recognise the impact of water resources in the granting of exploration licences."
It concluded the companies involved should "make a clear commitment that mining of any form or type should not take place on the floodplains".
The findings are a boost for farmers who have campaigned in part with a 16-month blockade to stop mining after BHP Billiton and Shenhua, owned by the Chinese government, were granted exploration licences on the Liverpool Plains and Santos gained approval to explore for gas in Gunnedah.
A spokesman for the Caroona Coal Action Group, Tim Duddy, said: "We think exploration is currently damaging the water sources of the region. So we are concerned that if development occurs … it has to be appropriate and not ruin one of the richest agricultural regions of Australia."
But the NSW Minister for Mineral Resources, Peter Primrose, rejected the call for a prohibition on mining yesterday.
"It would be premature to simply ban mining without all the facts - local families and business would be hard hit by an uninformed knee-jerk ban," said his spokeswoman, Jenny Ward.
She said exploration licences were not approvals to mine, and strict environmental protection conditions would ensure any impact was temporary.
The NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Tony Kelly, will consider the report.
Miners and farmers are awaiting a judgment in the NSW Land and Environment Court over a challenge by the Caroona group against the licence the State Government granted to BHP Billiton.
Primary producers and miners will also shape up in the NSW Supreme Court in early February when a farmer, Geoff Brown, and his colleagues argue their appeal against a decision in a lower court confirming BHP's right to enter their land to explore for coal.
The NSW Minerals Council rejected the call for a mining prohibition, saying its industry contributed $1.2 billion a year in royalty payments to the state.
"The suggestion of a blanket ban on mining before there is a study goes against the science and the wider community's right to enjoy the benefits from mining," it said in a statement.
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