Front Line
This is a timeline of planning and approval events relating to the Maules Creek coal mine, with specific focus on the offsets. The timeline starts in July 2010 with the invitation for public comment on the project, and runs through to February 2014 with the Environmental Defender’s Office providing the Federal Environment Minister with a new report detailing inadequacies in the offsets package for the Maules Creek mine.
In order to bulldoze the Leard State Forest to dig a coal mine, Whitehaven have proposed “offsets”.
Offsets are areas of land that are supposed to be like for like. That is, if one forest is destroyed, another forest of the exact same type, is preserved. The trouble is, Whitehaven’s offsets are not what they say they are. Watch this video to find out more.
There is an ongoing federal government investigation into the veracity of the offsets package following allegations that some information provided during the approvals process is ‘false and misleading’.