7th August, 2024.
As members know, Wollondilly is a beautiful area. It is the catchment for Sydney at the top of the Bulli escarpment, home to valleys and rolling hills. These hills and valleys have a long history of mining, primarily coalmining, which now survives in the north and centre in two underground coalmines. It surprises people that longwall mines are so close to Sydney. While the miners employed in the mines do take care, by nature their work causes damage to property above ground. It is well known that subsidence can be felt up to 500 metres from the face of the mine wall. Above the mines in my electorate are existing villages and homes. Some of these villages and homes can get damaged from mining underground. I have seen in-ground swimming pools with water that is two inches from the top of the pool on one side and one foot on the other. I have been to homes where daylight can be seen through cracks in the walls.
I have no issue with the management of either of the mines in Wollondilly because they employ many in our community. But, in principle, our system relating to subsidence before this bill was unfair and one-sided. The mines were appointed to be judge, juror and executioner of any claim. These claims ranged from small cracking that could be patched to movements that rendered homes damaged beyond repair. Having the mine do the pre‑assessment, including choosing assessors, allowing no dispute of findings, assessing the claims and then finalising the claims, does not pass the pub test. Even if there is nothing untoward, my community has no faith that this is fair.
The new bill does much to restore that faith and integrity to the system. We will now have independent oversight as well as independent decisions for claims. I thank the Government for listening to the community. My community sought amendments to strengthen this Act in a number of ways. I will move these amendments as a group, reinforcing the independence and limitation of the mine in the final decision. I understand that the Government will not support the amendments and that this decision is a uniquely Wollondilly decision. Some of those changes would have seen the bill reinforce the new system that puts integrity and residents' fair interests at the heart of the decision.
While Opposition members expressed how the bill could have been improved for developers, my concern is simply about improving the situation for my community members and the mums and dads that may want to undertake small developments. The amendments seek to protect the potential of development applications that are submitted, undermined and then need to be changed. While the Government will not support the amendments today, my commitment is that I will always speak for my community. If this new system does not work, then I will speak to the Minister again. Wollondilly for too long has missed out, and I assure my residents that legislative reforms will be ongoing.
To that end, I thank my support team that guided me through the bill and guided the Government with submissions and meetings. Firstly, I thank Steve Baker for his extensive advice after years of representing my residents' claims as their solicitor. He is second to none in knowing the intricacies of the previous Act and the implications for the lives of residents. I also thank Sam Davis from Douglas Park and Nicole Pearce from Bargo. Both have been voices in their respective communities for the two mines that undermine their towns. Sam, along with Steve, gave written submissions that formed the basis of the new Act. While this matter does not affect them directly, their time and effort can be seen in the bill. Both Sam and Nicole have represented their communities on mining committees and met with Minister Chanthivong. On that note, I also thank the Minister and his team for their engagement with my office.
I thank a number of people who have spoken out about this issue in the past. Rivers SOS no longer exists, but I thank Caroline Graham and Julie Sheppard. In 2007, as mayor, I remember going to the Nepean River in a canoe and seeing the gas flames lit on the surface, rising from the cracks of the riverbed down to the mine. Twenty years ago Rivers SOS influenced many people in many ways, so the victory today is for them to share. Finally, I thank the residents of Wollondilly who have raised this issue with me and the former members of Wollondilly for speaking up. I thank them for not giving up. I have heard their voices and finally the Government has listened—congratulations. While we have a way to go with legislative reform in this area, the bill will make a huge difference to the lives of many families in the Wollondilly. We have had a win.